Woodpeckers are well known, colorful birds often found in wooded neighborhoods and forested areas. While they are wild creatures many people appreciate, they can become a pest problem when they damage buildings in search of food and nest building materials, or a nuisance pest with their rhythmic drumming.

Both male and female woodpeckers drum with their beaks to proclaim their breeding behavior and social dominance. Their pecking can cause structural damage, leaving gaps and holes in wood as they search for insects. Acorn woodpeckers create or find holes in buildings, fence posts, and utility poles to store acorns. Woodpeckers can also damage trees when they remove the bark to access the insects hiding underneath.

But...

Recent wet weather in many parts of the state has spurred emergence of winter weeds. How these weeds are managed varies by the type of weed and where it's growing. In IPM, identification is always the first step toward effective pest management. A few common weeds you may be seeing in your garden or landscape now are profiled below.

Oxalis

Also known as Bermuda buttercup, buttercup oxalis, or sourgrass, this weed grows throughout California's coastal and inland landscapes. It can be a weed in lawns, flowerbeds, groundcovers, and shruby areas around the home. It has an upright growth with 3 heart-shaped leaflets and produces bright yellow flowers in late winter or early spring. See 

With the cooler weather, gardening tasks may be slowing down some, but there are still plenty of things to do in the garden and landscape in the fall and winter months. Here are a few things to think about as you head into the next planting season. Follow the list to reduce future pest problems and have healthier plants.

Cleaning up

• Pull out annual plants that have reached the end of their growing season, such as tomatoes, squashes, and peppers.
• Remove and clean up old fruit and nuts in and under trees to avoid harboring pests and diseases.
• Remove fallen leaves from beneath deciduous fruit trees and roses.
• After cleaning up, add...

Two identical looking species of wood-boring beetles, collectively known as invasive shothole borers (ISHB), have killed thousands of trees in Southern California and pose an ongoing threat to California's urban and wildland forests. These beetles, which are not native to the United States, were first identified in Los Angeles County in 2012 and have since spread to six other counties: Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.

Beetles, Fungus, and Impact

The polyphagous shothole borer (Euwallacea fornicatus) (Figure 1) and the Kuroshio shothole borer (Euwallacea kuroshio) are small ambrosia beetles that have a symbiotic relationship with several species...