Pest Management & Plant Health

Frank Zalom never set out to study insect science. The UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus, an icon in the entomological world, especially in integrated pest management (IPM), grew up thinking that he might be working for the telephone company.

You've likely come across a bee, wasp, or hornet this summer. While these insects can cause painful stings, and allergic reactions for some, they are not usually aggressive. In the landscape, they can be beneficial by providing pollination to plants and, for some, preying on pest insects.

Ten years ago, Guy Kyser wrote an excellent blog on the identification of Northern California's Big Three invasive thistles.

Moths will grab the spotlight at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house on Saturday, July 22 but besides Lepidopterists (those who study butterflies and moths), attendees can meet and greet dipterists (those who study flies), learn about mosquitoes from the author of a newly published children...

Congrats to the lab of nematologist Shahid Siddique, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, for excellent presentations at the 62nd annual meeting of the Society of Nematologists (SON), held July 9-14 in Columbus, Ohio: Alison Coomer Blundell, who will be a fourth-year doctoral candidate...

Are you interested in learning about the management of sap-sucking pests and ants in citrus orchards? Lindcove is organizing a full-day workshop to bring you recent research advances on sap-sucking insects and ant management. The workshop will focus on ants.

I have received a handful of calls this season with concerns about trash bugs, a catch all term for various soil invertebrates. These soil invertebrates include root maggots, springtails, bulb mites, and symphylans, all which will happily feed on decomposing plant debris, i.e., trash.

With rice pushing fully through the water and with many fields now a vibrant green, tadpole shrimp season has passed in California's rice fields.

Many of us at UC IPM are cat lovers and owners. Cats are popular household pets that bring joy and companionship to many families. Feral cats, on the other hand, can cause problems in our communities and around our homes and gardens. Feral cats are unsocialized, unowned cats that live outdoors.

Professor Jerry Alan Powell, an international authority on Lepidoptera and a longtime director of the Essig Museum of Entomology, UC Berkeley, died July 8 in Berkeley at age 90.