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...
- Author: Cheryl A. Wilen
[Originally published as "Managing Weeds in Landscapes" published in the Fall 2018 issue of the Retail Nursery and Garden Center IPM News.]
Nurseries and garden centers often sell a wide range of plants for use in gardens and landscapes. As a consumer, you may manage a complex array of different landscape plantings, including woody trees and shrubs, woody ground cover beds, annual flower beds, herbaceous perennial beds, and mixed plantings. This...
![Mallow (cheeseweed). [Credit: Jack Kelly Clark]](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/UCIPMurbanpests/blogfiles/55647small.jpg)
Controlling weeds can be challenging to landscape professionals or home gardeners since landscapes often include a mix of turfgrass, annual plants, herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and trees.
The newly revised publication Pest Notes: Weed Management in Landscapes by Area IPM Advisor Cheryl Wilen, presents an integrated approach to weed management to help ensure weed control efforts are effective, environmentally-sound and economical. This science-based publication includes information on methods such as pre-planting considerations, the importance of weed identification, nonchemical practices such as using mulches and barriers, weed management...
- Author: Anne Schellman
- Contributor: Karey Windbiel-Rojas
People in urban and suburban areas often use the term “invasive” to describe plants or weeds that appear to take over a garden or landscape. However, true invasive plants are weeds that infest ecosystems, rangelands, and pasture—places common garden weeds don't thrive.
Invasive plants can reduce native plant and animal diversity, threaten endangered species habitat, and increase wildfire and flood danger. Most invasive plants were introduced as ornamentals from the retail nursery industry, or for the purposes of soil stabilization, animal forage, human food, fiber, or medicinal plants. Some may still be found for sale at retail nursery and garden centers, including the following:
Nutgrass, also called nutsedge, could easily be one of the top 5 nuisance weeds gardeners deal with in the garden and landscape. While we don't know that for sure, we do know that nutsedge is a very challenging weed to control.
Yellow and purple nutsedge are the two species most often found in California. Yellow nutsedge grows throughout the state, while purple nutsedge is found mostly in southern California.
Nutsedge is difficult to control because the plants form small underground tubers and rhizomes. Most of these tubers are found in the top six inches of the soil but can also be found even deeper. Removing the tubers by hand is the best way to remove small plants but may require continued monitoring and hand...
