- Author: Surendra K. Dara
Brussels sprouts field in Santa Maria
The diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) is an important pest of broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, and other cruciferous crops. It exclusively feeds on cultivated and weedy crucifers and has a worldwide distribution. Larvae feed on foliage and growing parts of young plants or bore into the heads or flower buds resulting in skeletonization of leaves, stunting of the plants, or failure of head formation in some hosts. In warmer areas, the diamondback moth has up to 12 generations per year. While...
- Author: David Haviland
- Author: Jhalendra Rijal
- Author: Emily Symmes
As a result of UC ANR's Almond Pest Management Alliance Project, use of mating disruption as an ecologically sustainable pest management practice tripled over two years by growers and pest control advisers who influence over 400,000 acres of almonds in the San Joaquin Valley.
The Issue
Navel orangeworm is the single most important pest of more than 1.3 million acres of almonds in California. It feeds exclusively on almond kernels, rendering them unmarketable. Larvae are also associated with Aspergillus sp. fungi which can produce aflatoxin contamination of...
/h3>/h3>- Author: Mark Bolda
Blackberry growers in the Pajaro Valley should be aware that there are substantial numbers of light brown apple moth (LBAM) larvae active in many fields right now. The photos below outline what this pest looks like and what it is doing right now in our blackberry fields.
In the photographed field, there were on the order of 7-9 leafrolls per two feet of hedge in the heaviest infested areas and in excess of 80% of the leafrollers sampled in the photographed field were identified as having a very high likelihood of being LBAM. This is very concerning, since under the current quarantine enforced by the USDA, the presence of any leafroller in a field can be cause for significant delay of harvest much less outright field closure...