Pest Management & Plant Health

With heavy rains in the forecast amid strengthening El Nio conditions, almond growers should be on the lookout for a rare disease that can cause severe damage to their orchards, according to Florent Trouillas, a University of California Cooperative Extension specialist in fruit and nut pathology.

"Why Study Insects?" That's the title of a poster next to the door of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis.

Roadsides are often a very difficult place to control weeds. Weeds thrive on roadsides and roadsides and rights of way are obviously long and narrow.

Springtime planting is almost here but don't rush to plant seeds until the soil has warmed up! Planting seeds too soon, when the soil is cold and wet, risks losing them to damping-off, a disease caused by fungi and oomycetes in the soil.

Forest entomologist Todd Johnson assistant professor at Louisiana State University, will speak on "Characterizing Ecological Interactions of Arthropods in Forests under Global Change"at the next seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

A new herbicide for early-season weed control in water-seeded rice will be available soon. The herbicide active ingredient (a.i.) is pyraclonil, which will be trademarked as Zembu (1.8% a.i.) by Nichino, America Inc. The mode of action is a protox porphyrinogen (PPO)-inhibitor or Group 14.

Newly published research led by UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal and Jiao Yin of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, identifies the major sex pheromone receptor gene involved in the unusual 48-hour rhythm clock of the large black chafer beetle, a severe agricultural pe...

When UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus Harry Kaya visits the Bohart Museum of Entomology and chats with UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum, it's a reunion of longtime colleagues and friends.

The winter seminars hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology are underway. All seminars are on Mondays at 4:10 p.m. in Room 122 of Briggs Hall and also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672. No seminar will take place on Monday, Jan.

"Target-site insensitivity (TSI) is an important mechanism of animal resistance to toxins," says nematologist Adler Dillman of the University of California, Riverside.