Bug Squad

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.

A hover fly, not a bee. Passersby admiring the gazania blooming outside the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis, might think that all the insects that frequent the golden flowers are bees. Not.

The crab spider didn't go away hungry. Camouflaged in the petals of a sedum, the cunning predator waits patiently for its prey. An unsuspecting blowfly lands inches from the crab spider, unaware of its presence, and crawls toward it.

Carpenter bees pack pollen, too. A carpenter bee (Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex) visiting our gaura last weekend was packing bright yellow pollen, a sharp contrast against her black body.