Pest Management & Plant Health

There are several meetings featuring the research of UC ANR Staff coming up this month (August 2018). Directions to sites can be obtained through the UCCE Merced Agronomy and Weed Science Upcoming Events web page: http://ucanr.edu/sites/agronomyweedscience/Upcoming_Events/ 1.

Advice for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County MGCC Help Desk Client's Request: The picture shows my greenhouse lettuce. The picture doesn't show it but it is covered with spider mites.

Before hiking, backpacking, or camping, people are warned to avoid poison oak.

The "best-kept secret" is no more. Well, it's not so much as a "best-kept secret" but a "UC Davis treasure." Thousands attended the seventh annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, which showcased 13 museums or collections.

It is important for food-safety reasons to manage rats in school and community gardens. Rats and other wildlife can carry a number of diseases that can be deposited in the form of urine and feces on fruit, vegetables, and in the soil.

Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars trained by world-renowned entomologist and toxicologist John Casida of the University of California, Berkeley, are memorializing him for his powerful impact on science and his non-wavering impact on their careers and lives.

What are those curious, colorful, odd-looking growths you've seen growing on oak trees? Ever wonder what those little seeds are that jump around on the ground underneath oak trees in July or August?

Why is weed identification important? Simply stated, because not all management strategies are equally effective against all weed species.

Cotton lint stickiness is a significant problem, worldwide. It is also an issue here in California, and a major focus of attention for cotton growers and ginners in the state. Sticky cotton loads can physically slow down the processing speeds of gins, even to the point of shut down.

Professor Rick Karban of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, author of the landmark book, Plant Sensing and Communication (University of Chicago Press), says that plants can eavesdrop, sense danger in the environment, and can distinguish friend from foe.