Backyard Orchard News
Little Bug, Big Problem
They're tiny--about 1/5 of an inch long. They feed at night and hide during the day.There's a good...
Bed bug, Cimex lectularius, shown here ingesting a blood meal from the arm of a “voluntary” human host, is wreaking havoc locally, nationally and globally. (Photo by Piotr Naskrecki, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the Wikipedia website.)
This bed bug drew a lot of attention at a UC Davis Department of Entomology display during the campuswide Picnic Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Walt Bentley honored with international award
A group of world IPM leaders presented UC Cooperative Extension integrated pest management advisor Walt Bentley with its Lifetime Achievement Award at the 7th International IPM Symposium March 27 in Memphis, Tenn. Bentley also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Applied IPM Ecologists in February.
Professionals and academics in the field of integrated pest management convene the international symposium annually to bring together the scientists and people who practice IPM every day in agriculture, natural areas and community settings to collaborate and develop collective strategies. Some of the modern IPM challenges the group addresses are herbicide resistance, bed bugs and invasive species. For more than 20 years, these experts in pest management have selected champions in their field to receive awards of excellence.
Bentley began his UC career in 1977 as a UC IPM entomologist focusing on pest problems in almonds, grapes and stone fruit. Since that time, he has been committed to three major goals as part of the UC Statewide IPM Program:
- Coordinate with others
- Do research that meets the needs of farmers
- Develop relevant outreach
Bentley and a team of UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists and collaborating farmers developed IPM approaches and alternative control strategies that successfully reduce the use of the highest risk insecticides (carbamates and organophosphates) in California by 80 to 90 percent in almonds, table grapes and tree fruit. This reduction helps the environment and the producers.
Walt Bentley (center) diagnoses a program on a young almond tree on a Madera County farm Two pest control advisers look on.
Tri-National Meeting on Huanglongbing/Asian Citrus Psyllid in Visalia
Several times a year, researchers from Belize, Mexico and the US meet to discuss research and management progress on huanglongbing (HLB) disease of citrus and its vector Asian citrus psyllid (ACP). This week they met in Visalia. I came away from the meeting with several observations. When HLB appears in a new region it spreads very fast when vectored by psyllids (a few years to move across Mexico to some of their major producing areas). Research in Florida continues to demonstrate that infected-tree removal and psyllid suppression with insecticides slows the spread and severity of the disease. When HLB appears and growers hesitate to act quickly and aggressively spread continues rapidly. This is because HLB can be spread by psyllids for 6 months before it is detected in citrus trees by PCR and even longer before symptoms appear in trees. Therefore, negative PCR results do not mean the disease is not there. The take-home message for Californians is to test trees at frequent intervals in areas where HLB has been found and do everything possible to eradicate the disease as quickly as possible.
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Sunkist Fruit Sorting System Heads for Cal Poly Pomona
In the 1990s, the Citrus Research Board gifted a Sunkist electronic fruit grading system to...
Sunkist fruit sorter heads to Cal Poly Pomona
Is There a Doctor in the House?
Is there a doctor in the house? If you head over to the UC Davis Department of Entomology's...
Bug banner at Briggs beckons. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey as "Dr. Death." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Entomologist/principal editor Steve Dreistadt (red shirt) of UC IPM answers questions about insects. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)