Bug Squad

     Yesterday we introduced you to Ms. Mantis, a young Stagmomantis limbata perched on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundiola. She was seeking a “fast food” meal of a bee or a butterfly, but they were much too fast for her.Today we observed her on a different blossom, ready to try…

  Bee and butterflies love the patch of Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifola) in our Vacaville garden.For several months now, they've been buzzing and fluttering around the six-to-eight-foot-high plants, sipping nectar and returning for more.  It's a serene place for pollinators except for…

 Video caption:  This bumble bee mimic, Anthophora bomboides stanfordiana, is a digger bee building her nest in a sand dune on Bodega Head, Sonoma County. (Video by Kathy Keatley Garvey)You won't want to miss this!Create art and learn about native bees and their nests at the same time!UC Davis…

 Question: "Can you find the queen? She's in here with the worker bees and drones. The worker bees are the girls and the drones are the boys." Chlld: "What does the queen look like? Is she wearing a crown?""No, she's wearing a number!"Child:"I see her! There she is! I found her!"Finding the queen…

 The UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP) staffed three tables at the Vacaville Museum Guild's annual children's party to introduce "the wonderful world of bees" to children ages 3 to 9.CAMBP members displayed a bee observation hive and encouraged them to "find the queen'; answered…