If you are growing tomatoes in your garden, you may not be the only vertebrate going for your hard earned harvest. Are rats feasting away in the garden? We have a couple resources we can share to help you reduce or prevent rat damage to your tomatoes.

Integrated Pest Management for Rats

• Our Pest Notes: Rats has information to help you with identification, biology and IPM options.
• This blog post provides additional information on using snap traps to catch rats and mice.
• If you are managing a school or community garden, you can...

Have you had unexpected seeds show up in the mail? Unknown seeds could be invasive plants, contain invasive insects, or have plant disease causing agents. Here's what the United States Department of Agriculture Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) has to say about it.

USDA Investigates Packages of Unsolicited Seeds

USDA is aware that people across the country have received suspicious, unsolicited packages of seed that appear...

While many of you are preparing for the 4^th of July holiday, we at UC IPM are also thinking about stars and stripes but in a slightly different way: yellow starthistle and striped skunks.

We usually have pests on the brain, so we wanted to remind you of the resources we have to help you with pest management. Whether you have a pest in your home, or outdoors on lawns,

Brooms are shrubs which were originally planted in California as ornamentals and for erosion control, but are now considered to be invasive weeds since they are highly competitive. They crowd out native plants and form impenetrable barriers to wildlife. There are four common species of broom in California: Scotch broom, French broom, Spanish broom and Portuguese broom.

In the newly revised Pest Notes: Brooms, UCCE advisor Scott Oneto and UC Davis weed scientists Joe DiTomaso and Guy Kyser explain the issues with planting these invasive species. The publication includes expanded sections on biology and management and updated herbicide...