Bug Squad

A field of green ribboned in yellow. Anyone who drives down Pedrick Road in Dixon, Calif., and sees the spectacular sunflower fields can't help but smile. Yellow sunflowers do that to you. They make you smile.

It's a perfect example of "the bad, the ugly and the good." In that order. Not "the good, the bad and the ugly." The yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) is the kind of obnoxious weed you wish would go away forever.

First you give them roots, then you give them wings. That's what's happening in our bee condo, a wooden block (nest) with drilled holes for leafcutting bees (Megachile). They flew in, laid their eggs, provisioned the nests with pollen and leaf fragments, and capped the holes. We had 11 tenants.

The places to "bee" for beekeepers in September and November are the Big Island of Hawaii and the not-so-little-city of Rohnert Park, Calif. The Western Apicultural Society, founded by UC Davis scientists in 1978, has scheduled its annual conference for Sept.

Up close and personal, those blue damselflies (suborder Zygoptera, order Odonata) look prehistoric. Fact is, they were here before the dinosaurs. These needlelike insects add an iridescent presence as they fly awkwardy over our fish pond, catching prey.