Pest Management & Plant Health

Praying mantids are well-known predators we often see lurking around gardens, landscapes, and sometimes near porch lights, waiting for a tasty meal to arrive. Praying mantid adults are 2 to 4 inches (5-10 cm) long and are usually yellowish, green, or brown.

Herbicides are the main means of controlling weeds. Recently, there has been increasing concern over the potential impacts of climate change, specifically, increasing temperatures and elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, on the sensitivity of weeds to herbicides.

From the Rice Farming magazine... By Vicky Boyd, Editor The California Rice Experiment Station has found a partner in Albaugh LLC to help bring their ROXY herbicide-tolerant rice system to market.

You may see leafhoppers in your garden or landscape this time of year as they hop about feeding on a variety of plants. You can distinguish these small, wedge-shaped insects from other pests by their tendency to quickly jump or crawl rapidly sideways when disturbed.

New Release from CDFA: SACRAMENTO, August 30, 2018 A portion of Sacramento and Yolo Counties have been placed under quarantine for the Oriental fruit fly following the detection of 15 flies in and around the southern part of the City of Sacramento near the Lemon Hill community.

Just call them the "incredible aphid-eating machines." That would be the lady beetles, commonly known as ladybugs (although they are not bugs; they're beetles belonging to the family Coccinellidae, and they're not all "ladies"--some are male!).

Field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) is a perennial plant in the Convolvulaceae family (which is also the family of dodder (Cuscuta spp.), morningglories (Ipomoea spp.), and alkaliweed (Cressa truxillensis)).

[Modified from the original article in the Summer 2018 issue of the Retail Nursery and Garden Center IPM News] We all have our favorite products, whether it's laundry detergent, shampoo, or a pesticide you know works against the pests in your home or garden.

It's a high honor.

Three faculty members from the University of California, Davis, will be among those sharing the "people" spotlight at the joint meeting of the XXVII Brazilian Congress and X Latin American Congress of Entomology --and the spotted wing drosophila will be among the insects sharing the "insect" spotlig...