Pest Management & Plant Health

Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars trained by world-renowned entomologist and toxicologist John Casida of the University of California, Berkeley, are memorializing him for his powerful impact on science and his non-wavering impact on their careers and lives.

What are those curious, colorful, odd-looking growths you've seen growing on oak trees? Ever wonder what those little seeds are that jump around on the ground underneath oak trees in July or August?

Why is weed identification important? Simply stated, because not all management strategies are equally effective against all weed species.

Cotton lint stickiness is a significant problem, worldwide. It is also an issue here in California, and a major focus of attention for cotton growers and ginners in the state. Sticky cotton loads can physically slow down the processing speeds of gins, even to the point of shut down.

Professor Rick Karban of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, author of the landmark book, Plant Sensing and Communication (University of Chicago Press), says that plants can eavesdrop, sense danger in the environment, and can distinguish friend from foe.

A Fulbright to France... Congratulations to UC Davis entomology professor Diane Ullman who has just a received Fulbright to France to research plant virus-insect interactions. She will be studying plant viruses and the insects that transmit them.

Scientist MaryAnn Wohlers Montague, a longtime UC Davis Department of Entomology staff research assistant who retired from UC Davis in 2001 after more than 33 years of service, died Thursday, July 5 in an automobile accident in Dixon. She was 77. Mrs.

If you're a plant and an insect is attacking you, you can communicate your stress to nearby plants as a way to alert them about potential danger--very similar to how animals communicate or respond to predators.

Originally posted August 26, 2016; edited July 10, 2018 Have you seen big green beetles in your California yard or garden? Or beetles feeding on your roses or other plants? There are many kinds of beetles commonly found in our landscapes, but the Japanese beetle is not one of them.

The late medical entomologist William Emery Hazeltine II (1926-1994) worked tirelessly in mosquito research and public health. Thanks to the generosity of his family, his work is continuing through memorial research grants to outstanding graduate students at the University of California, Davis.