Bug Squad

"Girls, where's your mother? It's August, 2007 and bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, University of California, Davis, is opening a hive in the apiary. "Girls, where's your mother? she asks again, pulling out another frame.

How do you keep your bees alive and growing? That will be the topic of honey bee guru Lawrence "Larry" Connor of Kalamazoo, Mich., when he presents a special short course during the Western Apicultural Society (WAS) conference, to take place Sept.

There are nearly 8 million insect specimens in the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis. As of Friday noon, Aug. 25, there's also one tree. It's a fir. And no, it has nothing to do with the pending holiday season.

Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the butterfly and moth collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, had a "Monarch Kind of Day" Wednesday, Aug. 23 at a surprise party heralding his 70th birthday and his 30 years of volunteer service.

Excitement is building for 40th annual Western Apicultural Society (WAS) conference, set Sept. 5-8 at the University of California, Davis, its birthplace.