Pests in the Urban Landscape

Ever heard of Bot canker? "Bot" stands for Botryosphaeria which is a plant disease that results in cankers of trees and other woody plants. This fungal disease can be worse under drought conditions when trees are stressed.

If you have eucalyptus trees, you might have noticed white, crusty growth on the leaves. Or maybe you saw a sticky, blackened mess of fallen leaves under a eucalyptus tree. These are signs of the redgum lerp psyllid, one of the most common psyllid pests that damages eucalyptus trees in California.

[Originally published in the Summer 2022 issue of the UC IPM Green Bulletin] The three-lined cockroach, Luridiblatta trivittata, (Figure 1) is the smallest cockroach species in California, with adults averaging only 57 mm in length.

When tiny tree-killing beetles first arrived in Southern California several years ago and began destroying urban and riparian forests, they raised widespread concerns among both tree experts and affected communities.

Pampasgrass and jubatagrass facts Pampasgrass (Cortaderia selloana) is a common ornamental landscape plant that readily naturalizes throughout California's coastal areas and some interior regions.