Ongoing research

Let's hear it for the honey bees. Right now they're scrambling to gather nectar and pollen from the blanket flower, Gaillardia. You could say they're blanketing the flower. When resources are scarce in the fall, the blanket flower, in the sunflower family Asteraceae, draws them in.

Today, on Veterans' Day, we pay tribute to our military veterans and those serving in our U.S. Armed Forces. It's appropriate to think of America's first veterans from 261 years ago--the patriots who fought in the American Revolutionary War, also known as The War of Independence (1755-1783).

Strange thing, nobody ever says "as green as a green bottle fly." 'Cept maybe an entomologist.

Scientists at NASA Ames have created a new computer model to simulate the growth and decay of floating aquatic invasive plants, such as water hyacinth and water primrose, on Delta waterways. The model is used to estimate biomass levels throughout the year.

What amazing journeys! For the last two months, migratory monarch butterflies have regularly stopped for flight fuel in our 600-square-foot pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif. to nectar on Mexican sunflower (Tithonia), butterfly bush (Buddleia) and Lantana.

The California Weed Science Society (CWSS) is preparing for the 69th Annual Conference, January 18-20, 2017 in Monterey and is now accepting applications for the Student Paper and Poster Contest.

There's a lot of work being done in Florida on a pest/disease complex like we have here with Shot Hole Borer and Fusarium fungus Fusarium Dieback. This hits avocados and a lot of other native trees like sycamore, willow and coast live oak.

Newly appointed UC Cooperative Extension agricultural engineering advisor Alireza Pourreza has been awarded the 2016 Giuseppe Pellizzi Prize by the Club of Bologna, an honor presented every other year to the best doctoral dissertations focused on agricultural machinery and mechanization.

They didn't get the memo. Summer is over. Fall is underway. Winter is coming (Dec. 21). But the Gulf Fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae) are still laying eggs on the passionflower vine here in Vacaville, Calif. The eggs are hatching. The caterpillars are eating. The 'cats are pupating.

Beauveria bassiana is a soilborne entomopathogenic fungus which offers plant protection as a pathogen of arthropod pests (Feng et al., 1994; Dara, 2015).