Bug Squad

Gotta love those soldier beetles. They're among the good guys in the garden because they eat aphids and other soft-bodied insects. We've seen them on the lavender, on our nectarine tree and on our plum tree.

Let's hear it for the hedgerows. Picture native plants, shrub and ground cover bordering agricultural fields and providing habitat for native bees and other pollinators. Not just bed and breakfast, but bed, breakfast, lunch and dinner. And snacks in between.

Honey bees and daisies are made for each other. The white petals and the golden centers seem incomplete without the presence of buzzing bees. Today we watched a pollen-packin' honey bee, with a pollen load the color of autumn pumpkins, work a daisy.

Ever seen a wax builder? A "real" wax builder? Bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey and beekeeper-research associate Elizabeth Frost of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis, showed us a wax builder last week. No, two wax builders.

Beekeeping comes naturally for Brian Fishback of Wilton, a past president of the Sacramento Area Beekeepers Association and a volunteer at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis.