Bug Squad

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.

So you're a rural landowner thinking about planting cover crops in your fields or orchards. And/or, you want to learn more about beneficial insects. You're in luck.