Backyard Orchard News
Africanized Bees: How Far North?
Africanized honey bees arrived in southern California in 1994 and are expanding north. How far...
Collection of Africanized bee swarms can be an issue. These bees are European honey bees (not Africanized) that swarmed on the UC Davis North Hall/Dutton Hall complex in 2012. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Scientists are studying feral colonies for Africanized bee expansion. This photo was taken in 2011 in a Vacaville backyard; the European honey bee colony was a joy to the homeowner until its collapse. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bumble Bees: Why They Thrive and Die
Remember the massive "buzz kill" in Wilsonville, Oregon back in June 2013 when more than 50,000...
A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, exits a foxglove in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A black-faced bumble bee, Bombus californicus, adjusting a heavy pollen load, visits "Purple Ginny" sage in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Kearney was the site for an apiary inspector’s training on May 9, 2016.
Shannon Mueller, county director and agronomy farm advisor in UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Fresno County and Madera County, and Karen Francone, Environmental Program Manager, California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR), teamed up to provide an apiary inspectors' training at Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center. According to the 2012-2014 CDPR progress report, “Bee health and protection is a state, national, and worldwide issue”.
In the meeting room, there were many examples of equipment, hive problems and diagnostic techniques available for viewing. The meeting room agenda included honey bee africanization; safety considerations during hive inspection; apiary pests and diseases; beekeeper pesticide usage; “toxic to Bees” label interpretations and managed pollinator protection plans; and an overview of bee incidence response.
Attendees also got the opportunity to go into the field for a smoker demonstration and hive visitation/colony strength evaluation and incident scenarios.
The overarching theme was to train the apiary inspectors so that CDPR, the County Ag Commissioners, UCCE, and beekeepers can continue to work together in finding strategies and technologies to help reduce bee colony deaths. The same training was delivered in Modesto the following week.
Red Admiral Challenging 'Gender Norms'
Think back to the first time you spotted a Red Admiral butterfly. You probably admired it and said...
A Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) forages on Jupiter's Beard. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Red Admiral butterfly hesitantly spreads its wings. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Kearney hosted a workshop on leaffooted bug monitoring, damage to tree nut crops, and management strategies.
On May 10, 2016, Kearney researchers, Kris Tollerup, UC ANR cooperative extension advisor at Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, specializing in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for almond, pistachio, tree fruit and grape crops; and Themis Michailides, UC ANR plant pathologist and lecturer in Plant Pathology at UC Davis and Kearney Agricultural Research & Extension Center, conducted a workshop to help attendees learn more about leaffooted bug monitoring, damage, management, and its involvement in spreading Bot of pistachio and other diseases on pistachio and almond.
Tollerup discussed the different Hemipteran pests (leaffooted bugs and stink bugs). A PowerPoint handout was provided. The handout covered what the bugs look like; the stages of the bugs' growth; diagnostics for identification; the host crops; overwintering, what the damage to almonds and pistachios looks like; when the damage occurs; what we know, and what we need to know.
In the field, Michailides showed how the insect damage can lead to an increased incidence of pathogenic infections. Field research by Michailides and Dave Morgan has shown that there is an “association of Botryosphaeria panicle and shoot blight of pistachio with injuries of fruit caused by Hemiptera insects and birds.”
Michailides concluded that the disease in almonds caused by insect damage “is a new disease of almond and it is very similar to the stigmatomycosis reported on pistachio.” Early insect damage can result in the nuts dropping from the tree and later damage can render part of the crop unmarketable due to decay and black spots on the kernels.
The photograph shows: Infection of pistachio fruit by Neofusicoccum mediterraneum (initially identified as Botryosphaeria dothidea, thus the name Bot of pistachio disease) initiated from insect-punctured fruit and spread into the main rachis of the cluster [A and B; note a leaffooted bug (Leptoglossus clypealis) on the rachis of pistachio cluster in B]; C, fruit infected by the pathogen and covered with pycnidia surrounding the sap exuded from the insect's injury; D, fruit infections initiated from injuries caused by birds and spread into the main rachis of clusters.