Backyard Orchard News
A Mid-Life Chrysalis
A mid-life chrysalis? Well, maybe not mid-life, but definitely out of season. A female monarch...
Moment of freedom--a female monarch is released. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This was the scene inside the butterfly habitat before her release. Note the chrysalis next to her. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
In the late afternoon, this monarch found a place to roost for the night--on an African blue basil. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC IPM online courses offer continuing education units for pest control applicators and advisors.
Are you looking for continuing education units (CEUs) to complete your renewal application this year for the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR)? The UC Statewide IPM Program has several online courses available that can help you get those last few needed credits.
DPR license and certificate holders with last names beginning with M – Z renew this year. Renewal packets must be submitted to DPR before November 19th to ensure that licenses are renewed by January 1, 2016. After that, applications may take up to 45 calendar days to process.
The online courses available from UC IPM that offer units for DPR license renewal include:
- Providing Integrated Pest Management Services in Schools and Child Care Settings (1 unit Laws and Regulations and 1 unit Other)
- Pesticide Resistance (2 units Other)
- Pesticide Application Equipment and Calibration (1.5 units Other)
- IPM – A Solution for Reducing Pesticides/Water Quality: Pesticide Properties (1 unit Other)
- The Impact of Pesticides on Water Quality/Mitigating Urban Pesticide Runoff (1 unit Other)
- Water Quality and Mitigation: Bifenthrin and Fipronil (1 unit Other)
- Herbicides and Water Quality (1 unit Other)
CEUs from the Structural Pest Control Board are also available for most of these courses.
For a list of other approved online or in-person courses, visit the DPR website. UC IPM plans to add additional online courses for 2016, including those available for Laws and Regulations units. For more information about the courses UC IPM offers as well as additional training opportunities and pest management information, see the UC IPM web site.
Man scouting for insects on a crop.
In the Shift from Nurse Bees to Foragers...
Have you ever thought about the honey bee colony, the transition of nurse bees to foragers? What...
Varroa mite (beneath wing) feeding on a forager (worker bee) as it's nectaring on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee foraging on cosmos. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Monarch Population in California 'Booming'
If you missed it, you should to listen to what longtime butterfly researcher Art Shapiro,...
A handful of monarch caterpillars from one narrow-leafed milkweed plant. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of a monarch chrysalis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A newly emerged male monarch. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
About Those Milkweeds and Their Toxicity...
Cornell University evolutionary ecologist Anurag Agrawal, who received his doctorate in population...
Anurag Agrawal and his friend, a monarch butterfly. (Jason Koski, Cornell University Photography)