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UC Master Gardener Program News:
Pests in the Urban Landscape:
  • Figure 1. Poison hemlock flowers and leaves. Photo by Paige Filler, Flickr.
    Poisonous Plants in the Landscape

    Plentiful rainfall in California this spring created an ideal environment for many plants to thrive, including wildflowers, trees, and shrubs that desperately needed the water. However, other potentially harmful species also benefited from the unusually...


    By Lauren Fordyce
    Author - Urban and Community IPM Educator
  • Cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfectant products and microfiber towel. Photo by A. Katrina Hunter.
    Disinfectants and Sterilizers: The Lesser-known Pesticides

    Did you know that disinfectants and sterilizers are pesticides? Any substance that claims to kill, destroy, prevent, or repel a pest, including germs, is considered a pesticide. So cleaning products that claim to sterilize or kill germs on surfaces or...


    By Lauren Fordyce
    Author - Urban and Community IPM Educator
  • Figure 1. Adult dotted paropsine leaf beetle. Photo by Martin Lagerwey.
    Another Eucalyptus Pest: The Dotted Paropsine Leaf Beetle

    Eucalypt trees have become abundant in the California landscape, but so have the many invasive eucalypt pests that have arrived in California in the last couple decades. In the fall of 2022, yet another invasive pest was added to the hoard of...


    By Mackenzie Patton
    Author - Community Education Specialist
  • Figure 4. Coast live oak with limbs killed by the sudden oak death pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum, possibly spread from nearby infected California Bay laurel. Photo by Pavel Svihra.
    Sudden oak death: what is it?

    Sudden oak death (SOD) is a disease syndrome that has killed millions of native oak trees (Figure 1) along the west coast of the United States, from Big Sur in California up to Southern Oregon. The disease may involve several organisms, but its main...


    By Steven Swain
    Author - Environmental Horticulture Advisor
  • Cochineal scales on a prickly pear cactus. Photo by Lauren Fordyce, UC IPM.
    White After Labor Day?

    It may be after Labor Day, but some of your plants may still be wearing white, breaking that long-standing fashion “rule”! While many of us don't adhere to this old rule for our wardrobes these days, you may care about white stuff on your...


    By Lauren Fordyce
    Author - Urban and Community IPM Educator
  • Figure 1. Anthracnose symptoms on a sycamore leaf. Photo by Belinda Messenger-Sikes, UC IPM.
    Defoliated Sycamore Trees?

    Have you been seeing a lot of defoliated sycamore trees recently? Sparse foliage and early leaf drop on sycamore trees might be due to anthracnose. The cool, wet spring in many parts of California provided the perfect conditions for this disease....


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