Monarch butterflies aren't the only insects that hang around milkweed, their host plant.

You're likely to see a variety of predators, such as the European paper wasp, Polistes dominula.

This paper wasp is a little skittish around paparazzi so it helps to use a long macro lens, like a 105mm or a 200mm,  that will allow you to get eye to eye, or nose to antennae.

It's a meat eater, and a voracious one at that. We've seen it shred caterpillars and attack newly emerged butterflies.

Unlike yellow jackets, "European paper wasps are not scavengers," says Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and a professor of entomology at UC Davis. "They only take live insects, particularly caterpillars."

Their menu also includes aphids. "For these wasps, meat is meat," Kimsey said. "Aphids are great because you get steak and dessert at the same time."

One of the scientists who studies European paper wasps is Amy Toth of the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, who coined and popularized the Twitter hashtag #wasplove. We've heard her deliver several presentations at the University of California, Davis, and we once asked her to list what she loves about wasps. Her answers are worth repeating! (See more information on a Bug Squad blog)

1. They are pollinators 
2. They contribute to biocontrol of lepidopteran pests in gardens and on decorative plants
3. They have been shown to carry yeasts to winemaking grapes that may be important contributors to the fermentation process and wonderful flavors in wine!
4. They are the only known insect (Polistes fuscatus) that can recognize each other as individuals by their faces.
5. They are devoted mothers that will dote on their young all day long for weeks, defending their families with fury.
6. Their social behavior, in my opinion, is the most human-like of any insect.  They know each other as individuals, and are great cooperators overall, but there is an undercurrent of selfishness to their behavior,
7. They are artists. They make perfect hexagonal nest cells out of paper, which they make themselves out of tree bark + saliva.
8. They are extremely intelligent.  They're predators, architects, good navigators, and great learners.  Among insects, they have large brains, especially the mushroom bodies (learning/memory and cognition area of insect brain).
9. They are beautiful, complex, and fascinating creatures!

And to that, we add: European paper wasps are quite photogenic--just don't move around like paparazzi.

Honey bees intrigue, delight and fascinate Norman Gary.

In fact, they have for 70 years. Seven decades. Yes, that's how long he's kept bees.

Norm Gary's 70-year career includes both hobby and commercial beekeeping, but you probably know him by his other credentials:

• 32 years as an entomology professor teaching apiculture at UC Davis
• More than 40 years as a bee research scientist with more than 100 publications
• Author of the 174-page popular book, Honey Bee Hobbyist: The Care and Keeping of Bees.
• 40 years as a consultant and bee stunt coordinator for 17 movies, 70 TV shows, and 6 TV commercials

There's another side to Norm Gary you may not know. He initiated and spearheaded the founding of the Western Apicultural Society (WAS) and served as its first president.

So when WAS returns Sept. 5-8 to its roots--UC Davis--for its 40th annual conference, Gary will lead a nostalgic discussion on the founding of the organization. The presentation takes place at 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 5 in the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC). Extension apiculturist emeritus Eric Mussen will join him. Mussen, co-founder and founding vice president of WAS, is currently serving his sixth term as WAS president. 

Gary's career amounts to "the bees' knees." That 1920s phrase, meaning "the height of excellence," characterizes and defines him. In fact, you may remember the seven-piece jazz band that Gary formed--the Beez' Knees--that played professionally in the Sacramento area from 1995 to 2004.

A musician since childhood, Gary plays clarinet (B-flat clarinet!), alto sax, tenor sax and flute either in bands he's organized or with other professional musicians. He's entertained at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee since 1979, wowing the crowds with such tunes as "When the Saints Go Marching In," "If I Had You," "Just a Little While to Stay Here," "New Orleans," "Long Way to Tippary" and "My Gal Sal."

But back to the bees.

A native of the small farming community of Oak, Fla., Gary turned a fascination for bugs at age 4 into hobby beekeeping at age 15 when his dog led him to a dead tree containing a wild honey bee nest. He transferred them to a modern hive where they became his “pets.”

Gary's interest in bees never wavered. He received his doctorate in apiculture at age 26 from Cornell University in 1959. While there, he was active in the Eastern Apicultural Society, the impetus for launching its counterpart, the  Western Apicultural Society.

Gary joined the UC Davis faculty in 1962 and developed and taught the first insect behavior course at the university. He also developed and taught a graduate course on the use of television for research and teaching. He retired from academic life in 1994, but not from his bees and his music.

A world-renowned professional bee wrangler, Gary trained bees to perform action scenes in movies, television shows and commercials. His credits include “Fried Green Tomatoes”; appearances on the Johnny Carson and Jay Leno shows; and hundreds of live Thriller Bee Shows in the Western states. He once trained bees to fly into his mouth to collect food from a small sponge saturated with his patented artificial nectar. He holds the Guinness Book of World record (109 bees inside his closed mouth for 10 seconds) for the stunt.

Today the Sacramento area resident continues his love of bees and music, maintaining a website at www.normangary.com/

Like he's done much of his life, Norm Gary will focus on bees and music at the WAS conference. "Norm will talk about bees and his memories of organizing WAS," Mussen said, "and at our banquet, he will provide the background music."

WAS Conference:  It's a conference filled with educational topics, networking, field trips, a silent auction, door prizes and fun, Mussen said. Speakers will include bee scientists, beekeepers and industry representatives. Most events will take place in the UC Davis Activities and Recreation Center and surrounding facilities associated with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, Conference participants will tour the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, Häagen Dazs Honey Bee Haven (half-acre bee friendly garden), both part of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; and Mann Lake Ltd., and Z Specialty Foods, both of Woodland.

WAS, a non-profit organization, represents mainly small-scale beekeepers in the western portion of North America, from Alaska and the Yukon to California and Arizona.  Beekeepers across North America will gather to hear the latest in science and technology pertaining to their industry and how to keep their bees healthy.

There's still time to register to attend the conference, which is open to all interested persons. Registration is underway at http://www.westernapiculturalsociety.org/2017-conference-registration/ or contact Eric Mussen at ecmussen@ucdavis.edu for more information.

The National Geographic just ran a piece titled "Without Bugs, We Might All Be Dead."

"There are 1.4 billion insects for each one of us," wrote Simon Worrall in reviewing the book, Bugged: The Insects Who Rule and the World and the People Obsessed with Them by journalist David MacNeal.

Some you need a microscope to see, but insects are the 'lever pullers of the world,'" MacNeal insists.

He's right.

And many are extinct, and many more will be. For example, the butterfly, the Xerces blue (Glaucopsyche xerces) is no more. But you can see it at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis.

One of Buck Owens' signature songs that never failed to please his fan base was "I Got a Tiger by the Tail."

The Country-Hall-of-Fame singer, who died in 2006 at age 76, said the lyrics came to him after he noticed a gas station sign advertising "Put a tiger in your tank." (Source: Wikipedia)

"I've got a tiger by the tail, it's plain to see," sang Buck Owens. "I won't be much when you get through with me..."

Well, he's not the only one with a "tiger by the tail."

We recently spotted male longhorn bees, probably Melissodes agilis, targeting Western tiger swallowtails, Papilio rutulus,  in our family's pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif. The butterflies were trying to sip nectar from the 8 to 10-foot-high Mexican sunflowers (genus Tithonia).

Who knew that sipping nectar could be so difficult? The extremely territorial male longhorn bees kept trying to push the "tigers" off the Tithonia by dive-bombing them, slamming into them, and then regrouping for more aerial assaults. Their goal: to save the resources for their own species.

And then it happened. A longhorn bee slid through a tiger's tail. 

A tiger by the tail.