Bug Squad

Nothing says National Pollinator Week more than a honey bee coated in pollen. Make mine yellow. Yellow pollen. There's plenty of time to prepare. National Pollinator Week is June 21-27.

It's a delight to see the flameskimmer dragonfly (Libellula saturata). This male made its appearance in our Vacaville pollinator garden on May 17, and hung around long enough for me to capture several images. Like a lens to a flame...

An American flag flies from its sky-high pole at our home year-around. A U.S. Air Force veteran lives here, and the survivors of generations of veterans, starting with the American Revolution, live here.

(Editor's Note: Watch the seminar on YouTube) Soils matter. They matter in the role of bee conservation efforts, as more than 80 percent of bees nest below ground.

It was July 3, 2020. The male bees, Melissodes agilis, were getting quite territorial. Every time a butterfly, a honey bee or another insect in our family's pollinator garden expressed an interest in foraging on the Mexican sunflowers, Tithonia rotundifola, a male Melissodes buzzed them.