Bug Squad

What's better than a bee threading through a flowering artichoke? Two bees, a honey bee and a long-horned sunflower bee. Flowering 'chokes are big draws for bees. Plant 'em, let 'em flower, and they will come. Sometimes in droves. Sometimes in diversity. Always amazing.

Honey bees are in trouble. They are dying in record numbers. That's why you should watch "Blossom Buddies," a two-part video segment in the Growing California series, produced by the California Department of Food and Agriculture in partnership with California Grown.

Flies are pollinators, too. It's appropriate during National Pollinator Week to remember that. We spotted this newly emerged green bottle fly (below) nectaring on lavender last week in our yard. It seemed out of place among the honey bees, leafcutter bees and carpenter bees working the blossoms.

We have long-horned cattle and long-horned grasshoppers.

What's that hopping on our patio? At first we thought it was a grasshopper.