Invasive Species

It's time for UC IPM's annual insect Easter egg hunt! Can you guess which insects laid the eggs pictured below? Some may be pests, while others may be beneficial. Leave a comment on this blog post with your guesses, or on our Facebook and Instagram posts. Answers will be posted on Monday, April 1st.

The invasive pest spotlight focuses on emerging or potential invasive pests in California. In this issue we are covering the Oriental fruit fly. The Oriental fruit fly (OFF) is an invasive pest that attacks over 230 crops including citrus and other fruits, nuts, vegetables, and berries.

Seven invasive fruit fly quarantines are in place throughout California. If you live within one of these quarantine zones, fruits and vegetables should not be moved off the property they were grown on.

Subterranean termites (Family Rhinotermitidae) are considered the most serious wood-destroying pests in the world, causing an estimated $32 billion in global economic impact each year. California is home to both native and introduced subterranean termite species (Figure 1).

Residents in multiple Southern California and Northern California counties should not move homegrown fruits and vegetables from their properties to help contain several species of fruit fly that can destroy crops and impact the livelihoods of local farmers.

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.

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.

Wildfires are part of California's ecosystems, and they do not have to lead to the destruction of structures and livelihoods. Each of us can contribute to improving wildfire resilience, from individual homeowners and businesses to entire communities.

The Invasive Pest Spotlight focuses on relevant or emerging invasive species in California. In this issue we are covering brooms, a group of invasive shrubs. Invasive Broom facts Brooms are upright shrubs in the legume family that typically produce small, yellow, pea-shaped flowers.

They may seem too tiny to do much damage to a mature, healthy tree, but invasive shothole borers (ISHB) are responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of trees in Southern California. These beetles bore into trees and infect them with Fusarium dieback, a fungal disease that kills the trees.