- Author: Lauren Fordyce
Follow these general tips for the month of March to prevent pests in the garden and landscape. To view more tips specific to your region, visit the Seasonal Landscape IPM Checklist on the UC IPM website.
- Look for aphids and their natural enemies such as predaceous bugs, lacewings, lady beetles, and syrphid flies. On small plants, spray a strong stream of water or apply insecticidal oils or insecticidal soaps to kill them.
- Fertilize caneberries, citrus, deciduous fruit trees, palms, and heavily-flowering shrubs with slow-release products.
- Monitor for the crawler stage of scale insects and apply horticultural oil if scales are abundant.
- Remove weeds as soon as they pop up in the garden or landscape.
- Apply organic mulches where thin or soil is bare under trees and shrubs to prevent weeds and regulate soil moisture and temperature. Keep mulch back from trunks and at a depth of 2 to 4 inches, depending on the mulch type.
- Prevent mosquitoes by eliminating standing water in gutters, drain pipes, flowerpots, etc. Place Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis in birdbaths and ponds to selectively kill mosquito larvae.
- If olive psyllid was a problem in past years, use an appropriate insecticide when the first generation of psyllids appear.
- Whitewash tree trunks to deter borers and prevent sunburn. Apply to young trees or older bark on susceptible trees newly exposed to sunlight.
- Keep an eye out for codling moth adults on apple and pear. Bag fruit and promptly remove infested or dropped fruit.
- Apply blossom sprays to prevent new fire blight infections. Look for oozing and dead limbs on pome plants such as apple, crabapple, pear, and pyracantha as soon as spring growth begins.
- Check for signs of powdery mildew on apple, crape myrtle, grape, rose, and stone fruits. Take preventative measures, like pruning, to provide better air circulation between plants.
Don't see your county on the checklist or want to provide feedback? Let us know!
Follow these general tips for the month of February to prevent pest in the garden and landscape. To view more tips specific to your region, visit the Seasonal Landscape IPM Checkliston the UC IPM website.
- Protect sensitive plants from freezing and frost damage.
- Check grapes for pests like powdery mildew, Eutypa dieback, Phomopsis cane and leaf spot, and others.
- Paint or varnish and seal wood to deter carpenter bees. If intolerable, treat tunnels during early spring.
- Prevent mosquitoes by eliminating standing water in gutters, drain pipes, flowerpots, etc. Place Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis in birdbaths and ponds to selectively kill mosquito larvae.
- Apply a preventive spray for peach leaf curl once or more during late fall through bud break in spring if leaf curl has been a problem on nectarine or peach.
- Prune evergreen, summer-flowering shrubs.
- Manage weeds using nonchemical methods such as cultivation, handweeding, or mowing. Control young weeds as soon as they pop up.
- Whitewash tree trunks to deter borers and prevent sunburn. Apply to young trees or older bark on susceptible trees newly exposed to sunlight.
- Apply organic mulches where thin or soil is bare under trees and shrubs to prevent weeds and regulate soil moisture and temperature. Keep mulch back from trunks and at a depth of 2 to 4 inches, depending on the mulch type.
Don't see your county on the checklist or want to provide feedback? Let us know!
Springtime planting is almost here but don't rush to plant seeds until the soil has warmed up! Planting seeds too soon, when the soil is cold and wet, risks losing them to damping-off, a disease caused by fungi and oomycetes in the soil. Learn more about this common disease in the newly updated Pest Notes: Damping-off Diseases in the Garden written by UC IPM Director Dr. Jim Farrar and UCCE emeritus advisor Ed Perry. They cover the biology of the pathogens, identification of the disease, and how to prevent damping-off when growing transplants or seeding directly into the ground.
- Author: Lauren Fordyce
Did you know that UC IPM has an online tool that provides month-by-month pest prevention and management tips? It's called the Seasonal Landscape IPM Checklist! You can select your region of California to view activities to do in the landscape each month. You can also subscribe to receive an email at the beginning of each month for your designated region.
Follow these general tips for the month of January. To view more tips specific to your region, visit the checklist on the UC IPM website.
- Monitor for damage and pests such as brown rot, snails, and Asian citrus psyllid on citrus plants.
- Clean up mummies and old fruit and nuts around trees to avoid harboring pests. Remove fallen leaves from beneath deciduous fruit trees and roses.
- Protect sensitive plants from freezing and frost damage.
- Adjust irrigation schedules according to the weather and plants' changing need for water. Reduce irrigation frequency or turn off systems if rainfall is adequate. Irrigate deeply but infrequently if the winter is dry.
- Prevent mosquitoes by eliminating standing water in gutters, drain pipes, flowerpots, etc. Place Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis in birdbaths and ponds to selectively kill mosquito larvae.
- Apply a preventive spray for peach leaf curl once or more during late fall through bud break in spring if leaf curl has been a problem on nectarine or peach.
- Prune deciduous trees and shrubs such as apple, crape myrtle, pear, rose, spirea, and stone fruits. Make cuts properly to encourage good form and structure. Remove dead, diseased, and borer-infested wood. Certain pests (e.g. shothole borer) and host plants such as apricot and cherry warrant summer pruning.
- Manage weeds using nonchemical methods such as cultivation and handweeding, or mowing. Control young weeds as soon as they pop up.
Don't see your county on the checklist or want to provide feedback? Let us know!
It's #GivingTuesday! – a global day of giving that harnesses the collective power of individuals to celebrate generosity.
If you've utilized the extensive UC IPM website and our free publications, watched one of our webinars or videos, read our newsletter, or shared our social media posts on Facebook or Instagram, you've seen how #GivingTuesday donations help produce important information, tools, and trainings that enhance the quality of life, and the environmental and economic well-being of Californians.
We encourage you to support the UC IPM Urban and Community program so we can continue to create and improve the quality of free, sustainable pest management information available to the public. You can learn more about the UC IPM program's goals and impact by reading our strategic plan.
Donate here and select “UC IPM – Urban and Community fund” in the dropdown menu under “Designation”. We appreciate your contribution!