Backyard Orchard News
A UC Davis Exhibition: Exploring the Relationship Between People and Insects
Insects as art! The shapes, the colors...Bees, beetles, butterflies... Capture images of the bees,...
This image of honey bees by Alex Wild will be part of the Jan. 8-April 22 exhibition, "It's Bugged: Insects' Role in Design," and also will be featured at the Bohart Museum open house on Jan. 21. See alexanderwild.com for more of his photos. (Image copyrighted by Alex Wild and used with permission)
Beetle galleries, the work of beetle larvae, can be used as sculptures. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Targeting the Asian Citrus Psyllid
A major citrus pest may experience a “Bah, Humbug!” kind of year. If all goes as...
The Asian Citrus Psyllid Team: Scientists in the front row (from left) are Tatiana Mulinari, Rodrigo Magnani, Antonio Juliano Ayres, Walter Leal, Marcelo Miranda, Victoria Esperanca, Odimar Zanardi, and Rejane Luvizotto. The three scientists in back are Haroldo X. L. Volpe (white shirt) Renato de Freitas and Rômulo Carvalho.
Foraging Bumble Bees: Check Out the Orange Pollen
Bring on the bumble bees! In yesterday's Bug Squad blog, we mentioned the unusual...
A yellow-faced bumble bees, Bombus vosnesenskii, nectaring on rosemary at the Benicia Marina on New Year's Day, 2018. Note the orange pollen, derived from another floral species, probably California golden poppies. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, heads for another rosemary blossom at the Benicia Marina. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Peek-a-bee! The foraging bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, displays a little of its orange pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
New discovery shows promise for battling the Asian Citrus Psyllid.
Native to Asia, the Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina ciri, was first detected in the United States in June 1998 in Palm Beach County, Florida. Since then, ACP has invaded all other US citrus areas. It has been detected in 26 of California's 58 counties. Infected psyllids can transmit the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, which causes the fatal citrus disease Huanglongbing (HLB). HLB is currently the most devastating threat to the worldwide citrus industry. A citrus tree infected with HLB may not exhibit any symptoms for two years, and will usually die within five years. UC ANR IPM states that there is no known cure. “The only way to protect trees is to prevent spread of the HLB pathogen in the first place, by controlling psyllid populations and removing and destroying any infected trees.”
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has set up extensive monitoring and quarantine programs to track and try to slow the spread of the insect and disease. Currently, both residential and commercial sites that have citrus are monitored by checking yellow sticky traps. Psyllid and leaf samples are being tested for the presence of HLB.
If ACP is detected in an area, farmers must resort to regular spray programs to try to control the ACP population. This practice negatively impacts efforts to have a citrus crop grown with IPM strategies that rely on beneficial insects. In a ground-breaking discovery encompassing six years of research, an international team of scientists led by UC Davis chemical ecologist Walter Leal announced they've identified the sex pheromone of ACP. This pheromone can be used to attract more ACP to sticky traps. “Having a [pheromone] lure to dramatically improve captures of this psyllid with the conventional sticky traps is a major progress toward [developing] integrated pest management [strategies],” said Professor Jose Robert Parra of the University of Sao Paulo. Read more.
Celebrating the New Year with Bumble Bees in Benicia
While folks from Alaska to Colorado to New York to Maine are shivering in freezing temperatures,...
A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, forages on New Year's Day, 2017, on jade at the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Check out the cream-colored pollen on this yellow-faced bumble bees, Bombus vosnesenskii, nectaring today (Jan. 1) on jade at the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bottoms up! A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, dips for nectar on a jade blossom in Benicia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)