Backyard Orchard News
Degree Day Units are Finally Leveling Off
As the graph shows, degree day unit accumulations for California red scale were not quite as bad this year as the previous two years, but were still well above the 30 year average. Which explains why California red scale is so difficult to control lately - an extra generation! If we get prolonged cold this winter and average daily temperatures (max + min divided by two) stay below the scale's developmental threshold of 53oF, then two things will happen: 1) the scales will stop developing until the weather warms in March, and 2) younger instars will experience overwintering mortality, leaving mostly adult females and males. A synchronized scale population is easier to control with insecticides, because crawler emergence occurs over a short period of time in the spring and summer and crawlers are the easiest stage to kill with insecticides.
Targeting Cystic Fibrosis
A UC Davis entomologist who started his career studying insects--and is now focused on human...
UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock, whose research went from insects to human health, is shown here in his office in Briggs Hall. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis researchers Jun Yang (left) and Christophe Morisseau of the Hammock lab. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Marek Borowiec's Awesome Social Insects Award
Marek Borowiec, who attributes his interest in ants to E.O. Wilson's autobiography "Naturalist,"...
Ant specialist Marek Borowiec collecting ants at the summit of Mt Marojejy in northern Madagascar. (Photo by Kimiora Ward)
Please Pass the Chocolate Chirp Cookies
Bugs: they're what's for dinner! Well, at some dinners. In. Many. Parts. Of. The....
Chocolate Chirp Cookies, the work of Heather Baker, UC Davis graduate student studying malaria mosquitoes. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology cookie social! From left: account manager Guyla Yoak, contest coordinator; and winners Elvia Mayes, account manager; Steve Nadler, professor and chair of the department; Heather Baker, graduate student/mosquito researcher of the Shirley Luckhart lab; Stacey Rice, junior specialist of the Larry Godfrey lab; and Mimi Portilla, graduate student/mosquito researcher of the Sharon Lawler lab. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bees, We Can't Get Enough of Them!
The joy of the season strikes a chord. When bees slip out of their California hives during winter...
Honey bee cleans her tongue in flight as she heads for another mallow blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
"Save some for me!" A honey bee buzzes upward toward a mallow blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
"Two can share, right?" Honey bees jockey for position--and pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
"Okay, let's share!" Two honey bees eye one another. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)