Ongoing research

The recent find of the Kuroshio shot-hole borer in Santa Barbara shows that the beetle is expanding up the coast and it comes on top of the finding earlier this year of a single Kuroshio shot-hole borer in San Luis Obispo.

Don't forget to attend the... 2016 Salinas Valley Weed School Wednesday, November 2, 2016 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon Agricultural Center Conference Room (1432 Abbott Street, Salinas) 8:00 Registration (no fee required) and Refreshments.

The drone fly is an identity thief. It's often mistaken for a honey bee. Hey, isn't every floral visitor a bee? No, not by a long shot. One's a fly and one's a bee.

Last Sunday was forecast as 20% chance of rain in Ventura, but it didn't happen. Today, Friday it was supposed to rain, but it's barely a drizzle. My car's dust has just been redistributed. Could a better prediction be forecast? According to Cliff Mass it certainly could. http://cliffmass.blogspot.

You've heard the expression, "On a wing and a prayer." It apparently originated during World War II. Remember the 1942 film, "The Flying Tigers," starring John Wayne as Capt.

If you're rearing monarchs or offering them a way station of nectar-producing flowers in your yard, there's one thing you don't want to see: A praying mantis nailing a monarch. That's when the "pollinator friendly garden" seems more like a "predator friendly garden." It's not by chance.

Sometimes the unexpected happens. Take the case of the female praying mantis delivered to the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, for an educational display.

Thanks for the rains that leach the soils of accumulated salts and bring on new fresh growth. Or maybe not. When we apply irrigation water with salts which with few exceptions we do in irrigated agriculture, salts accumulate in the soil.

From the UC Davis Dateline October 25, 2016 We're getting into the weeds in this storyto tell you that weed expert Joe DiTomaso has been named the recipient of this year's James. H. Meyer Distinguished Achievement Award.

Marek Borowiec's world revolves around myrmecology, the scientific study of ants.