Archive Nut, Prune and Olive Programs

Number of moths trapped per day is increasing. Numbers are higher in areas where crop diversity is higher. I haven't seen any worms yet, but they are expected by the end of the month. At this point, moths may be mating and laying eggs on weeds and other plants in the area, including rice.

Avocado harvest time and the growers are in the orchard checking things out a little more closely and to see what is going into the bins..and they see some unusual shaped fruit. Here's what's been popping up and some possible explanations. Crick-side - First described by Dr. J.

So, here I am, an Asian lady beetle (Harmonia axyridis) perched on a rose bush in Vacaville, Calif., as dawn breaks. I'm eating aphids and minding my own beetle business, which consists of gobbling aphids and more aphids. And more aphids. Did I say more aphids? More aphids.

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there. It's also a 'cat-eat-'cat world, that is, when a caterpillar eats another caterpillar. Or in this case, when larva eats larva. We recently spotted this lady beetle larva eating a syrphid fly larva on our yellow rose bush, "Sparkle and Shine.

USDA Specialty Crops, the Agricultural Marketing News Service and What's Worth Planting The AMS Specialty Crops Program helps buyers and sellers of all sizes in the U.S. produce industry to market their perishable products in the most efficient manner.

We are a little over a month into the processing tomato season. I have received a couple of farm calls regarding herbicide damage or symptoms originally thought to be diseases. The first was trifluralin injury to young tomato plants.

This is an insect that looks as if it were assembled by a dysfunctional committee: long angular legs, long antennae, and beady eyes on a thin green body. All hail the katydid. It's usually camouflaged, disguised as a leaf in the vegetation--Nature's gift. But in our pollinator garden, we see them.

Last week we enjoyed attending the CalGIS 2017 conference in Oakland. This year the meeting was co-hosted with LocationCon, so it was larger than usual and had a good mix of participants from government, non-profits, academic and consulting companies.

Diadasia bituberculata Digger Bee The hills are alive with the sound of BEE-EEZZE. And often they are found crawling on the ground, as is the case of Digger Bees.

From horrible to bad. That's the consensus of the declining honey bee population in the United States.