May 1THE BUG MAN: Soft ScalesBy James A. Bethke, for Let’s Talk Plants! May 2022. Soft scale insects can be quite a pest in the landscape and garden in southern...
Mar 1THE BUG MAN: Sooty MoldSooty Mold By James A. Bethke, for Let's Talk Plants! March 2022. I gave a presentation a few years back at a community center, which was...
Nov 1, 2021THE BUG MAN: Serpentine LeafminersBy James A. Bethke, for Let's Talk Plants! November 2021. My first job in the University of California Riverside (UCR) Department of...
Jul 1, 2021THE BUG MAN: The Glassy-winged SharpshooterBy James A. Bethke. The glassy-winged sharpshooter (GWSS), Homalodisca vitripennis (Figure 1), is an insect that was inadvertently...
Apr 1, 2021THE BUG MAN: What are Ambrosia Beetles? Ambrosia beetles are a group of beetles in the bark beetle family, Scolytidae. However, there is some argument by taxonomists that the group
Feb 1, 2021THE BUG MAN: Mosquito Eaters Every spring I get calls and emails from people about the great mosquito eaters that are showing up at their lights, windows and doors at ni
Dec 1, 2020THE BUG MAN: What is a Piercing Sucking Insect? In the last article (you can read it here), I mentioned that true bugs have piercing sucking mouth parts. I thought it would be a good idea
Oct 1, 2020THE BUG MAN: One Bug, Two Bug, Red Bug, Blue Bug In the fall, a common call I receive from friends and neighbors concerns masses of bright red bugs on trees, shed walls or front porches. I’
Jun 1, 2020THE BUG MAN: Born Pregnant - AphidsMany of the insecticide trials that I performed at the University of California Riverside were against aphids, which are one of the most com
Apr 1, 2020THE BUG MAN: Jumping Spiders - One of the Good GuysWhen I was a teenager, I collected a whole bunch of very small jumping spiders into small, clear, plastic containers and watched them for ho
Jan 1, 2020THE BUG MAN: Common True Katydid.While working to fix an irrigation line in my yard I noticed that one of my window screens was slightly damaged. Upon closer inspection, I n
Oct 1, 2019THE BUG MAN: No Way! Blue Centipedes?For all my life I knew an awful lot about bugs and other creepy crawlies, so I was confident when a Master Gardener said she had blue centip
Aug 23, 2019The Formidable, and Misnamed, Potato BugThis is the first in a series of articles about the insect creatures in our gardens from entomologist James Bethke, well-known for his...
Jul 8, 2019THE BUG MAN: The Formidable, and Misnamed, Potato BugBy James A. Bethke. This is the first in a series of articles about the insect creatures in our gardens from entomologist James Bethke,...