Forests

Licensed pest management professionals: The Vertebrate Pest Council is hosting a seminar series this year in conjunction with new partner Target Specialty Products.

It is important for food-safety reasons to manage rats in school and community gardens. Rats and other wildlife can carry a number of diseases that can be deposited in the form of urine and feces on fruit, vegetables, and in the soil.

Rodenticides continue to come under scrutiny in California due to issues surrounding the potential for nontarget injury to wildlife and pets.

It may surprise you to learn that California is home to invasive wild pigs, also called feral hogs or wild boars. Wild pigs can be a major nuisance for farmers, ranchers, and others who live in more rural areas or near wildlands.

If you are puzzled by curling leaves on plants in your garden or landscape, you may need to do some detective work to figure out the cause. Curling leaves can be caused by many problems, including insect damage, disease, abiotic disorders, or even herbicides.

[From the Spring issue of the UC IPM Retail Nursery & Garden Center News] Most disorders impacting landscape trees result from abiotic (non-living) disorders rather than attacks from biotic (living) pests like plant pathogens, insects, and vertebrates.

Finding freshly dug mounds of soil in the garden, lawn, or landscape might be a sign of gophers or moles. Their mounds look similar and are frequently confused for each other. Figure 1 shows a mole mound, which usually is volano-shaped with a circular margin.

California ground squirrels are common throughout much of California and may be found living near homes, structures, gardens, and landscapes where they can be a real nuisance.

Peach leaf curl is a disease that affects peach and nectarine trees. Although you may not see symptoms right now in the dormant season in California, it's time to think about treatment, especially if your tree had the disease last year.

[From the Winter 2017 issue of the UC IPM Green Bulletin] Rodenticides are essential tools in the IPM toolbox for rodent management.