Are you considering fumigating your soil soon? California regulations are changing and there are some things growers should know about, and consider getting involved in the conversation. Watch this brief interview with Gabriele Ludwig from the Almond Board of California for more information.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Suterra for their industry support.
USDA-NIFA’s Emergency Citrus Disease Research & Extension (ECDRE) program brings the nation’s top scientists together with citrus industry representatives to find scientifically sound solutions that combat and prevent citrus greening (HLB) at the farm-level. For the first time in the program’s history, NIFA is supporting an HLB-focused Coordination Network (CN) Project led by an interdisciplinary team of scientists representing all three major citrus producing states. This CN project will benefit the US citrus by providing a much-needed synthesis of existing HLB research in an easily accessible online database as well as developing region specific decision support tools for citrus industry stakeholders, the HLB-research community, and research organization administrators.
Among the funded research includes virus-induced gene silencing at UC Davis using insect specific viruses to manipulate psyllid as a strategy to control HLB in citrus. Read about all the funded research projects HERE.
To ensure California citrus growers are well prepared in the event of a potential commercial grove detection of Huanglongbing (HLB), the deadly citrus plant disease that can be spread by the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), the Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Program (CPDPP) has developed a response guide for growers to utilize and educate themselves on the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) action plan.
The Response Guide for a Confirmed HLB Positive Detection in a Commercial Grove details the steps taken by CDFA and actions required of the property or grove owner, as outlined in CDFA’s Action Plan.
The actions in the response guide represent the most effective tools known to the citrus industry at this time and are meant to protect California’s citrus groves and support CDFA’s current required regulatory response. While, as of today, there have been no positive detections of HLB in a commercial citrus grove, the CPDPP recognizes the importance of proper preparation.
In addition to the requirements outlined in the guide, growers are encouraged to use as many methods as feasible for their operation in order to limit the spread of the ACP and HLB.
To read or download the response guide, please click HERE. If you have any questions or would like to order physical copies of this response guide, please visit our Resources page. — By the California Citrus Pest & Disease Prevention Program
Two newly developed, low-cost tests that use nanoparticles to detect chemicals can accurately measure tiny amounts of two potentially harmful herbicides in fruits, vegetables and their products.
Reporting in the journal Food Chemistry, a Washington State University research team used two testing methods to measure the levels of two herbicides, namely atrazine and acetochlor, in samples of apples, strawberries, cabbage, corn and fruit juices. The work shows the real-world viability of their easy-to-use and inexpensive methods of testing.
“We applied this technology for real sample detection – which is an important step in moving towards commercialization,” said Annie Du, research professor in WSU’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and the principle investigator of the project.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regularly tests a broad range of commodities for approximately 800 pesticide residues, and producers are required to keep the chemical residues on food below a certain level that is considered safe. The two herbicides the researchers measured are widely used in crop production in the U.S. At high exposures, they are potentially toxic for people and have been linked to a range of maladies from allergies to hormone disruption to cancer.
Doing the testing, however, currently requires sophisticated and expensive instruments as well as a trained technician.
“We want to come up with a low-cost method that can be used in the field or in the laboratory,” said Bernie Van Wie, corresponding author on the paper and a professor in WSU’s Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering.
In the past few years, the researchers have developed and patented their idea that uses nanoparticles of palladium and platinum to amplify the signal of molecules. The nanoparticles attach to an antibody, which recognizes the chemical, and then stimulate the production of a signal. The amplification allows the researchers to know that tiny amounts of the chemicals are present and at what level.
In this latest work, the researchers used the nanoparticles in two types of tests to measure two chemicals simultaneously. The chemicals were spiked into fruit and vegetable samples that were pureed in a blender.
One of the tests uses the palladium-platinum nanoparticles to catalyze a reaction that causes a color change in a sample when the herbicide is present. The test can be done using a small unit that can be carried into the field. The other test the researchers developed uses the nanoparticle in a low-cost paper strip that looks like a COVID-19 or pregnancy test and can be read with a smartphone reader.
The tests were sensitive enough to measure the chemicals down to the maximum acceptable levels and were validated using traditional testing methods.
“We’re actually able to detect below the maximum concentration limits. If there’s any pesticide or herbicide in the sample,” said Van Wie. “That’s good because while this can be done by other methods, this method is low-cost and portable in the field.”
