Blister beetles (family Meloidae) are so named because they emit a poisonous chemical, cantharidin, that can blister your skin. Don't even think about touching them!

Blister beetles can infest alfalfa hay, and are toxic--even deadly--to livestock. See "Blister Beetles" published by the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station.

But did you know that...

Blister beetles are pollinators!

We recently saw a blister beetle eating pollen on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. We've also seen this insect transferring pollen. 

But we have...

In conjunction with Davis Farm to School, I have been developing a partnership, as a Master Gardener, withGanHaverim Preschool in Davis. It began with a teacher workshop in early June, at which we planned the preschool summer garden. Then teachers planted sunflowers with their preschool classes in pots to take home, and in large pots to enjoy at school.  As a follow-up, on June 27, I worked with both preschool classes (ages 2-3 and 4-5) to discuss the life cycle of the sunflower and its relationship with pollinators. I used a large poster I drew of stages in the life cycle, bringing real sunflower seeds (black seeds sold as birdseed) to illustrate the importance of seed production. Then children participated in an art project to...

UCCE is monitoring armyworms in rice again in 2024. Our monitoring involves scouting for damage and deployment of pheromone bucket traps that catch the moths (Fig. 1). I have traps at three Delta locations, and my colleague, Luis Espino, is monitoring fields in the Sacramento Valley. At each location, there are three traps that span adjacent fields. We check the traps on a weekly basis and count the moths. We can use trap counts and Growing Degree Day modelling (i.e. a temperature measure of time) to determine whether and when to treat fields. 

The leaves of this unique-looking house plant really do look like the rind of a ripe watermelon. The stems are also reminiscent of the fruit-they are a rich red, just like the edible flesh of a ready-to-eat watermelon. I purchased this houseplant as a gift to myself, and I'm very happy I did. I was strolling through the houseplant section of a Davis store and just had to have it!

In my research on how to care for this plant, I discovered it is a bit like Goldilocks, and it likes everything “just right”.  It thrives in soil that is not too wet nor too dry and needs sunlight that is abundant, but not too direct. The temperature of an air-conditioned house is ideal. Interestingly, it prefers to be a bit...