- Author: Karey Windbiel-Rojas
It's that time of year again for UC IPM's semi annual Easter Egg hunt!
Can you guess which insect, spider, or mollusk laid the eggs pictured below? These critters may already be hiding in your home, landscape, or garden! Leave a comment with your guesses. Answers will be posted on Friday, April 15.
Happy Halloween! Here are the answers to our haunted horrors posted earlier in the week. If you encounter these, or other pests, you can find management information and resources on our website.
1. If you're growing pumpkins or squash, you may encounter Fusarium crown and foot rot. These lesions are typically firm and dry and might be considered nature's way of carving jack-o-lanterns.
2. Black widows are notoriously scary, but there are other
- Author: Karey Windbiel-Rojas
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...
- Author: Elaine Lander
While you are home working, learning, or relaxing, you may have noticed a few other critters sharing space with you. If some of these critters have 8 legs, we have a video to show you how to catch and release them!
Why might you release spiders outside? Spiders are beneficial insects called natural enemies. They are predators that help control other pests and insect eggs.
- Author: Rick Vetter
If you were to ask an audience of more than a few people if they or anyone they know has ever seen or been bitten by a brown recluse spider in California, many hands would be raised. This is quite remarkable because the brown recluse spider has NEVER established breeding populations in California!
The myth of the brown recluse has been generated and sustained by:
- Physician misdiagnoses (where many skin lesions of diverse non-spider origin are blamed on a non-existent spider)
- Media articles that report claims of horrendous bite injury without proof of spider involvement
- Misidentification of harmless brown spiders as brown recluses by the general public as well as "authorities" who lack...
