Pest Management & Plant Health

Our yellowjacket baiting study has been recently published in Journal of Economic Entomology.

Reading the words bed bug in a sentence is enough to make most people's skin crawl! Bed bugs aren't a pleasant topic to discuss, but if you plan on staying at a hotel, hostel, or motel this summer, learning about bed bugs is a must! June 4-10 was Bed Bug Awareness Week, but it was also California In...

This week, we put the spotlight on invasive species and how these non-native plants, animals, and pathogens damage California's economy and environment.

The red imported fire ant, or RIFA for short, is no ordinary red ant. This invasive pest lives up to its name, delivering a sting that causes a burning sensation when its venom is injected into the skin. People sometimes confuse RIFA with the native southern fire ant.

"Protecting American Coffee, Wine and Baseball Bats Through Areawide Integrated Pest Management (AIPM)" Those catchy words headlined a recent notice of a congressional briefing.

Integrated pest management (IPM) specialist Frank Zalom, a distinguished professor with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and a past president of the Entomological Society of America (ESA), played a key role in a U.S.

Shot hole borers are tiny insects the size of a sesame seed that don't look particularly harmful, but don't let their diminutive size fool you. Two of these borers are invasivethe polyphagous shot hole borer and the Kuroshio shot hole borer.

When people think of parasites, often what comes to mind are blood-sucking insects like bed bugs, head lice, and fleas or other bodily invaders on or in humans and other animals. But plants can have parasites too.

It's getting hot and dry in the Central Valley and the movement of equipment in and out of fields/orchards/vineyards has the potential to stir up a significant amount of dust. Among its other impacts to agriculture (soil erosion, tissue damage, reduced photosynthesis, etc...

UC Cooperative Extension in Merced County and Bowles Farming are hosting the 2nd Annual Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Drone, Field Day on Tuesday, June 26, 2018. The event will run from 8:30-11:30 am and will be held at Bowles Farming headquarters in Los Banos (11069 Hereford Road).