Insects and Pest Management
ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Arizona Cooperative Extension is an outreach arm of The University of Arizona and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). The repository collection includes current and historical Extension publications on these topics: Animal Systems; Consumer Education; Farm Management and Safety; Food Safety, Nutrition and Health; Gardening/Home Horticulture; Insects and Pest Management; Marketing and Retailing; Natural Resources and Environment; Plant Diseases; Plant Production/Crops; Water; and Youth and Family. Current publications are also available from the Cooperative Extension Publications website.
QUESTIONS?
Contact College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Publications at pubs@cals.arizona.edu.
Recent Submissions
-
Utilizando plantas nativas para controlar el zacate buffelIntegrar la restauración activa en un plan de tratamiento de especies invasoras mediante la siembra o plantación de especies nativas que puedan suprimir competitivamente a un invasor puede ayudar a mejorar los resultados del manejo de malezas. Esto ocurre porque las plantas nativas pueden tener rasgos (métodos de acceso a recursos) que se superponen con los invasores, restringiendo a estos últimos de aprovechar recursos como la luz y el espacio. Sin embargo, la eficacia de este enfoque suele estar modificada por la disponibilidad de agua. Esto se debe a que las plantas pueden responder a cambios en la disponibilidad de agua modificando rasgos, como la densidad y tamaño de las raíces (biomasa), afectando posteriormente la magnitud en la que pueden competir con los invasores (Potts et al., 2019). Identificar rasgos de especies nativas que sean competitivas contra especies invasoras en sistemas de tierras secas con disponibilidad variable de agua puede ayudar a mejorar los resultados del control de malezas.
-
The Brown Dog Tick and Epidemic Rocky Mountain spotted fever in Arizona and northwestern MexicoThe brown dog tick Rhipicephalus sanguineus, has a worldwide distribution and is found throughout the United States (US) and Mexico. This tick is driving epidemics of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) in Arizona and northwest Mexico. As the name suggests, the tick mainly takes blood meals from dogs, but it will also feed on humans and other mammals, and can carry serious disease causing pathogens. In the early 2000’s it was found to transmit Rickettsia rickettsii, (a gram-negative, intracellular, coccobacillus bacterium) that causes RMSF in Arizona. This was the first time this tick species has been associated with the disease in the US (Demma et al. 2005). Similar outbreaks occurred at the same time in Sonora and more recently in Baja California (Alvarez- Hernandez et al. 2017).
-
Arizona Specialty HoneysBeekeepers in Arizona are lucky to live in a state where the growing season is long and there is something in bloom almost all year long. Many beekeepers choose to have one apiary location and harvest ‘wildflower’ honey once a year ($2.18 per pound)i. Other beekeepers choose to move their hives according to what is blooming and harvest specialty monofloral honeys ($12 to $18 per pound) from each nectar flow. With a little planning and cooperation with landowners or farmers, they can produce much more honey per hive as well as charge more per pound for their honey produced. To get truly monofloral honey the hive must be placed where there is an abundance of one floral resource, and not much else. Bees tend to focus on the type of nectar that is most abundant and easily available, so they cooperate with this type of management. Honeybees will fly up to 3 miles to find nectar and pollen, but they love efficiency, so placing them in the middle of, or at the edge of a large crop will ensure the best results. Pollination by bees can increase fruit set and quality as well as seed set by up to 70% in some crops! Best pollination occurs when there is at least one robust hive per acre.
-
Common Household Flies and Prevention TipsSuccessfully managing flies in human living spaces requires putting prevention at the forefront.
-
Honeybee Series: Fall and Winter Management of Honeybees in ArizonaIf you have taken good care of your bees through the summer, and cooler Fall temperatures are now here, you have a new focus for success in the Fall. Usually, your hives are all equal strength, Varroa mite numbers are low, and the honey harvest is over so all honey supers should have been pulled off the hives as well as queen excluders. Now is the time to allow your bees to fill the two bottom brood boxes with honey and bee bread in preparation for winter survival, as well as raise fat bees that are better suited to live longer during the winter months.
-
Honeybee Series: Feeding Your BeesYes, bees have survived for thousands of years without human intervention, but for the Beekeeper who wants to be successful raising bees, sometimes your bees will need supplemental feed. Maybe you have your hives located where there aren’t enough floral resources available year-round to sustain the colony. Maybe the weather is too cold, wet or windy for a long time and colony resources are depleted. Maybe you’ve just installed a swarm into a new hive. All of these instances are good reasons to supplement the naturally available floral resources with feed.
-
Honeybee Series: Getting ready for your first HiveEvery beekeeper should make a goal to have both healthy and productive hives. The most important step to achieve this goal is lifelong learning. Research is ongoing and constantly updating the current best practices, so the successful beekeeper needs to develop connections to keep up to date with the latest and greatest discoveries, and how they affect your existing practices. Join a local beekeeping club, subscribe to a beekeeping journal, or follow your local beekeeping organization on social media.
-
Honeybee Series: Harvesting Honey in ArizonaFor new beekeepers starting out, the investment in an extractor can be over your budget. For this reason, it is a great idea to be a member of your local Beekeeper club where they often let members borrow the club extractor. You can also find other beekeepers that live close to you that will allow you to come borrow their extracting equipment. Good extractors can make quick work out of the harvesting task. If you are going to harvest several times a year to produce specialty monofloral honeys, you should consider purchasing your own extractor and setting up a honey kitchen.
