The good, bad and ugly truths about LA tumbleweeds and their role in fires

LAIST.COM - It was Jan. 11 — the first Saturday after the two huge L.A. fires broke out. The city was thick with haze and smoke; ash was twirling in the air, and somehow, despite it all, our myth-making sunset still shone through. I was heading home to El Sereno that afternoon, made a turn...
By Fiona Ng | LAist.com |

Monitoring Argentine Ant populations

CA AG TODAY - The Argentine Ant is a problem in citrus orchards and vineyards mostly because it protects sap-sucking pests from natural predators. Entomologist Dr. Mark Hoddle and his team at UC Riverside have created a tool to help farmers more effectively manage these ants based on the fact that the like to move...
By Tim Hammerich | California Ag Today |

Long-distance palm weevil flyers threaten California date palms

ENTOMOLOGY TODAY - How long and how fast an invasive insect travels are important questions to determine the insect’s impact on plant (or animal) hosts. A new study by University of California, Riverside, researchers shows that Rhynchophorous palmarum, also known as the American or black palm weevil, can fly much further and faster than expected...
By Andrew Porterfield | Entomology Today |

Want to save your citrus trees? Start a full-fledged insect war

LOS ANGELES TIMES - Growing citrus is a dicey business these days in Southern California, and not at all recommended if you live within a two-mile radius of a tree infected with Huanglongbing disease — a.k.a. HLB or citrus greening disease. However, if you live outside a “red zone” and you’re willing to actively fight...
By Jeanette Marrantos | LA Times |
Colby Ostberg

Riverside hosts influential invasive plant conference for the first time

Riverside recently hosted the California Invasive Plant Council symposium for the first time in the history of the decades-old gathering. “Having the symposium here underscores UC Riverside’s long-standing and growing importance to the field of land management and invasive plant species research,” said event committee member Lynn Sweet, a plant ecologist at UCR’s Palm Desert...
By Jules Bernstein | Inside UCR | | Featured
cooked weevil larvae (c) Hoddle Lab / UCR

Eating Insects: Like Them Stir Fried or Curried?

UC Riverside's Mark Hoddle helps Canadian research team win the Hult Prize On Sept. 23, the Clinton Global Initiative awarded the Hult Prize, worth $1 million, to a team of student entrepreneurs at McGill University, Canada. Mark Hoddle, the director of the Center for Invasive Species Research at the University of California, Riverside, served as...
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