Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay

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UC ANR is renovating its website. The Bug Squad blog, by Kathy Keatley Garvey of the University of California, Davis, is a daily (Monday-Friday) blog launched Aug. 6, 2008. It is about the wonderful world of insects and the entomologists who study them. Blog posts are archived at https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/archive.cfm

HONEY BEE pokes around in Autumn Joy sedum, currently a tight cluster of broccoli-like buds. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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See 'em on the Sedum

August 31, 2009

It's no secret that bees like sedum. The Autumn Joy sedum (family Crassulaceae) growing in our garden is still a tight cluster of broccoli-like buds--not ready for prime time. But don't tell the honey bees that.

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A MALE Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutullus) glides into a patch of ookow or wild hyacinth. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Tiger on the Ookow

August 28, 2009

Oo-laa! Ookow! What a treat to see the Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutullus) gliding into a patch of ookow (Dichelostemma congestum), also known as wild hyacinth. A recent outing to Healdsburg, Sonoma County, found the tiger on the ookow.

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HIGH HONOR--UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey receives the "Outstanding Service to Beekeeping" award at the Western Apicultural Society conference from president Eric Mussen, Extension apiculturist. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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A Tip of the Veil

August 27, 2009

A tip of the bee veil to Susan Cobey. Cobey, bee breeder-geneticist and manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis, has won the 2009 Outstanding Service to Beekeeping award from the Western Apicultural Society (WAS).

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TWO ON A SUNFLOWER--A honey bee (Apis mellifera) and a female sweat bee (Halictus ligatus) share a sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Sharing a Sunflower

August 26, 2009

If you're in the right spot at the same time, you may get a double bonus: a non-native bee and a native bee on a native plant.

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HONEY BEE heads for lavender. "It's especially important to provide nectar and pollens at the end of the season-- late summer and fall," says Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen of UC Davis. "That's when resources tend to become scarce." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Bee Well

August 25, 2009

What's causing colony collapse disorder (CCD)? Are we any closer to determining the cause? CCD, the mysterious malady characterized by bees abandoning the hive, leaving behind the brood and food storage, continues to be of great concern--and rightfully so.

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