- Author: Andrew Mason Sutherland
[From the Summer issue of the UC IPM Retail Nursery & Garden Center News]
Don't let the bed bugs bite? That's easier said than done, it seems. Bed bugs (Figure 1) continue to be important household pests globally, driving a growing sector of the pest control industry. Professionals have access to effective insecticides and specialized techniques, such as heat treatments, to control bed bug infestations. These services, however, can be expensive: a recent survey revealed the average cost of professional insecticide treatments and heat treatments to be $425 and $1,400,...
/span>If you've ever had ants come indoors, you know what a nuisance they can be when they crawl across kitchen countertops, invade your pet's food bowl, and get into garbage cans.
So, what should you do? Outsmart the ants.
Ants are usually looking for food, water and shelter. Although spraying a pesticide may seem like an easy solution, this won't get rid of the reason the ants are there, and they will be back.
Instead, here are some other things you can do to keep them out and make your house less attractive to ants:
- Find where the ants are entering, then caulk cracks and crevices both indoors and out.
- Wipe up ant trails with soapy water as soon as you see them.
- Store food...
It's hot outside, so like a lot of people, you try to park your car under a tree in parking lots and on the street for some shade. You choose to park under a big hackberry tree, but when you return to your car, you notice droplets on your windshield and sticky stuff on the sidewalk, other cars, and the parking lot. What is this?
The sticky substance is called honeydew. The honeydew is excreted by a number of sap-sucking insects such as aphids, whiteflies, mealybugs, certain scale insects, and few others. On hackberry trees (widely planted in some cities), an insect called the woolly hackberry aphid produces a large amount of honeydew.
If you examine the tree's leaves, you may see bluish-white masses that are actually...
Record-breaking heat continues to scald California, leading many of us to water our landscapes and gardens more. While the water is good for plants and helps us cool down, even the smallest amount of standing water mixed with high temperatures create an ideal climate for mosquito breeding. Use the following tips to help reduce mosquito habitats and protect yourself from being bitten.
Tip #1: Mosquitoes need water for the larval stage of their life cycle. Eliminate breeding sites in your yard by:
- Draining any containers that hold standing water; even something as small as a flower pot saucer can harbor mosquitoes.
- Emptying out bird baths once per week.
- Protecting ponds by using...
Alert from CDFA Plant Health and Prevention Services
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have established a 94-square mile quarantine in portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties following the detection of the citrus disease huanglongbing (HLB), or citrus greening. HLB is a deadly disease of citrus plants and closely related species, and can be transmitted from tree to tree by the Asian citrus psyllid.
On July 15, HLB was discovered in a grapefruit tree in the city of Riverside in a residential neighborhood near the intersection of Chicago...