Bug Squad

Let's face it--some folks are not fond of carpenter bees. Honey bees, yes! Bumble bees, yes! Carpenter bees, uhh, not so much.

What a marvelous year! Looking back at 2016, monarch butterflies reigned supreme--or at least they did in this Bug Squad blog! Finding--and photographing--a tagged monarch butterfly (monarch@wsu.edu A6083) in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif. on Labor Day, Sept. 5, highlighted the year.

This is a story about how eight monarch butterflies escaped the freezing temperatures of Vacaville, Calif., and hitchhiked to sunny Santa Cruz, thanks to Good Samaritans (Good Monarcharians?) Rita LeRoy and Walter Rockholt of Vallejo.

It's almost that time againtime for the annual Beer for a Butterfly contest or Suds for a Bug. If you're out and about on Jan. 1, start looking for that cabbage white butterfly.

If you want to learn about native bees, the place to "bee" on Saturday, Jan. 7 is the Rush Ranch Nature Center, 3521 Grizzly Island Road, Suisun.