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Blubaugh Lab manager Katherine Hagan and master’s student Allison Stawara scout squash for various beneficial and pest insects as part of a living mulch study at the Durham Horticulture Research Farm in Watkinsville, Georgia. CAES News
Organic Pest Control
The hot, humid climate in the Southeast lends itself to nearly year-round insect, weed and disease pressure, and growing is especially tough if you’re an organic farmer.
UGA Weather Network Director Pam Knox checks one of the data-logger boxes maintained by the network. All of the observational instruments connect to the data-logger, which collects and transmits weather data at 15-minute intervals, which is then disseminated through the UGA Weather Network website. CAES News
UGA Weather Network
On June 1, 1991, the first agricultural weather station operated by the University of Georgia began transmitting data from Griffin, Georgia. Since then, the UGA Weather Network has grown to include 87 stations scattered across the state, providing weather data to a variety of users. On June 1 this year, this 30-year record of continuous weather data makes the UGA Weather Network one of the oldest state weather networks in the country.
In the sculptured resin bee (left), females have a pointed abdomen, while the males have a blunt edge. Both males and females have a striated abdomen with raised bands. The thorax and abdomen of the carpenter bee (right) are connected, bald and smooth. CAES News
Sculptured Resin Bees
University of Georgia entomologists are seeking citizen help to document the presence of the sculptured resin bee — also known as the giant resin bee — an invasive bee that could threaten the native carpenter bee population.
Most of the U.S. was warmer, and the eastern two-thirds of the contiguous U.S. was wetter, from 1991–2020 than the previous normals period, 1981–2010. With 20 years of overlap between the current normals and the previous iteration (1991–2010), annual changes between these two data sets were somewhat muted compared to trends over the same period. Monthly and seasonal changes are more dynamic. For example, the current normals for the northern-central U.S. are cooler in the spring, while much of the Southeast is now warmer in October, cooler in November and warmer again in December. Atmospheric circulation dynamics and surface feedbacks result in substantial differences from month to month and region to region. CAES News
New Normals
Day-to-day swings in temperature are an accepted part of the weather in many areas around the country. However, when 30-year averages of daily temperature fluctuations from thousands of stations around the country indicate a steady change in average temperatures over time, there are tangible implications for agriculture, energy consumption and many other aspects of daily life.
A brood of decades-old 17-year cicadas that have been perfectly preserved. CAES News
Brood X
It has been 17 years since a set of billions of periodical cicadas emerged from their underground chambers and filled the air with boisterous buzzing and desperate mating calls.
Boxwood blight symptoms clockwise from upper left: tan to gray leaf lesions with a darker purplish border on an English boxwood; circular, tan spots with a brown border on upper leaves; tan blighted leaves and bare stems on an infected plant; blackening of stems and browning foliage; and black stem lesions on bare branch tips. (photos by Jean Williams-Woodward) CAES News
Landscape Plant Diseases
If you're seeing brown areas in your landscape trees or hedges where you should be seeing green, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension can help. Wet winters and severe weather have been causing disease and other issues in landscape plants, especially Leyland cypress and boxwood.
A skipper butterfly at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia. (photo by Olivia Smith/UGA) CAES News
Butterfly Abundance
Climate is likely the biggest driver of butterfly abundance change, according to a new study by University of Georgia entomologists.
Camden County Agriculture and Natural Resources agent Jessica Warren (pictured) worked with Martin Wunderly, area water agent for UGA Extension’s Northeast District, to develop the Georgia Green Landscape Stewards curriculum. CAES News
Green Landscapes
For some residents, a pristinely manicured lawn free of weeds and undisturbed by insects is the ultimate goal. However, a new program from University of Georgia Cooperative Extension encourages creating a more natural landscape that reduces chemical use and incorporates native plants to promote biodiversity and protect the environment.
Critical pesticide application training for pest control professionals and producers will go online for 2020. CAES News
Pesticide trainings stay virtual
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension and the Georgia Department of Agriculture are partnering to offer the Using Pesticides Wisely training program in a virtual format again this year.