Ongoing research

Moles are another difficult to control yard and garden pest. Moles are the little guys that swim through the soil and create the slightly raised tunnels in the process. Moles are also carnivores (meat eaters).

Nocturnal feeders come out in late evening or night, feed, and return to a hiding place as soon as the sun rises. Snails may travel several feet from a plant to hide in a dark, moist place during the day. Slugs also must return to a moist hiding place.

This insect sucks sap from the needles and can cause honeydew and sooty mold problems to be present in and under your Norfolk pine. Scale insects tend to be cyclic in their populations. Normally, natural enemies of this scale will slowly, but surely, colonize and bring the population down.

The adult is called the California oak moth and is a grayish-tan moth about one-half to three-quarter inch long when the wings are folded. The worm, about one inch long at maturity, has a reddish-brown head with a black body with yellow racing stripes down the center of its back.

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) has published a list of Top 10 Pesticide Blunders at Home. The list follows. Whenever you use pesticides of any kind, use good sense, and follow label directions.

Potato bugs, also known as Jerusalem crickets, are part of the same group of insects that include house crickets, grasshoppers, and katydids. Potato bugs are usually found in burrows, which they make in the soil under wood piles, boards, leaf litter, rocks, and piles of trash.

I have talked to a wild life specialist with the University of California who has done considerable research on wild rabbits. He indicated to me that rabbit-immune plants are hard to find.

The Red Gum Lerp Psyllid is a native of Australia, and it was introduced to southern California several years ago. Since that time, it has gradually made its way north to Santa Barbara County, and we are now seeing an invasion of north county.

Roof rats are small rats and may be confused with adult mice at times. The tail of an adult roof rat is longer than its body. This is one characteristic that helps identify it as a roof rat and not a mouse.

Rose slugs are small 1/2 to 5/8-inch long, green worm-like insect and usually feeds on the underside of the leaf causing the damage. The adult is a sawfly which is a member of the bee family (hows that for confusing?).