- Author: Karey Windbiel-Rojas
Do you know how to check your hotel room for bed bugs before you settle in for the night? Can you tell the difference between yellowjackets, paper wasps, and other common wasps? What's in that bottle of pesticide you are thinking of using on your plants? New videos from UC IPM can help answer these questions!
Thanks in part to funding from the Western IPM Center, the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program has recently created a series of short, 2-3 minutes videos to help you identify, monitor, manage or prevent some pests from becoming problems around your home and garden!
Find out how to use a bed bug detector (see video below) and how to inspect your bedroom or hotel room for bed bugs. Protect yourself from...
Lace bugs are small, sculptured insects with lacey wings. They suck sap from plants causing leaf stippling and bleaching, and they often foul leaves with specks of dark excrement. Several dozen species may occur in the western U.S. Landscape plants commonly affected include alder, ash, avocado, azalea, ceanothus, cotoneaster, coyote bush, photinia and toyon.
Most plants are not seriously damaged, and natural enemies and good cultural practices can often reduce lace bug populations. However, when insecticides are needed, there are several products that work well as part of an integrated pest management program that reduces risks to pollinators, other beneficial insects, and the environment. Learn more about how to...
Lady beetles, commonly called “ladybugs” are easily recognized by their round or half-dome shape and short, clubbed antennae. Almost all species are predators of insects or mites in both adult and larval stages. Some species specialize on feeding on aphids or other groups of insects; others have a broader diet.
About 200 lady beetle species occur in California. To help identify twelve of the most common species in gardens and landscapes, the UC IPM Program created a Lady Beetle Quick Tip now available on the UC IPM web site.
- Author: Mary Louise Flint
[From March 2013 issue of the Retail Nursery and Garden Center IPM News.]
March is the time to start preparing to manage codling moth on apples and pears in backyard trees. Left unmanaged, the insect can be devastating to the crop.
Life Cycle. The immature stage of the codling moth is the infamous “worm” in the apple or pear (Figure 1). This pest spends the winter as a mature larva in a pupal case on trunks of trees or in debris around the home orchard. When spring temperatures rise in March, pupae mature and adult moths begin emerging...
/span>The myporum thrips is a tiny, recently-arrived insect, native to New Zealand, that has been devastating two species of myoporum (Myoporum laetum and M. pacificum) widely planted in California landscapes. These species have been popular because of their visual appeal and low maintenance and water requirements. Feeding by the thrips severely distorts new leaves and terminals, making plants unsightly.
This pest is very difficult to manage, although systemic insecticides can provide some control. Many gardeners may choose to replant with non-susceptible plant species. Read more about biology and management of this pest in the new UC IPM Pest Note:...