The holiday season is fast approaching! With many people traveling and visiting new places during this time, it's important to understand how to check for bed bugs and prevent them from coming home with you.
Regardless of what type of lodging you choose–hotel, motel, cabin, or other type of rental–no place is immune to bed bug introductions or infestations. Follow these tips for a bed bug-free holiday.
When settling into your room
- Before putting your luggage down on the bed, couch, or floor, do a quick bed bug check. You can either leave the luggage in the hall or place it in the bathtub, where bed bugs are not likely to be.
- Thoroughly inspect the bed, nightstand, upholstered furniture, and closets. You can use a flashlight or a phone light to help you look for bed bugs, shed skins, or fecal spots. Look along mattress seams, under covers, around the box spring, behind headboards and picture frames, and along baseboards.
- Watch this video to learn how to do a bed bug inspection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWCc3Mngo7E&t=2s
After you return home
- Before bringing luggage inside your home, inspect it for any signs of bed bugs that may have hitched a ride. Store luggage away from the bedroom to prevent potential introductions.
- Launder all the clothes from your trip on the hottest settings to kill bed bugs or their eggs that may have gone unnoticed. For items that cannot be washed, freezing them for several days will also kill all stages of bed bugs.
To learn more about bed bug identification and management, see the UC IPM Pest Notes: Bed Bugs. Staying home for the holidays? Here are some tips to host a bed bug-free holiday!
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a military invasion of Ukraine. As a result, the United States and other nations have announced sanctions against Russia. These developments have heightened security measures in countries sharing borders with Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, impacting transportation and border crossing in those neighboring countries.
The U.S. State Department has issued a Level 4 — Do Not Travel Warning for Ukraine due to the conflict. As a result, and out of concern for the well-being and safety of the UC community, we are directing all members of the UC community to avoid all travel to Ukraine at this time. Additionally, travel to neighboring countries should be carefully evaluated.
Should travel abroad during this time be necessary, it is of utmost importance that all faculty, staff, and students take the following steps:
- Review the DOS Travel Advisories related to your destination(s) prior to making travel plans.
- Register your travel with the U.S. State Department's STEP Programto receive timely notifications of safety and security concerns.
- Register your travel with the UC Travel Insurance Program.
Thank you for your cooperation and partnership in keeping our UC community safe.
Sincerely,
Rachael Nava
Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer
- Author: Wendy Powers
I am traveling! Last week almost seemed normal, with back-to-back trips between Monday and Friday. This week was even more ‘normal' with a flight cancellation. I have more travel scheduled with a few days off with in-state travel over Veteran's Day week. By mid-November, I suspect I will be complaining about travel disruptions. I think it is human nature to complain about things even when we have longed for such circumstances. Traveling has changed a bit since I was last frequenting airports. I like that we no longer show our boarding passes at security; less fumbling around with ID plus my boarding pass. I have even applied for my Real ID, just in case leaving my garage becomes customary.
It is getting difficult to keep up with all of the new hires! What a great situation to be in! Curt Pierce started last week as the Area Irrigation and Water Resources Advisor, based in Orland, with programmatic responsibilities in Glenn, Tehama, Colusa, and Shasta Counties. Welcome, Curt! Please reach out to Curt to send your welcome.
While I try to keep up with new hires, I also try to stay on top of the successes of past colleagues. Take a look at this fantastic article about Lupita and her impressive story. Congratulations to Lupita and the CA 4-H team that will receive an award in a couple of weeks. I get confused with the various meetings, but this may be one of the awards I will virtually present to recipients on November 9. If so, that will be special for me.
Another great story appeared recently in the Morning Ag Clips. Be sure to read Laura's story. Her commitment and passion for her work are evident throughout. And, it was nice to see her faithful companion featured as well.
This week I have followed the rain from California to the East Coast. I am part of a committee interviewing advocacy firms for our national Cooperative Extension and Ag Experiment Station Sections. The firms are all located in D.C. so it is only committee members impacted by the intense rain. Hopefully the storms are past before I head back west on Thursday evening.
