Bug Squad

Hey, honey bee, I'll race you to the flowers. Okay, but you'll lose. I can go faster. Watch me! The scene: a male bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, and a worker honey bee, Apis mellifera, are buzzing along at breakneck speed toward the lavender in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif.

The Echium wildpretii is commonly known as "The Tower of Jewels" but it ought to be known as "The Tower of Beauty." That's especially when honey bees gather to collect the blue pollen and sip the sweet nectar. Or when their wings glisten in the early morning sun.

It's National Pollinator Week! Do you know where your pollinators are? Or better yet, do you know how to attract them and protect them? Pollinator Partnership has announced that June 19-25 has been designated National Pollinator Week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S.

When a story is worth its weight in gold, and a photo is worth its weight in silver and bronze...according to the judges...

The Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, stocks a "Got Milkweed?" t-shirt in its gift shop. In real life, insects "get" milkweed.