Agriculture

From the TOPICS IN SUBTROPICS blog (Jan. 10, 2020) Proper weed management is important for several reason, but in general younger orchards are much more susceptible to the negative impacts of weed overgrowth.

Something Wonderful Is Happening Saturday, Jan. 18 at Bohart Museum of Entomology! If you're a student and thinking about a science career, this is for you. If you're someone interested in all things science, and want to learn more, this is for you. And it's free.

On a day too cold for honey bees to fly and nearly too cold for bundled dignitaries to speak, officials celebrated the opening of the newly constructed USDA-ARS bee research facility on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis campus.

(Collaborative history of the UC Davis bee biology program.) George Haymaker Vansell (1892-1954) was a student at UC Davis who eventually helped with the instruction of entomology and apiculture beginning in 1920 and ending in 1931.

When you watch bats emerge at dusk in the summer from the Yolo Causeway, have you ever wondered what insects they eat? UC Davis doctoral candidate Ann Holmes has--and she's doing research on what's in their guano (feces).

For the past several years, California rice has been dealing with a pesky new weed, weedy rice aka red rice. Weedy rice is a difficult pest to manage, because it is the same species as rice (both are Oryza sativa L.), rendering herbicide use next-to-impossible.

How do fruit flies tell time? How do monarch butterflies know when to migrate? How can assassin flies overcome prey much larger than they are? How do bark beetles wreak havoc in our forests? What insects do bats eat?

UC Davis nematologist Valerie Williamson participated on the research team led by the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), Ithaca, N.Y., that revealed how plants manipulate nematode pheromones to repel infestations.

Scorching temperatures and parched earth are no match for the sorghum plant this cereal crop, native to Africa, will remain green and productive, even under conditions that would render other plants brown, brittle and barren.

Noted entomologist and ant specialist Corrie Moreau will present a UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar, "Piecing Together the Puzzle to Understand the Evolution of the Ants: Macroevolution to Microbiomes" from 4:10 to 5 p.m., Wednesday, Jan.