Gardening

Invasive pests threaten California's natural environments, agricultural production, structures, landscapes and gardens, causing billions of dollars of damage to our agricultural systems and natural areas each year.

Support the work of the UC IPM Urban and Community Program! Our mission and work to help Californians continues despite the COVID-19 pandemic. With your support, we will continue to provide practical, trusted pest management answers to people like you across our state.

With Thanksgiving around the corner, we want to take a moment to appreciate the work that goes into producing the foods we eat at Thanksgiving and every day. There are many pests that attack the crops we grow and many hands that help get food from the field to our tables.

Our mission to help Californians continues despite the COVID-19 pandemic. With your help, we provide practical, trusted pest management answers to people like you across our state. Support the work of the UC IPM Urban and Community Program with your gift.

Weeds are usually thought of as native plants we don't want in areas such as landscapes, fields, or vegetable gardens either because they reduce economic output or they are considered aesthetically displeasing.

With the recent time change along with a change in temperatures, landscaping practices for pests need some adjusting too. We're sharing a few recommended tasks to help prevent insect pests, diseases, and environmental disorders in landscapes.

October is a perfect time to talk about spiders! People decorate for Halloween with scary images of spiders and webs. Many people fear spiders but what you may not know is that they are helpful in our homes and landscapes.

Rodent Awareness Week (October 18-24) is a campaign created by the National Pest Management Association to educate the public about the potential harm associated with rats and mice. In addition to damage to structures and property, rodents can transmit disease to other animals and humans.

As the days get shorter and the temperatures begin to cool, now is the time to practice weed management for annual cool-season weeds. It's also not too early to consider management for weeds that emerge in springtime.

We don't often find flies such a popular topic of conversation, but given recent events, we'd like to seize the moment to share some science-based information about their status as both pests and beneficial insects. Flies can be nuisance insects both indoors and outdoors.