Backyard Orchard News
A Gathering of Beekeepers
It will be a gathering of beekeepers next week in California. And it promises to be informative,...
Bee scientist Brian Johnson of the UC Davis Department of Entomology in front of an observation hive. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology spends much of his day talking about bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What They Did Is Amazing!
If you like Pokémon, you know the insect connection. Satoshi Tajiri of Japan, who developed...
They did it! From left are Andrew Richards, Ivana Li and Matan Shelomi. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Walking the Line
Some folks like to watch the grass grow, flowers bloom, or clouds drift. Others just like to sit...
Seven-spotted lady beetle on a California fuchsia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Lady beetle searching for some tasty aphids. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Lady beetle pauses on mid-stem. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
As the Worm Turns
There it was. A green caterpillar, aka larva, aka worm, occupied a blanket flower (Gaillardia)...
Buddies? A honey bee edges toward a Noctuid caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
If two is company, is three a crowd? Painted Lady, honey bee and Noctuid caterpillar on blanket flower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Pistachio crop threatened by fungus
Reporter Alice Daniel interviewed Kearney-based UC Davis plant pathologist Themis Michailides, who led the team that discovered how to expose pistachio trees to spores of a beneficial fungus that displaces the fungi that produce aflatoxin.
Though the story was broadcast this morning, it can still be heard on The California Report website and is embedded below:
For more information on the beneficial fungus, AF-36, which was used for the first time in commercial pistachio orchards this past summer, read Pistachio farmers enlist a beneficial fungus to battle aflatoxin.