- Author: Belinda J. Messenger-Sikes
- Posted by: Lauren Fordyce
Many people think wild rabbits hopping around are adorable—there's even an international rabbit day celebrating wild and domestic rabbits—but they're less welcome when they're eating your carefully tended garden. Wild rabbits in California can devour your garden vegetables, just like Peter Cottontail. And they don't stop at lettuce and beans. Rabbits and hares will gnaw tree bark, flowers, most green vegetation, and even drip irrigation tubing.
UC Davis Wildlife Specialist Roger Baldwin has revised the Pest Notes: Rabbits and included more detailed management methods for jackrabbits, cottontails, and other wild rabbits. Managing...
Gophers are well-known and certainly unwelcome pests in landscapes, gardens, lawns, and athletic turf. More correctly called pocket gophers, these rodents mostly remain hidden underground in tunnels and feed on plants from below, sometimes pulling whole plants into their tunnels. They prefer herbaceous plants but will eat a wide range of vegetation.
A single gopher can destroy a landscape quickly, so control measures need to begin as soon as the gopher is detected. Mounds of fresh soil are usually the first indication of their presence. Effective integrated management of pocket gophers relies largely on exclusion measures and trapping, although poison baits are also available.
Read more about gophers, their behavior, and...
Although they're small, cute, and furry, ground squirrels can be a real pest for California residents and gardeners. Found throughout California, burrowing ground squirrels cause damage to landscapes and structures while feeding on ornamental or food-bearing plants.
How can you get rid of ground squirrels?
There are several management options for ground squirrels. They might include:
- habitat modification
- exclusion
- trapping
- fumigation and toxic baits
It's important to understand the life cycle and behavior of ground squirrels for...
/h2>Squirrels commonly cause damage around homes and gardens when they dig holes, feed on fruits and nuts, gnaw on cables, or chew their way into buildings.
The squirrels in your landscape may be tree squirrels or ground squirrels. If you aren't sure which kind they are, visit the UC IPM web site to read about Tree Squirrels and Ground Squirrels.
If you know your arboreal visitors are tree squirrels, you can read more about them and their management in the newly revised UC IPM Pest Note: Tree...
- Author: Tunyalee A. Martin
Wildlife and people have been in the news lately. Perhaps you've heard of coyotes wandering in your neighborhood. You might have also read about how you shouldn't feed wildlife. Did you know they are connected? It's a problem when people feed coyotes either intentionally or unintentionally through uncovered garbage and outdoor pet food. Available food may encourage coyotes to associate closely with humans and to lose their natural fear of us. These interactions will be discussed during a special symposium on urban coyotes at the 27th...