Gardening

Gophers are well-known and certainly unwelcome pests in landscapes, gardens, lawns, and athletic turf. More correctly called pocket gophers, these rodents mostly remain hidden underground in tunnels and feed on plants from below, sometimes pulling whole plants into their tunnels.

Do you work at or service a school or multiple schools? If so, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) is seeking your input about the Healthy Schools Act.

Applying the wrong amount of pesticide can result in poor control if not enough is used; too much being applied can lead to waste and possibly illegal usage. If pest control is insufficient, the end result might be a second application that will be more expensive due to the cost of labor involved.

[Originally published in the Winter 2019 issue of the Green Bulletin] UC IPM is a statewide program within the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

You've probably heard it's important to read the label on a pesticide bottle, but you might not know why or what to even look for on the label.

Two species of Blatta cockroaches can be common peridomestic pests in California, including the familiar oriental cockroach (B. orientalis) and a relative newcomer, the Turkestan cockroach (B. lateralis, Figure 1).

The University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Established July 1, 1979 with funding from the California Legislature, UC IPM built upon a growing movement to reduce dependence on pesticides.

Whether you're having a backyard barbecue or enjoying outdoor activities as the weather warms up, it's important to protect yourself from mosquitoes and their bites.

Soil solarization is a method home gardeners and farmers can use to manage soilborne pests such as weeds, disease pathogens, nematodes and insects. Solarization can reduce help reduce pesticides used to control these pests.

If you were to ask an audience of more than a few people if they or anyone they know has ever seen or been bitten by a brown recluse spider in California, many hands would be raised.