Pest Management & Plant Health

Originally posted on the UC Master Gardener Program Statewide Blog During the holiday season many plants, cut flowers and flowering bulbs are used as decoration and given as gifts. Many of these items can be poisonous to both humans and pets with long-term negative effects to one's health.

If it's Friday, it must be "Friday Fly Day!" And a perfect day to post an image of a fly. This is a female tachinid, genus Peleteria, in the family Tachinidae. It is perched on a lavender in Vacaville, Calif. The genus is characterized by two prominent setae in front of the lower part of the eye.

Adult diamondback moth (Photo by Jack Kelly Clark) The diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella, is a small plutellid moth of European origin that has been in North America for nearly two centuries.

Recent rainfall and cool weather in many parts of the state are favorable for mushrooms that you may have been seeing in lawns. While they may be a surprising sight, mushroom-producing fungi are generally not considered to be a pest because most do not cause lawn diseases.

Mark Dery in Choe lab has successfully defended his PhD on December 1, 2021. Now it is official, Dr. Dery! Mark's PhD dissertation title is: "Wash-Off Potential of Pyrethroids After Use of Total Release Foggers and the Chemical Ecology of Bed Bugs (Heteroptera: Cimicidae)".

You know those dratted aphids, those little pests that suck the very lifeblood out of your prized plants? Well, have you ever watched them give birth? They do, you know. Live births. The UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program says that "Aphids have many generations a year.

What a year! Termites seem to be capturing the interest of more folks than usual. First, emeritus Cooperative Extension specialist Vernard Lewis of UC Berkeley, highly respected as "The Termite Man," drew widespread attention on Nov.

Talk about a full schedule! Nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, not only excels at research, teaching and public service but he serves as the coordinator of the department's weekly seminars for the 2021-22 academic year.

Topics for the winter quarter seminars hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology range from the alfalfa weevil to the yellow fever mosquito. The seminar series will take place on Wednesdays at 4:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall beginning Jan. 5 and continuing through March 9.

Citrus greening, or huanglongbing disease (HLB), is the most devastating disease for orange and grapefruit trees in the U.S. Prevention and treatment methods have proven elusive, and a definitive cure does not exist.