Bug Squad

The honey bees know it before we do. The tangerines are blooming. Today dozens of bees buzzed around our tangerine trees, doing their annual job of pollinating the crop. The tangerine, the common name of the mandarin orange, is native to southeast Asia.

What's a picnic without bugs? Frankly, who would want to attend a picnic WITHOUT bugs? The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology is gearing up for the 100th annual campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day, set from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, April 12. Come one, come all. Bugs, too.

Just call it "Mining for Bees." It was not long after Robbin Thorp's talk on wild bees at the UC Davis Pollinator Gardening Workshop (hosted by the California Center for Urban Horticulture on March 15 at Giedt Hall), that lo and bee-hold: a mining bee appeared in our backyard.

The California poppy draws lots of visitors: honey bees, bumble bees and assorted other insects. But a particular visitor we spotted March 15 on a poppy outside the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive, Davis, looked puzzling. A beetle.

Pull up a chair and engage in a little "girl-watching." That is, honey bees heading home to their colony. Many beekeepers, especially beginning beekeepers, like to watch their worker bees--they call them "my girls"--come home. They're loaded with pollen this time of year.