If you're planning to get a holiday tree for your home, you may find unexpected guests have already made their home in your evergreen selection. Common holiday trees such as firs, pines, and spruces can host pests such as aphids, scales, mites, bark beetles, or even praying mantis egg cases. These pests may be present regardless of whether you select your tree from a local tree lot or go to cut your holiday tree at a nearby tree farm or forest. But...

With the recent time change along with a change in temperatures, landscaping practices for pests need some adjusting too. We're sharing a few recommended tasks to help prevent insect pests, diseases, and environmental disorders in landscapes. Looking for additional tips? You can subscribe to our Seasonal Landscape IPM Checklist for monthly landscaping reminders delivered straight to your email inbox.

Frost Protection

Cold injury can occur when temperatures decline rapidly after warm weather, killing bark, buds, flowers and...

October is a perfect time to talk about spiders! People decorate for Halloween with scary images of spiders and webs. Many people fear spiders but what you may not know is that they are helpful in our homes and landscapes.

Spiders you might find wandering in your home or hanging out in your garden are beneficial predators, eating pest insects like flies, mosquitoes, and numerous other undesirable bugs in and around landscapes.

Whether you are curious as to what kind of spider you found or you are looking for ways to get rid of them, UC IPM has the information you need in the newly revised free publication, Pest Notes: Spiders. Author...

As the days get shorter and the temperatures begin to cool, now is the time to practice weed management for annual cool-season weeds. It's also not too early to consider management for weeds that emerge in springtime.

Using integrated pest management (IPM) methods can help reduce the presence of most weeds. In lawns, good practices such as proper watering, mowing, and fertilizing can help maintain healthy turfgrass. Likewise, in landscapes, hand-weeding, cultivation, and use of mulches can be effective in controlling weeds. More specific information about these and other IPM practices can be found in our Pest Notes publications on