- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
So here's this female praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, camouflaged on a narrow-leaf milkweed, Asclepias fasciculari, in a Vacaville garden.
If she thinks she's going to ambush a monarch, she has another think coming. No monarchs in the garden.
If she thinks she's going to ambush a bee, no way. No bees in the garden early this morning.
If she thinks she's going to munch on oleander aphids (which she probably won't), there are plenty.
Fact is, she doesn't "think" like we do. She will wait, quite patiently, to ambush prey. Even in the pending triple temperatures of the day.
When the heat becomes unbearable, she will slip beneath the leaves, but still maintain a lookout.
Ms. Mantis will be patient. She is always patient.
Patience is her middle name (Stagmomantis "Patience" limbata) and prey is her game.
- Author: Jeannette Warnert
Cockroaches, ants and flies are three common outdoor pests that will enter homes when they have the opportunity, said UC Cooperative Extension urban integrated pest management (IPM) advisor Andrew Sutherland.
Oriental cockroaches, usually black or dark brown, are found throughout the U.S. They live and breed in dark, damp outdoor locations. Reddish-brown Turkestan cockroaches, originally from central Asia, are now well established in California. They live outside eating decaying plant and animal matter, finding safe harbor in water meter, irrigation and electrical boxes, cracks and crevices. American cockroaches live in warm and humid underground structures, such as sewers and storm drains.
If your home isn't well-sealed, they will walk right in.
Sutherland recommends using IPM strategies to prevent cockroach infestations, starting with prevention. Reduce moisture around the home, especially within the first couple of yards of the perimeter. Remove as much food as possible from around the home.
“You never want to leave pet food outside. If you have a fruit tree, make sure the fruit is not accumulating in the yard,” he said.
Add door sweeps or door brushes to close the gap underneath doors. Garages should be sealed with a flexible threshold seal.
“Spraying cockroaches with pesticides will not fix the problem,” he said. “If you have exterior doors with a one-inch gap, it doesn't matter how many pesticides you apply to cockroaches, they are still going to come in through the door. If you want to treat cockroaches with pesticides, bait works best.”
Readily available gel and granular baits are very effective.
Argentine ants are native to South America, but they have been introduced all over the globe. The tiny black insect lives in large colonies, so their trails can resemble crowded superhighways. Researchers have discovered that they tend to enter homes two times of the year: When the first rain of the season floods their nests, and when it is hot and dry in the summer.
“Sometimes they will even move their entire brood into a protected area indoors, within a wall or cabinet void,” Sutherland said. “Argentine ants live and breed outside. If you're seeing them indoors, it's because they are foraging on a resource or they're temporarily moving their colony to avoid inhospitable conditions.”
The best control strategy is prevention. Irrigated landscape favors Argentine ants. A drought-tolerant or xeriscape landscape will be less attractive to them. Removing food sources is more difficult with ants. Sap-sucking insects like aphids, mealybugs, whiteflies and soft scale deposit a sweet, sticky residue that ants love.
“If you're able to control the sap-sucking insects, you'll control the ants. Likewise, if you control ants, you'll probably see a reduction in sap-sucking insects,” he said.
Sutherland suggests avoiding regular pesticide spray programs for pest control because of the ecological damage that results when runoff flows into storm drains, creeks and other waterways. As with cockroaches, baits can be very effective.
“Ants are social insects. If an ant consumes a bit of insecticidal bait, it's going to share it with its nestmates. With baits you can actually kill an entire ant colony, where with sprays, at best you're going to kill the ants that cross chemical,” Sutherland said.
Sometimes, you might have an “ant emergency,” a swarm of ants that suddenly appears inside.
“There are safe steps to take,” Sutherland said. “I keep a spray bottle with a 10% soap solution. I spray it wherever I see ants and wipe them off. This works better than a contact insecticide because you also erase the pheromone trail the ants are using to find food or water. “
Many species of colorful metallic blowflies are found the world over. To control them, turn to prevention.
“Blowflies really like pet waste,” Sutherland said. “One deposit of waste can sustain a lot of flies. If you have pets, pick up and dispose of their waste.”
