Pest Management

Virus transmitted by aphids. After feeding on an infected plant, aphids are only able to transmit this virus for very short periods of time (minutes to a few hours). In general, spread of potyviruses in the field occurs when aphid activity is high and is often very rapid and localized. Category Virus …

In the Bay Area, the most frequently found ants populating our gardens and invading our homes are Argentine ants. Argentine ants are small (1/8”), and their queens are slightly larger. Their bodies are constricted, giving them an appearance of a thin waist, which distinguishes them from termites. …

 Small insects that suck fluids out of stems, leaves, and other tender plant parts. Soft pear-shaped bodies with long legs and antennae and may be green, yellow, brown, red, or black. A few species appear waxy or woolly due to the secretion of a waxy white or gray substance over their body surface…

Common vegetable garden pest that also attacks ripening stone fruit. Adult beetles are shiny with black heads, long antennae, and about one-quarter inch long. Striped or spotted depending on species. Larvae are whitish and slender with three pairs of short legs; the head and tip of the abdomen are darker…

 Cutworms are dull brown caterpillars one to two inches long when fully grown. They curl into a C-shape when disturbed. Some clip off seedling stems, while others chew or bore holes. Category InsectSigns/Symptoms Cutworms feed on blossoms and leaves of many ornamental plants and attack most edible…

 Earwigs can devastate seedling vegetables or annual flowers and often seriously damage maturing soft fruit or corn silks.  They also have a beneficial role in the landscape and have been shown to be important predators of aphids. Although several species occur, the most common in California…

 Masked chafers are also called white grubs. They are beetle larvae, white with brown head, up to one inch long with bristles on underside. Produce one generation each year and overwinter as mature larvae. In spring and early summer, they pupate three to six inches deep in the soil. Category Insect …

Leafminer larvae attack many vegetables and ornamentals. Male and female flies pierce leaves and suck sap. Female lays eggs between the leaf layers. When the larva hatches, it uses its mouth parts to rupture plant cells, weaving trails through the leaf. These trails are called mines. Category Insect Signs…

Adult scales are immobile with coverings that are one twenty-fifth to one-quarter inch long. Immature scales are small slow-moving bodies called crawlers that have legs which eventually drop off.  There are two main groups of scale insects — soft and armored. Soft scales have a more rounded and convex…

Both snails and slugs are members of the mollusk phylum and are similar in structure and biology, except that slugs lack the snail's external spiral shell. These mollusks move by gliding along on a muscular “foot.” This muscle constantly secretes mucus, which facilitates their movement and later dries to…