Ongoing research

Who would have thought? Who would have thought that ants are more closely related to bees than they are to most wasps? In ground-breaking research to be published Oct.

The latest from Joyce. This photo is "looking southwest from point on highway between Drytown and Amador. Cattle ranch headquarters surrounded by grassland without a brush problem. Amador Co.

Really interesting video of 600 pot farms in Humboldt Co. as readily shown via Google Earth. I am re-posting this in light of Alice's excellent talk today.

Bagrada bug, Bagrada hillaris is a new invasive insect that arrived in the Salinas Valley in the summer of 2013.

I had a chance to talk to PCA Dennis Seaton a few weeks back. During the farm call, he mentioned that he was making a survey of leaf yellowing in his clients citrus orchards.

A hornets nest is nothing like a bee in the bonnet. You dont want to mess with hornets, especially the world's largest hornet, found in many parts of Asia.

A brilliant sunflower clinging to the red ring of autumn. And here comes a common sunflower bee, Melissodes agilis (this is a female, as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis.

It shouldnt be news to local citrus growers and industry people that the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) is being found with increasing frequency in the southern San Joaquin Valley. If this is news to you please follow the website at http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/acp/ and/or sign up for U.C.

Great to see the Wall Street Journal feature bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey in its Oct. 1st piece, "A Scientist Teaches Drones and Queens the Birds and the Bees." Sue Cobey is world renowned for her work in trying "to build a better bee.

Agricultural producers are constantly engaged in evaluating and analyzing their costs of production and returns to measure profitability and develop efficient production management strategies because of continually rising costs.