The peak bee season is winding down--along with the number of bee swarms. "There aren't that many bees swarming this time of the year," said Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen, member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty.
If I were in charge, the praying mantis would eat only aphids, flies and stink bugs. No honey bees. Let them bee. This week we watched a praying mantis slide beneath a purple coneflower (Echinacea pupurea) at the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.
Undergraduate degree in genetics? Check. Masters degree in fine arts? Check. Scientist and artist? Check. Such is the case with scientist-artist Donna Billick, who created the Miss Bee Haven six-foot bee sculpture in the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the University of California, Davis.
Collecting pollen and nectar is serious business. But when a native wild bee such as the Svastra obliqua expurgata, also called "the sunflower bee," forages on a Mexican hat flower, it adds a little gaiety to the scene.
