Category: Pests & Disease

De favoritas del jardín a amenazas ecológicas: por qué debemos replantearnos lo que plantamos?

by Sara MacDonald
August 1, 2025

No todas las plantas atractivas pertenecen al paisaje de Florida. Dos especies ornamentales comunes, Asclepias curassavica, conocida comúnmente como algodoncillo tropical o venenillo, y Tradescantia zebrina, también llamada planta cebra o ... READ MORE

Category: Agriculture, , Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Horticulture, Invasive Species, Natural Resources, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS Extension
Tags: Especies Invasoras, FISC, Florida Friendly Landscape, Mariposas, OE, Pollinators

¡Ayuda a combatir la enredadera invasora “papa voladora” en el condado de St. Lucie!

by Sara MacDonald
July 31, 2025

Ya llegó esa época del año en que la papa voladora comienza a brotar, y muchas personas se preguntan: ¿cómo podemos deshacernos de ella? ¿Qué es la papa voladora? La papa voladora (Dioscorea bulbifera) es una planta trepadora invasora ... READ MORE

Category: Conservation, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Horticulture, Invasive Species, Natural Resources, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS Extension
Tags: Air Potato, Air Potato Leaf Beetle, Especies Invasoras, Florida Friendly Landscape, Integrated Pest Management, Manejo Integrado De Plagas, MIP

Science by the millions: How everyday people are revolutionizing global biodiversity research with tech

by Lourdes Mederos
July 28, 2025

A frog croaks from a walking trail. A hiker snaps a photo and uploads it to iNaturalist. That single act — one person, one amphibian and one click — feeds into a growing global dataset that scientists now use to map shifting species ... READ MORE

Category: Coasts & Marine, Community Volunteers, Conservation, Forests, Invasive Species, Natural Resources, Pests & Disease, SFYL Hot Topic, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Research, Wildlife
Tags: Agencies, Agricultural Technology Firms, Aquatic Invasives, Biodiversity, BioScience, Brittany Mason, Citizen Science, Conservation, Corey Callaghan, Dataset, Fort Lauderdale Research And Education Center, Fungi, Global Ecology, High-resolution Maps, Inaturalist, INaturalist App, Invasive, Lourdes Mederos, Map Shifting, Modeling, News, Observations, Organisms, Photo, Plants, Research Grade, Scientists, Species Ranges, Study, Technology, UF-IFAS, University Of Florida, University Of Florida Institute Of Food And Agricultural Sciences, Wildlife Ecology And Conservation

As pesticide applicator licensing changes, UF/IFAS expands testing hours

by Meredith Bauer-Mitchell
July 28, 2025

UF/IFAS is extending testing hours for Florida Pesticide Certification Exams ahead of major changes to the state’s pesticide exam process. In order to safely keep homes, businesses and farms pest-free, Florida’s pesticide applicators ... READ MORE

Category: Agribusiness, Agriculture, Pests & Disease, Professional Development, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension
Tags: Pesticide Licensing Class

Butterfly Attractor: Passion Vine

by Maria Quirico
July 24, 2025

Passion Flower is a very special Florida Native Vine - it is a larval (caterpillar) host plant for two beautiful butterflies. What this means is that if you grow Passiflora incarnata, you will probably have a visit from Zebra Longwing and Gulf ... READ MORE

Category: 4-H & Youth, Agriculture, Crops, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Fruits & Vegetables, Home Landscapes, Horticulture, Lawn, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension

Help Fight the Invasive Air Potato Vine in St. Lucie County

by Sara MacDonald
July 24, 2025

It’s that time of year again, air potato vines are starting to sprout, and many of us are wondering: how can we get rid of them? What is the air potato? The air potato (Dioscorea bulbifera) is a fast-growing, invasive vine originally from ... READ MORE

Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Invasive Species, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS Extension
Tags: Air Potato, Air Potato Leaf Beetle, Biological Control, Integrated Pest Management, Invasive Species, IPM

Scaring neighbors and causing community tension: Study uncovers cost of invasive chameleons

by Lourdes Mederos
July 22, 2025

When exotic chameleons creep into a suburban Florida neighborhood, they bring more than their color-changing charm. They can also spark confusion, curiosity and social chaos. A new study by scientists at the University of Florida Institute ... READ MORE

Category: , Conservation, Forests, Invasive Species, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, SFYL Hot Topic, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Research, Wildlife
Tags: Central Florida, Chameleon, Diane Sturgeon, Exotic Pet Market, IFAS, Invasion Science Institute, Invasive Reptiles, Invasive Species, Invasive Species Management, Lourdes Mederos, News, Non-native Species, Orange County, Panther Chameleon, Public, Residential Neighborhood, Societal Effects, Society, Species, Species Introduction, Stakeholders, UF/IFAS Wildlife Ecology And Conservation, University Of Florida, Warm Climate, Wildlife Managers, Wildlife Trade

Silent threat to city trees gets scientific solution

by Lourdes Mederos
July 21, 2025

What if one of the biggest threats to your city’s tree canopy isn’t just hurricanes — but also termites? A five-year partnership between the city of Fort Lauderdale and University of Florida scientists has uncovered a costly termite ... READ MORE

Category: Conservation, Natural Resources, Pests & Disease, SFYL Hot Topic, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension, UF/IFAS Research, Work & Life
Tags: Alvin Brown, Asian Subterranean Termite, City Of Fort Lauderdale, City Of Fort Lauderdale Parks And Recreation Department, Entomology And Nematology, Formosan Subterranean Termite, Gumbo Limbo, Institute Of Food And Agricultural Sciences, Invasive Pests, Invasive Species, Journal Of Economic Entomology, News, Research, Termites, Thomas Chouvenc, Trees, UF-IFAS

July Plant Clinic in Fort Walton Beach this Friday

by llw5479
July 16, 2025

The July Plant Clinic will be held 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Friday, July 18 at the temporary UF/IFAS Extension Annex located at the Okaloosa Technical College (OTC) in Fort Walton Beach. The plant clinic is designed to provide a place and time ... READ MORE

Category: Events, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Lawn, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease
Tags: Insect Identification, Plant Clinic, Plant Diagnostics, Soil Testing, Weed Identification

Student Spotlight: Saving Florida’s avocados- a potential biocontrol

by moniquescoggin
July 16, 2025

Marielle de Moraes Berto is a fourth year PhD candidate in Dr. Daniel Carrillo’s tropical fruit entomology lab at the UF/IFAS Tropical Research & Education Center (TREC). Marielle is a native of Piracicaba, Brazil where she studied Biological ... READ MORE

Category: Agriculture, Fruits & Vegetables, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS Research
Tags: Acarology, Avocados, Biological Control, Entomology, Tropical Fruits

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