Pest Management & Plant Health

HONOLULU Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it has prevented several shipments of an illegal health product from entering U.S. Pacific ports under federal pesticide laws. The item, Virus Shut Out, is not registered with the EPA.

Chill weather slows down grass growth in our lawns and we can notice the bright yellow flowers of Taraxacum officinale, the common dandelion. In our mild climate, dandelions bloom nearly year-round. Even as they bloom, these weeds seldom rise above their basal rosette at the lawn surface.

Western drywood termites (Incisitermes minor, Figure 1) are an important pest of structural wood in California, causing millions of dollars in damage annually. These termites are very cryptic, hidden in their galleries within wood members (pieces of wood), and only emerge during swarming.

While you're sheltering in place due to the coronavirus pandemic precautions, not too many people are aware of a new faculty member in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, recently arrived from Harvard.

If you've ever played the childhood game of hide and seek, in which you try to conceal yourself from others, you know the outcome.

The legendary Bruce Hammock, UC Davis distinguished professor who holds a joint appointment with the Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center--is featured in the current edition of American Entomologist.

From the UC Rice Blog (March 23, 2020) Weeds are important pests of California rice systems, and weed management can account for roughly 17 percent of total operating costs, according to a UC cost of production study.

Meet new faculty member Emily Meineke, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology as an assistant professor of urban landscape entomology on March 1. She studies how climate change and urban development affect insects, plants, and how they interact with one another.

It seems that everyone loves bees and thinks of them first thing when the topic is pollination and beneficial insects. Then, when the topic turns to wasps (and Yellowjackets) everyone changes their tune. To most people, wasps are mean, stinging attackers that can terrorize summer picnics.

Life, as we know it, changed rapidly with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.