- Author: Lauren Fordyce

It's time for UC IPM's annual insect Easter egg hunt! Can you guess which insects laid the eggs pictured below? Some may be pests, while others may be beneficial. Leave a comment on this blog post with your guesses, or on our Facebook and Instagram posts.
Answers will be posted on Monday, April...
- Author: Mackenzie Patton

Eucalypt trees have become abundant in the California landscape, but so have the many invasive eucalypt pests that have arrived in California in the last couple decades.
In the fall of 2022, yet another invasive pest was added to the hoard of beetles, psyllids, and gall wasps that attack eucalypt trees. The dotted paropsine leaf beetle (Paraopsis atomaria) was found on a lemon scented gum tree (Corymbia citriodora) in Los Angeles County. It was the first report of the dotted paropsine leaf beetle in North America, and it has since become more problematic throughout Southern California. Currently the extent of the spread is unknown.
Like eucalypt trees, the dotted paropsine leaf beetle is...

They may seem too tiny to do much damage to a mature, healthy tree, but invasive shothole borers (ISHB) are responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of trees in Southern California. These beetles bore into trees and infect them with Fusarium dieback, a fungal disease that kills the trees. Many native California trees like California sycamore, valley oak, and arroyo willow can be killed when invasive shothole borers attack them.
While these pests are currently only found in Southern California, they could spread to many other parts of the state. Limiting the infestation will reduce their impact. Controlling the beetles is difficult but includes regular monitoring of trees to quickly identify sources of...
- Author: Karey Windbiel-Rojas
- Posted by: Lauren Fordyce

The invasive pest spotlight focuses on emerging or potential invasive pests in California. In this issue, we cover the brown widow spider.
Brown Widow Spider Facts
The brown widow spider became established in Southern California in 2000 and appears to be displacing the black widow in some of its habitats, especially in urban areas. They build their webs in secluded areas around homes and in vegetation. Mature female brown widows are smaller than mature female western black widows. The normal brown widow spider coloration is a mottled mixture of tan, brown, and gray. It has a lengthwise stripe halfway up the back side of the abdomen with two isolated dots in front of it and diagonal stripes on...
![Spotted lanternfly is an invasive insect not yet found in California. [Credit: Lawrence Barringer, Pennsylvania Department of
Agriculture, Bugwood.org]](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/UCIPMurbanpests/blogfiles/90148small.png)
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the webinar scheduled for April 21 has been canceled and will be rescheduled for another date. We apologize for the inconvenience.
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What are you doing the third Thursday of each month at noon? Joining UC IPM for our monthly webinar, we hope!
This Thursday, come and learn about invasive species in California and what you can do to combat them! In Part 2 of this topic, Karey Windbiel-Rojas from the UC Statewide IPM Program will continue sharing information on new pests of concern or pests we are trying to keep out of California.
Can't make it? That's ok-- all the UC IPM webinars are recorded and later posted on UC IPM's YouTube channel....