Bug Squad

So here's this newly eclosed male monarch trying to sip a little nectar from a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). A female longhorned bee, probably Melissodes agilis, seeks to claim it. There's no such thing as sharing, especially when nectar is at stake and it's first-come, first-served.

If you're a beekeeper or plan to become a beekeeper, you need to read the UC Davis Apiculture Newsletter, the work of Extension apiculturist Elina Nio and her associates at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, aka the UC Davis Bee Biology Facility.

If you engage in a mini-monarch conservation project, you know the joy of watching the egg-caterpillar-chrysalis-adult transformation. It's one of Nature's miracles.

So you have this significant garden pest--a caterpillar eating your cabbage, lettuce, tomato, squash, geraniums and petunias--and more. And then one morning you see a moth on your blanket flower (Gaillardia). Hmm...

It's bugged. Yes, bugged. And you won't want to miss it. If you head over to the 69th annual Solano County Fair, 900 Fairgrounds Drive, Vallejo, between now and Sunday, July 31, you'll see lots of bees, butterflies, lady beetles, dragonflies, ants and other insects in McCormack Hall.