Pest Management & Plant Health

 A little red-eyed fly is trending on social media for all the wrong reasons. Why? Because people are finding maggots in some of their berries! Sounds gross, but what is it?   This small fly, called spotted-wing drosophila (SWD), love soft-skinned fruits such as cherries, blueberries,…

 Weed Science School is less than two weeks away! Join the UC Davis Weed Research and Information Center for this 2.5 day course. Learn through lectures and laboratory demonstrations at the Bowley Plant Science Teaching Facility at 1200 Extension Center Drive in Davis, CA on September 16-18, 2025.Weed…

September Walnut Orchard Tasks for Agriculture To-Do List  September is the time to focus on finishing the crop season well by protecting the kernel color and quality, keeping the insect pests in check, and setting the trees up for a stress-free winter. Irrigation and Nutrition Management in the…

We’re thrilled to celebrate the incredible success of the tree-of-heaven scouting portion of the Invasive Species Scout Project. Thanks to the passion, curiosity, and dedication of our UC Master Gardener volunteers, this community science initiative surpassed all expectations. Over the past year and a half,…

This article covers kissing bugs (also known as conenose bugs). They are an occasional summertime insect pest of sparsely-inhabited rural or suburban areas.

Please join us for the 2025 Lettuce Fusarium Wilt Trial Field Day in Soledad - August 26, 2025 10 am - 12 pm. Trials include variety evaluations, steam treatment evaluations, and fungicide evaluations. Pre-registration is strongly suggested. Please see full article for additional info and directions.

Want to control pests but don’t want to use pesticides? Good news—there are many alternative options, and most are more effective than pesticides and last longer!  In general, there are three main methods to controlling pests nonchemically: cultural control, physical control, and biological control…