Pest Management & Plant Health

[From the Spring issue of the UC IPM Retail Nursery & Garden Center News] Most disorders impacting landscape trees result from abiotic (non-living) disorders rather than attacks from biotic (living) pests like plant pathogens, insects, and vertebrates.

In mid-March, many people use clover-themed decorations in preparation for St. Patrick's Day. Many gardens and landscaped areas are decorated with clovers too, especially with recent rains and mild temperatures in much of California.

Consider the tsetse fly. The tsetse fly (Glossina genus), found in sub-Saharan Africa, transmits Trypanosomiasis, a parasitic disease that we commonly refer to as "sleeping sickness.

When you hear those three little words, "Integrated Pest Management," you immediately think of two words, "Frank Zalom." They go together like superman (Clark Kent) and supervillian (Lex Luthor). Or like Coccinellidae (lady beetles) and Aphididae (aphids).

Monitor for rodent activity and use bait stations before the growing season to prevent problems, UC ANR scientists recommend. Roof rats are running rampant in California orchards this year, according to UC Agriculture and Natural Resources scientists.

DAVIS--Integrated pest management (IPM) specialist Frank Zalom, distinguished professor of entomology and Extension entomologist at the University of California, Davis, will receive a lifetime achievement award at the Ninth International IPM Symposium March 19-22 in Baltimore.

Online marketplace Amazon.com was recently fined $1.2 million by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) for selling and distributing pesticides not registered for sale in the U.S. The EPA discovered nearly 4,000 violations dating back to 2013.

Trophic interactions--or what-eats-what in the food chain or food web of a given ecosystem--will come to life Wednesday, March 7 when associate professor of entomology/Extension specialist John Tooker of Pennsylvania State University discusses "Unforeseen Trophic Interactions in Agricultural and Nat...

My name is Lynn Sosnoskie and I recently joined the University of California Cooperative Extension Team as a Agronomy and Weed Science Advisor for Merced and Madera Counties based out of the Merced office. About me. I grew up in a small coal mining town in central Pennsylvania.

Finding freshly dug mounds of soil in the garden, lawn, or landscape might be a sign of gophers or moles. Their mounds look similar and are frequently confused for each other. Figure 1 shows a mole mound, which usually is volano-shaped with a circular margin.