Pierce's disease continues to trouble California grape growers. Several sharpshooter vectors are known to spread the disease. Vine removal is key part of overall management strategy. Given what researchers know about Pierce’s disease (PD) they continue to chase clearer answers into cause and effect of the bacterial disease. Matt Daugherty, Cooperative Extension specialist in the...
The South American palm weevil has made its way up to Southern California and that's a big problem. According to Mark Hoddle, an entomologist at UC Riverside and the director of the Center for Invasive Species Research, they spread efficiently, are difficult to catch and they destroy palm trees from the inside out. All of...
Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Sign up .) South American palm weevils, the button-size beetles, have breached the Southern California border, and they’re hungry. That spells trouble for their favorite meal, the Canary Island date palms that have been one of the region’s most enduring symbols. The weevil larvae feast on...
We kick off the second season of NHPR's newest show, Outside/In, with a discussion of biological control: using non-native species to combat destructive invasive pests and plants that are decimating a local species. It's the focus of the Outside/In episode titled "Never Bring a Sledgehammer to a Scalpel Fight." This approach to managing invasive species...
Ring Cardé, a distinguished professor of entomology and the Alfred M. Boyce chair in Entomology, was one of three scientists who received a Certificate of Distinction for Outstanding Achievements at the XXV Congress of Entomology the last week of September in Orlando. At the event, he delivered a lecture called “Finding source of wind-borne odor...
DALTON HIGHWAY, Alaska — “To bees , time is honey. ” — Bernd Heinrich, “ Bumblebee Economics ” One hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle, by the side of a dusty road, two women in anti-mosquito head nets peer at a queen bumblebee buzzing furiously in a plastic tube. “I think it’s the biggest...
A team of scientists has found that a species of ant that clusters together to form rafts to survive floods exhibits memory and repeatedly occupies the same position during raft formation, according to a just published paper. The research shows that, like humans, ants work together to enhance their response to emergency situations with different...
Entomologists review pros, cons and regulatory issues surrounding new technology that could help halt the spread of diseases such as Zika virus, dengue fever and malaria RIVERSIDE, Calif. ( www.ucr.edu ) — Engineered gene drives, which have the potential to spread desirable genes throughout wild populations or to suppress harmful species, have received a lot...
Timothy Paine received the award for his innovative teaching methods and service to students RIVERSIDE, Calif. ( www.ucr.edu ) — A University of California, Riverside professor of entomology has received an award for innovative teaching methods and service to students from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), U.S. Department of Agriculture and the...
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – For various reasons, wild pollinators are in decline across many parts of the world. To combat this, managed honey bees and bumblebees are frequently shipped in to provide valuable pollination services to crops. But does this practice pose any risk to the wild bees? An entomologist at the University of California, Riverside...
Conventional “free diffusion” model of steroid hormone release should be revisited, notes UC Riverside-led study; research could have health and agricultural benefits RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Steroid hormones – hormones such as testosterone and estradiol – control various aspects of animal biology and are crucial for the proper functioning of the body. Produced and secreted by...
By Richard Levine, Entomological Society of America RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Researchers at the University of California, Riverside might have found a breakthrough in the spider-control field. In a paper published in the Journal of Economic Entomology the researchers wrote that oil-based pesticides are more effective than water-based pesticides at killing the contents of brown widow...
By eliminating the queen, a matricidal worker frees the way for workers to lay male eggs, explains UC Riverside’s Kevin Loope RIVERSIDE, Calif. – One day a few years ago, while working on wasps in a rainforest in Costa Rica, entomologist Kevin J. Loope, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Riverside, began reading...
Six graduate students in the Department of Entomology have received Robert van den Bosch Scholarships offered by the Center for Biological Control at UC Berkeley. The scholarships, which range from $5,000 to $20,000, may be used for graduate student salary, tuition and fees, laboratory help, supplies or travel for research. The six students are: Erich...
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Despite their beauty, flowers can pose a grave danger to bees by providing a platform of parasites to visiting bees, a team of researchers has determined. “Flowers are hotspots for parasite spread between and within pollinator populations,” said Peter Graystock , a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Entomology at the University...
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The Entomology Research Museum at the University of California, Riverside today announced the discovery of a new species of firefly from Southern California, collected by an undergraduate student as part of his semester’s insect collection. Doug Yanega, senior museum scientist, said the student, Joshua Oliva, obtained one specimen of the new species...
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Cockroaches are scientifically interesting to study. A primitive yet highly diverse group of insects, they live in a wide range of habitats—such as temperate habitats, tropical habitats, deserts, in the nests of birds and social insects, sewers and dumpsites—and exhibit a variety of reproductive strategies. They are also major pests. They can...
UC Riverside research shows house-dwelling mosquitoes require minute changes in concentrations of exhaled carbon dioxide to trigger landing on human skin RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Females of the malaria-spreading mosquito tend to obtain their blood meals within human dwellings. Indeed, this mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, spends much of its adult life indoors where it is constantly exposed...
UC Riverside research could lead to innovative strategies for controlling mosquito populations RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes have contributed to the death and suffering of millions throughout human history, earning the mosquito the title as the world’s most dangerous animal. Even today, several devastating mosquito-borne diseases (such as malaria, dengue fever and West...
