Bug Squad

Honey bee research at the University of California, Davis, recently received a $900 boost, thanks to artists with a honey of hearta honey of a heart for the plight of honey bees.

It's good to see so much interest in bees. When folks think of bees, they usually think "honey bees." However, our European or western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is one of a total of seven species of honey bees found throughout the world. Worldwide, there are some 20,000 described species of bees.

When you see a honey bee trapped in a spider web, it's usually dead and about to be consumed. Not this time. Today a foraging bee, minding her own "beesiness," was nectaring among the catmint blossoms in our garden when she ran smack dab into a sticky web placed there by a cunning spider.

Those yellow-faced bumble bees know how to put on a happy face. The males and females frequent our bee friendly garden to sip the sweet nectar of lavender, catmint and rock purslane. The females collect both nectar and pollen for their brood. I think we have a nest of them beneath the catmint.

Danger: Poison ahead. Beekeepers do not like the California Buckeye (Aesculus californica). Honey bees do, but they shouldn't. It's poisonous to bees. The California Buckeye, which grows as either a tree or a shrub 10 to 20 feet tall and can sprawl 30-feet wide, blooms in the spring.