Bug Squad

When a bee truck overturns, all sorts of things can happen. None of them is good--unless both the people and the bees fare well. Bystanders panic. Bees can and do react to all the commotion by stinging the first responders and the bystanders. It's especially difficult at night.

Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue! Today is Veterans' Day, honoring and celebrating our U.S. military veterans. When I think of Veterans' Day, I think of all my ancestors, from the Revolutionary War on down, who answered our country's call for service.

A mid-life chrysalis? Well, maybe not mid-life, but definitely out of season. A female monarch butterfly eclosed today in our little indoor butterfly habitat. Two weeks ago, we rescued the caterpillar from a narrow-leafed milkweed plant in our Vacaville pollinator garden and brought it inside.

Have you ever thought about the honey bee colony, the transition of nurse bees to foragers? What all is involved? There's exciting news today out of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Califoirnia, Davis.

If you missed it, you should to listen to what longtime butterfly researcher Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, says about California's monarch butterfly population.