Du has recently started a company that is negotiating with WSU’s Office of Commercialization to license the technology for additional applications. The work was supported by the USDA/National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program (grant number 2018-67021-27970). —
Vine mealybug has never been more widespread across the grape growing regions of California than it is now. Watch this video interview with Nathan Mercer from the Kent Daane Lab at UC Berkeley, who shares a more effective and collaborative way to control this pest in vineyards. Read more about vineyard pest management in American Vineyard Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Suterra for their industry support.
As grape growers strive to continue minimizing herbicide drift and residue on their vines/fruit, watch this brief video with Emeritus UCCE Weed Science Advisor John Roncoroni on best practices that can also save money on spray applications. Read more about it in American Vineyard Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Suterra for their industry support.
Viticulture and enology researchers from multiple universities have been feverishly working with the western wine grape industry to learn more about how wildfire smoke impacts developing wine grapes. The hope is to develop some form of industry standard threshold for smoke taint, so that wine grapes will not be rejected at the winery unless they have truly been compromised. Watch this brief video with Miguel Pedroza from the Viticulture & Enology Dept. at Fresno State to find what they are learning about this issue. Read more about it in American Vineyard Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Suterra for their industry support.
Watch this brief interview with UCCE Farm Advisor Brent Holtz as he talks about a new tool to fight the tree-killing phytophthora crown and root rot in almond, and be sure to read his monthly Almond Tasks column in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Suterra for their industry support.
Thirteen UC Davis scientists or former affiliates are among authors from eight countries who contributed to research articles for the Journal of Economic Entomology’s Special Collection: Research Advances in Spotted-Wing Drosophila suzukii Management.
The recently published Special Collection showcases 14 articles.
Native to Asia, the agricultural pest is a worldwide threat to the berry production industry, which includes raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and cherries. The tiny insect, about 1/12 to 1/8 inch long, invaded the continental United States in 2008.
“All of the papers were by invitation of the co-editors of the special collection—Jana Lee, Cesar Rodrigue-Saona, and me,” said journal editor-in-chief Frank Zalom, a UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus and recall professor in the Department of Entomology and Nematology. Zalom’s research includes the spotted-wing drosophila.
Lee, formerly with the UC Davis laboratory of the late chemical ecologist Steve Seybold, is a research entomologist with the Horticultural Crops Research Unit, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Corvallis. Rodriguez-Saona, who received his doctorate from UC Riverside, is an Extension entomologist with the Department of Entomology, Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey.
In addition to Zalom and Lee, the UC Davis-linked authors include Joanna Chiu and Antoine Abrieux (Joanna Chiu lab); Zain Syed and Kevin Cloonan (Walter Leal lab); Gregory Loeb (Rick Karban lab); and Kelly Hamby, Hannah Burrack, Fatemeh Ganjisaffar, Brian Gress, Nicole Nicola and Mark Demkovich (Zalom lab).
Overall, the Special Collection includes authors from Austria, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States that represent perspectives from universities, federal and state laboratories, growers, and pest product companies, according to the editors.
One paper, Spatio-temporal Variation of Spinosad Susceptibility in Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae), a Three-year Study in California’s Monterey Bay Region, is from the Zalom lab and includes co-author, molecular geneticist and physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology.
UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology communication specialist Kathy Keatley Garvey provided the cover photo of the spotted-wing drosophila feeding on a raspberry.
Since 2008, “D. suzukii has become a key economical pest of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and cherries in the United States and worldwide,” the editors wrote in their introductory remarks. “Not surprisingly, the number of publications has proliferated from 29 publications as of 2010 to 978 additional publications between 2011 and 2021 from a Web of Science search for ‘Drosophila suzukii.’ While many publications are available, this special collection will highlight advances in D. suzukii pest management since its U.S. invasion. We solicited papers by open call and received 66 abstracts, and selected 14 papers covering: 1) review, 2) monitoring and risk, 3) behavioral control, 4) biological control, 5) cultural control, and 6) chemical control.”
The collection is meant to serve “as a key reference point for entomologists across many institutions (e.g., academia, government, and industry) on important advances in D. suzukii pest management,” according to the Entomological Society of America. “The articles in this collection will also provide scientists information on potential research gaps that will help guide future research directions on this important pest. The goal is to preserve and catalog articles on various aspects of D. suzukii pest management, i.e., monitoring, cultural control, chemical control, behavioral control, and biological control, that will be shared among entomologists.”
