Pest Management & Plant Health

If you attended the 2018 campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day and headed over to see the insects at Briggs Hall, home of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, you may have seen an enthusiastic drummer performing in The Entomology Band.

From the Topics in Subtropics blog Oct. 21, 2022 Control of weeds has always been a major economic cost in subtropical fruit production because of favorable climate that allows for weed germination and year-round growth.

The invasive pest spotlight focuses on emerging or potential invasive pests in California. In this issue, we cover the brown widow spider.

Yao Cai, who received his doctorate in entomology in September from UC Davis, will present his exit seminar, "How Do Flies Tell the Time of Day?" at the next UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar, set Wednesday, Oct. 26.

It was a good day for a praying mantis. It was not a good day for a honey bee. Here's what happened in the "Daily Insect News": a gravid praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, ambushed and ate a honey bee on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville pollinator garden.

Newly published work by an international team of researchers, including lead author UC Davis nematologist Shahid Siddique, may result in new targets for the future development of nematode-resistant crops. The open-access journal Nature Communications, published the peer-reviewed research Oct. 19.

While venomous spiders like black widows are well-known, there are many harmless spiders that live in and around our homes and outdoor areas. Spiders are beneficial because they prey on insects and other pests. Most spiders are not likely to bite you and are not dangerous.

You may not think about rodents such as rats, mice, or gophers until they become a pest around your home. Because rodents can be major pests in and around homes, gardens, landscapes, restaurants, and other buildings, each year pest control experts celebrate Rodent Awareness Week.

"In 2020, malaria deaths increased by 12 percent compared with 2019. The increases in malaria cases are deaths were associated with disruption to services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Filipa Rijo-Ferreira, a UC Berkeley School of Public Health (BPH) assistant professor who specializes in parasitology and circadian rhythms, will present a UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, Oct.