Ongoing research

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small farm conference

California Small Farm Conference

January 15, 2015
By Ben A Faber
San Diego, March 7 - 10, 2015 Registration is now open for the California Small Farm Conference - the state's premier gathering for small-scale farmers and ranchers, farm employees, farmers' market managers, researchers, federal and state agriculture agencies, agriculture students, food policy advoc...
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Today Art Shapiro looked for a cabbage white butterfly along Gates Canyon Road, Vacaville, but didn't find it. The photo is from one of his 2014 field trips up Gates Canyon Road. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

Have You Seen Me?

January 14, 2015
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Have you seen me? Me, being a cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae)? No? No one else has, either. Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, is looking and waiting.
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Robbin Thorp with two books he co-authored in 2014. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

Congratulations, Robbin Thorp!

January 13, 2015
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
You may have heard that native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, will give a presentation on native bees at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 24 at Solano County's Rush Ranch Nature Center, Suisun City.
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citrus frost
Topics in Subtropics: Article

Rehabilitation of Freeze Damaged Subtropical Fruit Trees

January 13, 2015
By Ben A Faber
For the first time since the great freeze of '89-90, we have experienced a little more than minor damage to our crops. Compared to the San Joaquin Valley, Ventura country escaped without major damage; although there were some areas harder hit like the Ojai Valley and some canyons near Santa Paula.
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Medical entomologist Laura Norris (right side of table, second from top) works with a night's catch of mosquitoes in Mali.
Bug Squad: Article

Just a Matter of Time

January 12, 2015
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
It was just a matter of time. It was just a matter of time before the so-called "super mosquito" surfaced, resulting in the failure of insecticide-treated nets to provide meaningful control from malaria in some localities in Africa.
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UC Weed Science (weed control, management, ecology, and minutia): Article

Herbicide Symptomology Photo Repository Launched! (UC IPM)

January 12, 2015
By Brad Hanson
UCIPM Press Release: New UC IPM photo repository shows plant damage from herbicides January 9, 2015 Davis, California Identifying nontarget crop and ornamental plant damage from herbicides has become much easier, with the launch of a new online photo repository by the Statewide IPM Program, Univers...
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syrphid eggs
Topics in Subtropics: Article

Bad year for honeybees, good year for syrphid flies

January 12, 2015
By Ben A Faber
Gordon Frankie a bee biologist at UC Berkeley and I are doing a study to ultimately identify what plants could grown in avocado orchards to attract more honeybees, as well as other pollinators and potential biocontrol agents.
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Entomologist Bruce Hammock in his office in Briggs Hall. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

Entomologist Helping Humankind

January 9, 2015
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
He is an EHH: Entomologist Helping Humankind. Bruce Hammock a distinguished entomology professor at the University of California, Davis, began his career trying to figure out how to control pests.
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A drone fly, Eristalis tenax (left), and a syrphid fly. They're from the same family, Syrphidae and are often mistaken for honey bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

Umm, Where's the Bee?

January 8, 2015
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
If there's one thing that entomologists hate, it's journalists who mistake a fly for a bee.
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A wasp (family Aphidiinae) parasitizing an aphid. (Photo by Fran Keller, who received her doctorate in entomology this year from UC Davis.)
Bug Squad: Article

What's It Like to Be Parasitized?

January 7, 2015
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
What's it like to be parasitized? Say you're a caterpillar or an aphid and a wasp comes along and lays her eggs inside you. Her eggs will hatch and then her offspring will eat their way out. You, the host, are no more. Zero. Zip. Zilch.
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