The animals we commonly refer to as gophers, are actually named pocket gophers. They are named this because they come equipped with fur lined external pockets they use to carry food and or nesting material while they tunnel under gardens, agricultural fields, and open space.

We often receive calls for help from home gardeners battling pocket gopher problems. Did you know that the typical lifespan of these creatures are three years? They are well designed for burrowing, for instance they are able to put their lips behind their teeth allowing them to keep dirt out of their mouths while using their teeth to dig.

Even one gopher can do a lot of damage, and they can reach densities of 60 or more gopher per acre. In addition to eating plants, they also damage irrigation lines with their chewing. More water problems and loss of this resource can occur when water meant for irrigation is diverted through their tunnel systems.

They live alone, except when females are caring for young. In irrigated areas gophers can produce up to three litters a year. In non-irrigated areas, only one litter per year is produced. In those areas breeding takes place in late winter or early spring, so if you have gophers in this type of setting, now would be a great time to reduce current numbers.

The University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) has recently updated the free pocket gopher pest note publication. This publication will explain how to determine if you have gophers on your property. It also details several types of control methods. Additional free UC ANR pest notes and other related information can be found at the UC Davis IPM website.

Adult pocket gopher

Our office produced a great resource to extend good management practices for orchard water quality management. Topics include:

• Irrigation system design, maintenance, schedules

• Irrigating to meet plant needs

• Using tools to measure soil moisture and evapotranspiration (ET)

• Ways to limit contamination of runoff using integrated pest               management (IPM), smart chemical use and proper storage

• Suggestions on how to improve soil infiltration

• Reducing water and sediment runoff

• And more

An electronic version of this resource can be found by clicking here. Hard copies are also available. Please contact our office if you would like a hard copy version.

Ever wanted or needed to know more about a pest? This is a common request at the Ventura County UCCE office.

The University of California has a wonderful website devoted to IPM (integrated pest management). The site is quite diverse. It has information about:

• the home, which includes pests of structures, people and pets.
• gardens and landscapes, where viewers can search by plant or by common pests, including plant diseases and weeds.  Common management methods are also a part of this section.
• whether pesticide use is appropriate, how pesticide use relates to water quality, and other pesticide guidelines and suggestions.
• identification of pests and natural enemies with the aid of photo galleries.
• quick tips, available in PDF format, in English and Spanish.

These subjects and much more can be found here. 

Ventura County UCCE Staff Research Associate Maren Mochizuki shares with us how monitoring spore traps in avocado orchards can lead to better understanding and management of disease.

An important component of integrated pest management is frequent monitoring to understand which, if any, pests are present and at what time of year.  In collaboration with Akif Eskalen a researcher at UC Riverside, Ben Faber, Ventura County UCCE Farm Advisor and Maren Mochizuki, Ventura County UCCE Staff Research Associate are sampling in three avocado orchards in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties using traps that catch spores, reproductive structures for many disease-causing organisms in avocado such as Dothiorella and Phytophthora

The spore traps consist of glass microscope slides suspended at two heights in the avocado tree canopy.  Every two weeks, we remove the slide and replace it with a fresh one; researchers at UC Riverside examine and identify the spores under a microscope.  We hope to improve our understanding of the life cycles of these spore-producing organisms for more effective disease management.

Young avocado tree killed by Dothiorella canker,

White, powdery exudates from a Dothiorella canker

Healthy green avocado foliage (right) next to the pale, yellow foliage of a tree with Phytophthora root rot