Bug Squad

Like to know more about honey bees make collective decisions? Mark your calendar to attend a seminar this week at the University of California, Davis. Brian Johnson, assistant professor at the UC Davis Department of Entomology, will speak on "Organization of Work in the Honey Bee" from 12:10 to 1 p.

A good way to spend part of Valentine's Day is to "bee" among the almond blossoms. We stopped by the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Facility on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis, today to see and hear the bees buzzing. That they did! An entire chorus of bee buzzing...

What a spectacular paper wasp! On a visit last week to the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis, we saw a paper wasp (genus Mischocyttarus) foraging in the fava beans with assorted ladybugs, aphids and ants.

At last, the Laidlaw almonds are in bloom. That would be the almond trees on the grounds of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road at the University of California, Davis. And no one appreciates this more than the bees holed up in the 40 hives behind the facility.

When people think of mosquitoes, they probably never think of Aedes japonicus. It's an Asian species "generally found in Japan, Korea, the Ryukyu Archipelago (Okinawa and associated islands), Taiwan, South China, and Hong Kong," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).