Rangelands

During the drought, your trees should come first! Because many well-maintained trees don't reach their prime until their 4th or 5th decade, it's important to keep them watered during the drought and water restrictions.

Congratulations to UC Davis doctoral alumnus Anurag Agrawal of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., a newly elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). It's one of the highest honors a scientist can receive.

UC Davis doctoral alumnus Anurag Agrawal, the James A. Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., is a newly elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Do you know that today is "World Robber Fly Day?" "World Robber Day?" you ask. No, "World Robber Fly Day.

Ever seen a beneficial insect and a pest sharing the same blossom? At a recent visit to the UC Davis Ecological Garden at the Student Farm, we watched a honey bee, Apis mellifera, and a lygus bug nymph, Lygus hesperus, foraging on a batchelor button, Centaurea cyanus. The bee: the beneficial insect.

In April 2021, scientists released weevils from the Mediterranean region of Europe at the Bureau of Land Management Magnolia Ranch day-use area in El Dorado County to join the battle against yellow starthistle.

The spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) is an invasive pest in the United States that was first detected in 2014 in Pennsylvania. It is a pest of numerous cultivated and wild hosts.

They were the "Look-at-Cats." The feral cats on our farm (the progeny of strays dropped off by "imperfect" strangers) became known as "The Look-at-Cats." You couldn't touch, pet or hold them. You could feed them, though, and spay or neuter them--if you could catch them. And you could name them, too.

Yellow Starthistle is a plant of Old-World origin that arrived in California in the mid 1800's. It is believed that it made its way to California in contaminated alfalfa seed from Europe.

They're out there, and you don't have to crane your neck to see them. Some folks mistakenly call them "mosquito hawks" or "mosquito eaters," but they are neither. They are crane flies, members of the family Tipulidae of the order Diptera (flies). They're everywhere.