Bug Squad

Sarah the Bee Girl stands in front of a cluster of first graders sitting by a six-foot worker bee sculpture in the UC Davis Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven.

Have you ever seen a bee buzzing around your garden and wondered: "What's that bee?" Or have you ever seen a bee nectaring in a community garden and wondered "How can I attract THAT bee to my yard?" Just like all floral visitors are not bees, not all bees are honey bees.

Bee ready! This is the week of the 40th annual Western Apicultural Society's conference, set Sept. 5-8 at the University of California, Davis.

Who isn't fascinated by a praying mantis, that pre-historic looking predator that lurks on a plant and snags honey bees, butterflies and other insects in lightening-quick lunges? And who isn't fascinated by those who study them, rear them and share their knowledge with others?

Migratory monarch alert! They're on their way. Camera ready? Check. Notebook ready? Check! Entomologist David James of Washington State University, Pullman, Wash., who studies the migration routes and overwintering sites of the Pacific Northwest monarch population, told us last Friday, Aug.