In honor of May the 4^th, the Star Wars fans here at the UC IPM Program thought we'd have some fun with that well-loved line from Episode VI.

Instead of strategies to conduct intergalactic battles, the traps we like to talk about are the ones for monitoring and catching pests around the home, garden, and landscape.

Test your knowledge of traps by seeing if you can name the traps below and what they are used for. Answers will be posted tomorrow!

Two species of Blatta cockroaches can be common peridomestic pests in California, including the familiar oriental cockroach (B. orientalis) and a relative newcomer, the Turkestan cockroach (B. lateralis, Figure 1).  Adults of both species are large (usually one inch or more in length) and conspicuous insects that harbor and breed outdoors within moist crevices around structures, such as subsurface utility ports, voids associated with concrete expansion joints, and soil cracks formed at junctions of landscape and hardscape elements (Figure 2).

From these harborage sites, cockroaches venture out at night to feed on a wide variety of...

[From the December 2016 issue of the UC IPM Green Bulletin]

School is already back in session for many children in districts throughout California, and several others will be starting back to school in the next couple of weeks. While students and teachers were enjoying summer break, an amendment to the Healthy Schools Act (HSA) went into effect on July 1^st. It requires teachers, custodians, administrators, other staff or volunteers, and licensed pest management professionals applying any pesticide (this includes disinfectants and...

With the onset of warm weather and outdoor eating, expect an increase in yellowjacket activity (Figure 1). Your local retail nursery and garden center probably carries yellowjacket lure traps, and it's important to know if they work and how to use them. University of California, Riverside entomologists recently tested yellow lure traps (Figure 2) in picnic areas in parks in Southern California and demonstrated that proper use of traps can provide protection of local areas, such as eating areas, in many situations.

Traps don't eliminate large populations but can help reduce numbers of localized foraging workers. Lure traps contain a chemical that attracts yellowjackets into the traps, but the common lure in traps, heptyl...