They’re here and more are coming!
Be on the lookout for migratory Monarch butterflies from the Pacific Northwest heading south to their overwintering sites along the California coast.
It’s been a very good year for Monarchs in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), according to noted entomologist and Monarch researcher David James, an associate professor at Washington State University (WSU), Pullman.
“The numbers we are seeing in the PNW this summer are consistent with numbers I’ve seen in summers past when the overwintering population was approximately 250,000 as it was last winter,” he wrote in an email Aug. 31.
“I have been compiling all the PNW monarch reports I have come across this summer–as I have done for many summers in the past. These have been from iNaturalist, Journey North, various Monarch Facebook pages and personal communications I get many people telling me they’ve seen a monarch. I verify all reports, that is, they must have a photo, or I know the reporter is experienced.”
“Last summer (2021) I verified approximately 60 Monarch sightings in the PNW. This summer, I have had approximately 500 verified reports. “So, I think we have seen an 8-10 fold increase in Monarch numbers this summer in the PNW. The majority have been in Oregon, followed by Idaho, Washington and British Columbia. There are also positive reports of good numbers of Monarchs in Utah, Nevada and eastern California.”
“So the signs are there for a good migration back to California this fall,” James said. “The big question will be whether the migrants proceed normally to the overwintering sites or whether they do what they did in 2020, establish winter breeding populations in slightly inland places like San Francisco and Los Angeles. The determining factor will be the temperatures California experiences over the next six weeks. If average temperatures prevail, then the butterflies will go to the coastal overwintering sites and we will have–I think–spectacular numbers again…at least as high as last year and possibly much higher.”
“If September/October temperatures are way above average, then most of the population will become reproductive in the gardens and parks of LA and SF and in between. And people will think the population has crashed! (judging from overwintering site numbers).”
To track migratory Monarchs, citizen scientists in the David James’ research program affix a tag on the discal cell (underside of the hind wing). The tag does not interfere with its flight.
This year James handed out 2000 tags to citizen scientists in southern Oregon.
One of his citizen scientists, Steve Anderson of Ashland, Ore., tagged a male Monarch on Aug. 28, 2016 that stopped for nectar in our Vacaville pollinator garden on Sept. 5, 2016. The tag read “Monarch@wsu.edu A6093.” It hung around for five hours.
“So, assuming it didn’t travel much on the day you saw it, it flew 285 miles in 7 days or about 40.7 miles per day,” James told us back in 2016. “Pretty amazing. So, I doubt he broke his journey for much more than the five hours you watched him–he could be 100 miles further south by now.”
This year, to date, we have not seen a single Monarch in our pollinator garden. James estimates we will start seeing the first ones within the next few weeks. “Johnson has already had one of his tagged monarchs recovered, admittedly only a few miles away but it was heading south!”
Butterfly guru Art Shapiro, UC Davis distinguished professor of evolution and ecology, spotted four within half an hour in the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden on Aug. 26. One was a tattered male.
What to do if you see a WSU-tagged Monarch? Photograph it, if you can, and contact David James at david_james@wsu.edu or the PNW Facebook page, “Monarch Butterflies in the Pacific Northwest.”
Meanwhile, Monarch scientists, citizen scientists and Monarch enthusiasts are looking forward to the 2023 International Western Monarch Summit, set Friday through Sunday, Jan. 20-22 at Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo. Registration is now underway. It’s sponsored by Western Monarch Advocates (WMA), which relates its mission is “to serve as an overarching entity to encourage and facilitate communication and interaction of groups and individuals committed to restoring the western monarch butterfly population-regardless of their affiliation or location–in the hope that the shared knowledge will empower each of them to improve and better achieve restoration goals within their own respective affiliation or location.”
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) placed the migratory monarch butterfly on its Red List of threatened species on July 21, 2022, classifying it as endangered.
“In the 1990s, nearly 700 million monarchs made the epic flight each fall from the northern plains of the U.S. and Canada to sites in the oyamel fir forests north of Mexico City, and more than one million monarchs overwintered in forested groves on the California Coast,” according to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. “Now, researchers and citizen scientists estimate that only a fraction of the population remains, monarchs have declined by more than 80% since the 1990s from central Mexico, and by more than 99% since the 1980s in coastal California.”