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.
It won't bloom until summer, but already many eyes are on the California buckeye. The tree's blossoms are poisonous to honey bees. Bees are attracted to them and forage on them, but the end result of the food provisions to the colony can be deformed larval development.