-
Honeybee Series: Honeybee Basic BiologyWhile there are 20,000 species of bees in the world, only 7 to 10 produce honey. Most of these species are solitary bees. Of those 7 to 10 that produce honey, only a few produce more honey than they need for their colony. Apis mellifera is the most common of the domesticated species which is used around the world for honey production and pollination services. Within this species there are several races. Each race has traits that make them better suited to different situations.
-
Honeybee Series: Honeybee Pollination in ArizonaPollination is the process of sexual propagation by angiosperms which involves combining the male pollen with the female ovule and intermixing the genes to create offspring. Flowers can have male parts, female parts or most common, both. The male part of the flower is called the anther, and on the tip of the stamen is where the pollen grains are produced. The female part of the flower is called the pistil and has the stigma and ovule (where the seeds are formed). Each species of plants has a unique form and shape of pollen, and only compatible pollen can successfully pollinate the flower. The transfer of pollen grain from the stamen to the pistil and eventually the ovule is pollination. Flowers are what develop into fruits and vegetables for our food supply and give us seed to grow more plants. This important work is carried on by many insects, but the honeybee is exceptional because of their willingness to pollinate so many types of flowers, and our ability to manage their colonies and move them to the location of where we need pollination to occur.
-
Honeybee Series: Inside the ColonyEach member of the honeybee colony has specific duties they perform in the hive. The queen is mainly to lay eggs and the drones are specifically to mate with a virgin queen of another hive. The workers do all the rest of the labor needed to keep the hive functioning. Generally, inside bees are younger and outside bees are older. They can perform any of the roles needed in an emergency, but they generally follow a progression of duties. This progression can be interrupted by the queen not laying, so nurse bees would not be necessary, or as in the case of a swarm, all bees turn to foraging or making honeycomb to build a new hive. If all the young worker bees were killed, the foragers could reactivate their food glands and wax glands. If all the foragers were killed, the young bees could learn to become foragers in a short time.
-
Honeybee Series: Working the HiveOnce you have installed a package, nuc, or swarm into your hive box, you will need to inspect them on a regular basis. Every time you open the hive you should already have a purpose and goal in mind for that inspection. You should also make sure to have all the necessary equipment and supplies you will need to achieve your goal. That doesn’t mean that things won’t change once you start your inspection but having a clear purpose will help you keep your time in the hive to a minimum. As you start your inspection or task move slowly and carefully trying not to roll or crush bees. Only do inspections when it is warmer than 55˚F outside. In the low desert of Arizona, bees can be worked most of the year. In higher elevations you will want to stay out of the hives when temperatures drop below 55 degrees F.
-
Honeybee Series: Spring and Summer Management of HoneybeesFor successful Spring management of your honeybee colony, there had to be successful Fall and Winter management as each affects the other. Springtime for honeybees begins much earlier than we might think it does, especially in the low desert of Arizona.
-
Managing PigeonsPigeons, more accurately named rock doves (Columbalivia), are common in cities and towns around the world. The birds thrive alongside humans as we provide them with a plentiful supply of food and nesting locations. Humans have domesticated the birds for thousands of years using them to carry messages between communities. Pigeons have been used by military forces as messenger and surveillance birds. Humans have, and still do, utilize the birds as a human food source, as racing birds, fancy birds selected for size, shape, color, and behavior, and as cherished pets.
-
Plants for Pollinators in the low desert of ArizonaPollinators depend upon floral resources for their pollen and nectar. Nectar provides pollinators energy while pollen provides them proteins, nutrients, and lipids. Some pollinators depend upon one specific type of plant for their food or habitat, but most are generalists who thrive with a wide variety of plants to feed from. The goal is to have pollinator plants blooming at all times of the year. (Carroll, 2017) This is especially true for beekeepers who need to provide forage to keep their bees healthy. By providing floral resources in close proximity to apiaries the bees will be able to find nectar and pollen to maintain the health of the hive with little or no supplemental feeding by the beekeeper necessary. (Watkins de Jong, 2019)
-
What You Should Know About Kissing BugsKissing bugs are large, dark brown or black true bugs, belonging in the insect Order Hemiptera. Some species have patterns and markings on their abdomen, which vary by species. As adults they range in size from 0.5 to over 1 inch (13.0 to 33.0 mm) in length. Kissing bugs get their name because these insects often bite people while they are sleeping, and often bite around the mouth or on the face. They are also known as triatomine bugs, conenose bugs, and Hualapai (or Wallapai) tigers. Although kissing bugs are in the same insect order as bed bugs and both feed on blood, they have different life histories.
-
Asian Longhorned Tick, an Invasive Tick in the United StatesThe Asian longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis, is also known as the cattle tick or bush tick. It is native to East Asia: China, Korea, Japan, and well established in Australia and New Zealand. It is also an invasive tick species in the United States (U.S.). This tick is a serious pest of livestock and wildlife in several countries (Heath 2016, Guan et al. 2010). If the Asian longhorned tick becomes established in Arizona, it could become a serious threat to livestock, wildlife, and pets.
-
Arizona Kissing Bugs: For Pest Management and Extension ProfessionalsKissing bugs are true bugs in the insect Order Hemiptera, in the Family Reduviidae. Reduviids as a family, are sometimes called assassin bugs because most members of this family are predators of other arthropods and are in fact beneficial to humans. Kissing bugs are an exception, and are blood-feeding parasites that feed on a wide variety of domestic, wild animals, and occasionally humans. Kissing bugs are also known as conenose bugs, Triatomine bugs, Mexican bed bugs, and Wallapai tigers. Kissing bugs get their name because they often bite sleeping human victims on the face. Although kissing bugs are in the same insect order as bed bugs and both feed on blood, they have different life histories.