Bug Squad

Monarchs and milkweed are in the news again. As well they should be. The declining monarch population, coupled with the decreasing scarcity of their host plant, the milkweed, is disturbing. The larvae of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) feed exclusively on milkweeds.

It may not be the farmer's friend, but it's the beekeeper's friend. Wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum), a member of the mustard family, Brassicaceae, is considered a weed, but I consider it a flowering plant for bees when I see it along roadsides and parks and lining orchards and vineyards.

The painted ladies are on move. Butterflies. Scores of painted ladies (Vanessa cardui) are now migrating north from their overwintering sites near the U.S. Mexico border.

In recent years, honey bees received neither recognition nor respect until commercial beekeeper David Hackenberg of Pennsylvania/Florida sounded the alarm in 2006 about his missing honey bees.

The Daily Mail, UK, recently reported a tragic case of a fatal bee sting that occurred in a back yard in Hampton, near Solihull, West Midlands, England. A honey bee apparently stung a 47-year-old father on his foot and he went into anaphylactic shock.