Pests in the Urban Landscape

Urban neighborhood and park.

The Pests in the Urban Landscape blog shares the latest resources and information from the UC IPM Urban & Community team to help you sustainably manage pests in the home, garden, and landscape. 

Primary Image
A paved walking path dotted with orange, fallen leaves, bordered by grass and shaded by trees.

2026 Webinars from UC IPM

December 10, 2025
The new year is just around the corner, and along with it will come new Urban and Community IPM Webinars! Join us every third Thursday of each month from 12:00 to 1:00pm PST to learn about a wide range of urban pest management topics. This series is free and open to the public but advance registration is…
View Article
Primary Image
A large rodent with brown fur, orange teeth, white whiskers, and a long, sparsely-haired, rat-like tail. It is sitting on a sandy bank next to a flowing river, and its fur is wet from being in the water.

Invasive Pest Spotlight: Nutria

December 2, 2025
By Lindsey Hack
The invasive pest spotlight focuses on emerging or potential invasive pests in California. In this issue we are covering nutria. Nutria Facts The nutria is a large semi-aquatic rodent introduced to California in the early 1900s to be farmed for their fur. When the fur market collapsed, many nutria…
View Article
Primary Image
A small brown mouse poking it's head and front paws out from a hole in the ground.

Management of Urban Rats and Mice

November 21, 2025
By Niamh M Quinn
Let’s be real—California's rodent issue is extensive. In some areas, it may seem like an infinite sea of rats and mice. Commensal rodents, those that live among and benefit from association with humans, significantly affect public health, environmental sustainability, and urban infrastructure.  …
View Article
Primary Image
Six circular cross-sections of a tree branch showing dark staining from a Bot canker infection.

What is Bot Canker?

November 5, 2025
By Belinda Messenger-Sikes
Botryosphaeria canker, sometimes called Bot canker, is a common fungal disease that can affect many tree species including ash, eucalyptus, fig, maple, pistachio, and walnut. Plants infected with this disease typically develop cankers (dark sunken lesions in the bark) and can lose branches. The whole…
View Article
Primary Image
Three small aphid insects on a green leaf. Two of the aphids are dead from parasitization: these appear brown and swollen, and one of them has a hole on its body. The third aphid is alive and green.

Mummies in Your Garden?!

October 29, 2025
It’s almost Halloween, so many of us are thinking about jack-o-lanterns, skeletons, and mummies. When you think of a mummy, you probably imagine the scary kind inspired by the ancient Egyptian ritual of preserving the bodies of the dead. When we talk about mummies at UC IPM, we mean something completely…
View Article