I hope everyone is starting to dry out. I wouldn't be surprised to see Sandhill Cranes back in our back yard. It will take some time for all of the water to drain. While the photo is of Mark and his wife paddling the delta, no doubt we could have used the kayaks to navigate our property after the rain we had on Sunday. Let's hope the 2021 fire season has ended as a result.
Higher ed cyberattacks
Cyberattacks on higher education institutions are on the rise. Universities with medical centers and substantial research profiles were identified as the most vulnerable to cyberattack. Federally funded research is also at risk from cyberespionage. According to a recent Pandemic Impact Survey, there is an increase in cyberattacks targeting employees who are working from home.
Since mid-March, there continues to be an increase in the volume, severity, and/or scope of these cyberattacks. Please review what you can do to protect yourself and UC ANR below.
What you can do
Here are some recommendations for UC ANR employees to help protect our organization:
- Exercise caution when opening emails. Due to phishing attempts, be cautious when opening emails about COVID-19, especially those from outside the organization. Whenever in doubt, please contact UC ANR IT.
- Coming soon: Enable UCANR DUO. UC ANR will be rolling out DUO multi-factor authentication (MFA) for access into our systems. In the next few weeks, you will receive an email notification from MFA DUO with instructions to enroll; please follow the steps in order to enable your account.
- Protect your personal devices. Some employees may be using personal equipment instead of, or alongside, UCANR-issued hardware. Here are some steps you should take to secure your own devices, especially when you are using them for work purposes:
- Home computers– We recommend that all employees implement security on these devices, including installing anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spyware.
- USB devices– Employees should limit the use of any USB devices that have been previously used to access various other devices.
- Lock devices when not in use - It is critical for all of us to keep work devices for work use only and lock our devices when we step away from them. Innocent activity on a work computer could potentially lead to a breach. This is also an excellent opportunity to educate your family members on cybersecurity.
- Secure your home network. While conducting business through aVPN can add a layer of security for all, be aware of what router/modem devices are being used while working from home and enable additional protection.
- Enable automatic updates for all routers and modems. If the equipment is outdated and can no longer be updated, it should be replaced.
- Secure router or modem with a unique password. Please make sure your router or modem is secured with a unique password and enable the firewall. For specific issues on modems or routers, contact your Internet Service Provider if they provided the devices. If you still have questions, contact UC ANR IT.
Want to do more to be more secure?
Here are a few free tools to help identify potential vulnerabilities on your home computers. Note: work computers may have restricted admin rights prohibiting the use of these tools.
- KnowBe4's Ransomware Simulator – Scans for ways into your network by malicious actors.
- Shodan– Reviews for vulnerable devices on your network.
- Censys– Reviews for vulnerable devices on your network.
For any questions or more information on what is listed, please feel free to contact ANR IT at help@ucanr.edu.
UC Travel Directive
Beginning in January, the University issued a series of executive directives that restricted nonessential, University-related international travel to all CDC Level 2 and 3 Travel Warning countries. These directives remain in effect, as outlined in a recent UCOP travel directive.
Additionally, all travelers, including those traveling for personal purposes, must follow the CDC's guidance for returning from international travel – including the requirement to quarantine for 14 days (if applicable) before returning to a UC facility.
For the well-being and safety of those who must travel internationally or domestically, it is important that travelers register their trip with the UC Travel Insurance Program, UCAway in order to ensure appropriate travel insurance coverage and trip intelligence services. Registration is an important step in reducing the risks of traveling while keeping the UC community safe, especially in environments with heightened health risks such as COVID-19. See the UCANR Risk & Safety Business Travel page for more general travel safety information and links.
Domestically, non-essential work-related travel is discouraged, particularly by air. For UCANR personnel, this means work-related travel outside of your normally assigned County(ies) or regional program area.
