Bug Squad

It won't be lock, stock and barrel, but it will be stock. A team of scientists from UC Davis and Washington State University will be heading for Italy tomorrow (June 19) to gather germplasm (sperm) of Old World/Italian honey bee stock.

Let's have a pause--and applause--for the pollinators. Next week, June 18-24, is National Pollinator Week, as designated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

I've been asked how I did it. How did I manage to capture that rare image of a honey bee sting that won the feature photo award presented June 11 by the international Association for Communication Excellence (ACE)? The bee is tugging a long strand of abdominal tissue as it tries to pull away.

It's sad to see and say, but like honey bees, the bumble bee population is declining, and that decline is alarming. Public awareness can help turn this around. That's why we're glad to see that the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, based in Portland, Ore.

Picture a pollinator paradise right where nature intended it to be--near an apiary. Staff research associate/beekeeper Elizabeth Frost of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.