From the UCANR NEWS BLOG

Coyotes are much more abundant now in urban areas of Southern California than they have ever been before, reported the Long Beach Business Journal. For the story, the Journal interviewed UC Agriculture and Natural Resources emeritus Cooperative Extension specialist Bob Timm in their Long Beach offices.

Timm, who served as director of the UC Hopland Research and Extension...

UC IPM has a brand new resource called the Seasonal Landscape IPM Checklist (or SLIC). The checklist is a regional decision-making tool designed to help guide landscape professionals and home gardeners through a yearly list of activities to prevent, monitor, or manage landscape plant pest problems throughout the year.

The Seasonal Landscape IPM Checklist can be accessed on UC IPM's Home, garden, turf and landscape pests web page under “More information,” and can also be found under the...

It's not uncommon to see opossums running through your backyard or neighborhood. Opossums are small, house cat-sized animals that have coarse, grayish fur, a pointed face and round, hairless ears and a long, hairless tail. Their feet resemble small hands with five widely spread fingers.

Opossums may visit vegetable gardens, compost piles, garbage cans, or food dishes intended for dogs or cats. They also eat fresh meat and carrion and often feed on road kills.

In urban and suburban areas, opossum can become a nuisance as they often get into fights with dogs and cats and can inflict serious injury. Opossums carry several diseases such as tuberculosis, toxoplasmosis, trichomoniasis and Chagas disease. They may also have...

Fall is the best time to protect your backyard fruit and nut trees from winter and spring pests. By implementing good sanitation practices now, you can help eliminate future disease, vertebrate, and insect pests.

Did you know that fruits and nuts left on the ground and hanging in trees (called “mummies”) are an open invitation to pests? As the weather begins to turn cold, pests look for a safe place to overwinter and/or to lay eggs, and mummies are an ideal shelter for them. Fungi and bacteria present in mummies also remain in dormant and active states.

Keep your fruit trees healthy by removing and disposing of all mummies in and around trees, shrubs and vines.

Other practices to reduce pest problems...