- (Focus Area) Yard & Garden
- Author: James Farr
- Author: Linda Carloni
When the temperature starts to dip from the high 90s, and you are still picking ripe tomatoes and zucchini nearly every day, fall and winter gardens don't immediately come to mind. Although it may not feel like it, this is the time to be thinking ahead and planning for the next seasons.
We are wonderfully fortunate in the Bay Area that we live in a Mediterranean climate where we can grow vegetables all year round. Mediterranean climates make up only approximately three percent of the landmass on Earth, yet are among the best agricultural areas on Earth. The temperatures are warm in the inland areas but close enough to the ocean to cool down at...
- Author: Bonita Malone, UC Master Gardener of Butte County
Once again, we are experiencing a summer of devastating fires, with repercussions that will last decades or even longer. One of the lesser-known ways in which wildfires wreak havoc is the fact that they create ideal conditions for a particular pest, Melanophila acuminata, the black fire beetle. Also known as fire chasers or fire bugs, these beetles are often the very first to arrive at the scene of a conflagration. By using pheromones, chemical signals, and auditory cues, and monitoring temperature and humidity, Melanophila acuminata will fly over eighty miles to a freshly burned forest. Once there, they meet up, mate, and lay eggs, thriving in places most living creatures avoid.
These wood-boring shiny black beetles are 7-11 mm...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
A praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, stretches beneath a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville garden.
Ms. Mantis: (Startled to see she is not alone) "Well, hello, there! How are ya? I'm just dropping by to say Hello!"
Photographer: "So, this is a meet-and-greet? And not a meet-and-eat?"
Ms. Mantis: "Exactly. I'm not interested in eating bees or butterflies. Ooh, there goes a honey bee! Ooh, there's a long-horned bee! Omigosh, a butterfly!"
Photographer: "You're just looking?"
Ms. Mantis: "No, just stretching. See, I've closed my spiked...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Talk about flower power.
When you walk through the UC Davis Bee Haven, a half-acre garden on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus, you'll see bees and other pollinators foraging on a pink floribunda rose cultivar, “Nearly Wild." It's flamingo pink, quite fragrant and very buzzworthy, providing both pollen and nectar.
This cultivar is aptly named "Nearly Wild." It has five petals, just like wild roses.
The garden, installed in 2009 and a project of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nemalogy, is located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. Director of the haven is...
![An oval-shaped brown insect on a white background.](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/108434small.jpg)
Nobody wants cockroaches in their home, especially since these pests can cause and worsen allergies in children, transmit diseases and bacteria, and contaminate foods.
If you find cockroaches in or around your home, do you reach for a do-it-yourself spray product? Well, you might not want to waste your money!
New research shows that some common consumer-grade insecticide sprays don't work to get rid of cockroach infestations. The study focused on products containing pyrethroids, which is a group of pesticides commonly found in many household insecticide products. Examples of...