Agriculture

And live to regret it when it comes to planting a tree. Bring out that power auger and dig a hole and slam that tree in the ground and move on to the next planting hole. If it's rocky soil, with good drainage, the trees may look like this two years later. Alive, but some are much bigger than others.

From Butte County Agricultural Commissioner's office: A weed sample collected in Butte County on September 19, 2023, was submitted to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) botany lab for identification. The sample was identified as White Water Fire (Bergia capensis).

There's no fame, fortune or glory in writing a daily (volunteer) Bug Squad blog. It's about the insects. It's always been about the insects, from honey bees to bumble bees, to butterflies, to dragonflies, to praying mantises and more.

A beer for a butterfly? Suds for a bug? It's almost time for the Art Shapiro's annual "Beer-for-a-Butterfly" contest that he's sponsored since 1972.

It's bee-ginning to look a lot like Christmas... All hail our littlest agricultural worker. European colonists brought the honey bee (Apis mellifera) to what is now the United States in 1622. Specifically, the bees arrived at the Jamestown colony (Virginia).

Back in 2010, UC Cooperative Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (1944-2022) of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and yours truly, department communications specialist, wondered why no insects appear in "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Zero. Zilch. Nada.

It has been many years since UC Cooperative Extension aka Farm Advisors have done an educational interest survey and updated our client contact database.

This from the Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner's Office: Basically the baiting treatment (for growers) involves 2 options: For conventional farms the material is Malathion 8 Aquamul mixed with Nulure Insect Bait and for organic growing the available product is Spinosad GF 120 Naturalyte whic...

Effective December 19, 2023, the Department is expanding the HLB quarantine boundary in the Santa Paula area of Ventura county in grid 437. A map of the proposed boundary can be found at https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/citrus/pests_diseases/hlb/regulation.html.

It's a week before Christmas and it's not just the geese that are getting fat. If you're thinking that the bathroom scale and you are not good friends, not to worry.