Pest Control

Nobody knows why the birds have staked their claim on this farm town 90 miles north of Sacramento. But it's the third consecutive year and, by all accounts, the worst. "The community has had enough," said Steve Holsinger, Willows' city manager. "They're just fed up." Memorial Park, a square-block stretch of green near the center of town, is encircled with yellow police tape and is off limits to normal use.

Question: I'm considering breaking my lease because of bedbugs -- not in my unit but next door. The building owner exterminated the unit, but not the adjoining ones. I've read that these pests are extremely hard to eradicate and travel easily. Is the fact that my neighbor has them a legal basis for me to break my lease? Answer: Bedbugs are very difficult to control.

You can't throw a skim latte in L.A. without hitting a writer who has a screenplay that's been stuck in the system since grunge was breaking. But there are very few who can say that in the intervening years they've turned the same story into a well-reviewed novel, a German radio play and a potential Broadway musical.

An invasive mussel first detected in California less than a year ago has surged across the state's southern counties, stirring concern that its spread will inflict costly damage to public water systems and fisheries statewide. The infamous fresh-water quagga mussel, which has wreaked havoc in the Great Lakes, multiplies so quickly and prolifically that it forms large masses that can clog water pumps, pipelines, power plant intakes and farm irrigation lines.

DIXON, Calif. -- They discovered the corpse in the tidy backyard of a home near the corner of Washington and C streets. The dreaded threat. A farm community's worst nightmare. A Medfly. On an otherwise peaceful weekday in early September, a county agriculture inspector found the tiny carcass in an insect trap hanging from a peach tree. Then the inspector found another. And another.

SACRAMENTO -- One of the Golden State's most notorious invasive pests -- the crop-devouring Medfly -- has reappeared in Los Angeles County for the first time in half a dozen years, state officials announced Thursday. Authorities said they expected to soon establish a quarantine zone on the Palos Verdes Peninsula -- the site of the discovery -- and begin stepped-up treatment to kill a pest long feared as among the most worrisome threats to the state's agricultural economy.

The wiliwili trees began dying in the summer of 2005. Since then, wiliwili groves on all the Hawaiian islands have been devastated, leaving barren plains in their stead. For each tree, it was the same process: First, gnarled lumps would appear on the leaves. Then the leaves and branches would turn brown. Within months, the tree would be dead. Scientists determined that the culprit was a tiny predatory wasp from Africa, only recently discovered by science.

Northern California activists fighting aerial spraying to stop a destructive moth say they're heartened by a judge's decision to temporarily halt the state program. Earlier this week, Monterey County Superior Court Judge Robert A. O'Farrell issued an order preventing further spraying to stop the light-brown apple moth, saying he needed more information about a spray component that could have "potentially harmful propensities."

SACRAMENTO -- For half a dozen years now, Ivan Paulsen has ventured where few wildlife biologists dared: the thorny political thicket of exterminating the pike of Lake Davis. Last week, Paulsen quietly watched the fruits of his labor unfold.

It's estimated that about 2 million homes will need termite treatment this year. Unfortunately, there is no insurance policy that covers termite damage. But there are things you can do to spot and correct this problem quickly. First, don't confuse termites with winged ants. Although similar in size and color, flying ants have a slim waist, hard body and double wings that are unequal in length; termites have a soft round body and two pairs of wings equal in length.