If travel is considered essential for University business or programmatic needs, and the activity cannot be conducted via alternative methods, consider the following:
- The employee's own current personal health condition
- Current community spread of destination location
- The possibility that extended self-isolation period may be required (both upon arrival at the destination and after return to California) if the destination location is subject to heightened COVID-19 activity
Given the widespread rate of COVID-19 infections across the country, domestic travel is now considered a risk factor in diagnosing COVID-19. CDC U.S. travel guidance recommends staying home as the best way to protect from getting sick and provides additional guidelines for those who are considering traveling within the U.S. Those approved to travel for work domestically should take appropriate precautions while traveling and upon their return to work.
You can also find more COVID-19 travel safety information for ANR travelers at: http://safety.ucanr.edu/Programs/emergency/Current_Health_Alerts/Travel/
Celebration Corner
The 4-H Healthy Living advisory team launched a statewide virtual Disease Detectives: Operation Outbreak program. More than 40 youth participants met online twice a week from June 16-July 13 to learn about disease outbreaks, virus transmissions, public health investigations and how protective actions like hand washing, wearing masks, vaccinations, and herd immunity help manage negative public health outcomes. The advisory team has also trained more than 50 volunteers, staff and community members nationally to lead this project.
Glenda Humiston
Vice President
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/span>- Author: Sheri Pueblo
New Zealand is known to be a gorgeous destination to experience uncrowded beautiful coastlines and rugged mountains which bring various climate zones and all 4 seasonal changes. Hamilton is 1½ hours south of Auckland, in a temperate area of warm summers, cool wet winters and occasional frosts, Zone 9 hardiness -4°C (30°F) - 29°C (85°F). The mighty Waikato River flows next to Hamilton Gardens with walking and bike paths that meander along the area. These beautiful, free public gardens are definitely worth a stop-over for at least a couple hours to explore. It includes many separate themed garden areas, a visitor center, café, performance areas and clean restrooms. The optional self-guided tour pamphlet costs $2 NZ which goes to support the gardens that are funded by the community and thousands of volunteer hours.
Historically the gardens were a city dump back in the 1960's, a sand quarry, go-cart track and long before European settlement, this was the home to a Maori chief Haanui and the indigenous people of the region. The site has been beautifully shaped into award-winning gardens and into the most popular attraction of the North Island's Waikato district, seeing over a million visitors per year. “Our collection of gardens don't just address the context, meaning and history of gardens, they also reflect the evolution of civilization”.
The Paradise Garden collection represents structured enclosed garden design traditions such as a Chinese Scholars' Garden, Japanese Garden of Contemplation, Modernist Garden, and my favorites were the English Flower, Indian Char Bagh, and Italian Renaissance Gardens.
The Productive Garden Collection highlights relationships of people and plants. It honors local Maori culture with Te Parapara Garden that features plantings of their staple food Kumara (sweet potato) and traditional elevated food and tool storage houses (Pataka). Kumara rot in wet soils so the mounds improve drainage, the riverbank sandy soil is ideal. I've grown sweet potatoes in Hammil Valley, placing starts in shallow trenches and drip irrigation. My challenges are critters eating the end of the vines and getting plants shipped to California. The Maori stored tubers in underground pits for the next year's planting.
I loved the large Herb garden, featuring Medicinal, Pot Pourri, and Culinary sections full of different plants. I felt inspired by all the useful means nature and herbs have to offer and couldn't keep myself from rubbing and smelling various plant leaves and flowers.
The Fantasy Garden Collection represents “different genres of garden fantasy each with a direct relationship to one of the arts”. A recently opened Surrealist garden featured moving parts of topiary pieces and distortions of scale. The (Katherine) Mansfield Garden honors this N.Z.'s writer who is credited with inventing modern New Zealand literature and has features from her book “The Garden Party”.
There are also outer Tropical, Rose, and Victorian Gardens and new theme gardens in development.
My recent visit was the end of summer for the Southern Hemisphere during an unusually hot and dry summer drought for the North Island, but the Gardens were still beautiful and worthwhile. I certainly plan to return in a Spring season to experience the different blooms and plant vigor.