As a secondary control, be diligent with structural exclusion. Make sure the doors are closed, window screens are in good repair and screen doors fit well. You can buy aerosol cans of insecticide in home stores, which kills on contact as insects fly through mist. But it is cheaper and safer to kill them with a fly swatter or rolled up paper.
Learn more:
Summertime Household Pests, by Andrew Sutherland, UC IPM webinar on YouTube
UC IPM Pest Notes:
Cockroaches
Ants
Flies
Dozens of other pests
Nutrition Policy Institute Director Dr. Lorrene Ritchie presents at the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior, SNEB, 2024 international conference. This year's international conference, themed “Understanding Foodways: Learning, Growing, and Sustaining,” will highlight the reasons why we eat the foods we eat and the impacts of those choices on ourselves and our communities.The SNEB conference takes place at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and through a virtual livestream from July 29th through August 1st, 2024. Lorrene Ritchie participates in a session on August 1, 3:30-4:30 p.m. ET titled “Food Waste Reduction Efforts: The Intersection of Food Ways, Climate Change, and Human Health,” along with Sara Elkbakib and Yu Meng. Additionally, Lorrene Ritchie presents a poster on July 31, 4:30-5:30 p.m. ET titled “Boosting the Benefits of WIC: Exploring Participant Perspectives from the 2023 Multi-State WIC Survey;” co-authored by NPI's Danielle Lee and Celeste Felix as well as Georgia Machell, and Loan Kim. Lorrene Ritchie is one member of the team for an additional poster presentation on July 31, 4:30-5:30 p.m. EST titled “Child and Adult Care Food Program Meal Reimbursement Rates and Program Participation by Family Child Care Homes in California,” presented by Susana Matias of UC Berkeley's Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology Department, and co-authored by NPI's Danielle Lee, Kassandra Bacon, and Celeste Felix, and CACFP Roundtable's Samantha Kay-Daleiden Marshall and Elyse Homel Vitale. Furthermore, Lorrene Ritchie gives an oral presentation on July 31, 2:30-3:15 p.m. ET titled “Impact of Increased Child and Adult Care Food Program Reimbursement Rates for Family Child Care Home Providers in California,” co-authored by NPI's Danielle Lee, Kassandra Bacon, and Celeste Felix, CACFP Roundtable's Samantha Kay-Daleiden Marshall and Elyse Homel Vitale, and UC Berkeley's Susana Matias. Lastly, Lorrene Ritchie speaks on July 31, 3:30-4:30 p.m. ET and a subsequent invited poster presentation on August 1, 4:30-5:30 p.m. ET titled “Transition to freshly prepared school meals: impact of meal appeal student participation, intake, food and packaging waste & school finance,” co-authored by NPI's Celeste Felix, Danielle Lee, and Wendi Gosliner, as well as UC Berkeley School of Public Health's Hannah Thompson, Caroline Nguyen, and Kris Madsen.
- Author: Nanelle Jones-Sullivan
The victims:
In late June, wilting was observed above one stem near the top of the tomato plant. On closer inspection, a hole was bored below the wilting in a single stem and a hole in a nearby tomato.
The autopsy:
Evidence of tunneling and “frass” or caterpillar waste.
The suspects:
They both eat many things and have many aliases.
From the Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service:
“Fruit worms feed on tomato leaves and fruit. Distorted leaves often result when they feed upon the tips of the leaves in the developing bud. Larvae may also bore into stalks or midribs. When fruit is present, larvae enter it soon after hatching. They prefer green fruit and will enter it usually at the stem end, causing extensive direct damage and promoting decay.”
“Hornworms strip leaves from tomato vines. If a heavy infestation develops, these caterpillars also feed on developing fruit. Rather than bore into the fruit, they feed on the surface, leaving large, open scars. Fruit damage, however, is much less common than loss of leaves.”
The verdict: Tomato Fruit Worms
Mechanical control- hand-picking
Biological Control. Beneficial insects Trichogramma spp. (egg parasites), the larval parasite, Hyposoter exiguae, and predators such as Big-Eyed Bug, and Minute Pirate bug. Biological controls also include sprays of Bacillus thuriengiensis and Spinosad.