Bug Squad

It's spring and it's loud in the Spanish lavender patch. The girls--the honey bees--are buzzing furiously as they forage among the blossoms, but so are the boys, in this case the mountain carpenter bee, Xyclocopa tabaniformis orpifex.

The University of California, Davis, is the place to "bee" on Saturday, April 7. There's a plant sale at the UC Davis Arboretum Nursery on Garrod Drive from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and there's an open house and plant sale at the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Bee Biology Road.

Whether you plant them, nurture them, or walk through them, bee gardens make us happy.

Ever seen this mottled brownish/blackish/grayish moth around lately? The alfalfa looper moth, Autographa californica?

The boys are back in town! Well, at least one is. We don't know where the girls are. Neither, apparently, does he. A male Valley carpenter bee, Xylocopa varipuncta, aka "the teddy bear bee," buzzed into our mustard patch Sunday and nectared on the blossoms for about 10 minutes.