Bug Squad

Meet the competitors. In this corner, meet Mr. Teddy Bear. He's a blond, green-eyed carpenter bee, Xylocopa varipuncta, a native, and one of three species of carpenter bees commonly found from northern to southern California to western New Mexico. In the other corner, meet Mr. Bodyslam.

"Protecting American Coffee, Wine and Baseball Bats Through Areawide Integrated Pest Management (AIPM)" Those catchy words headlined a recent notice of a congressional briefing.

Remember the California drought of 2011 to 2015? What effect did that have on butterflies?

"A bog is a wetland that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant materialoften mosses, and in a majority of cases, sphagnum moss."--Wikipedia. Not so with the Biological Orchard and Gardens (BOG) on the University of California, Davis, campus.

The Anise Swallowtail, Papilio zelicaon, fluttered into our pollinator garden and headed straight for the Verbena. Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, identified the gender: "it's a girl.