Bug Squad

The honey bee hive is not all sweetness. The first virgin queen bee to emerge from her cell (each queen cell resembles a peanut shell) will rid the colony of her competition. After emerging, the queen makes a mark on the other queen cells.

The bees are dropping like flies--in swimming pools all over northern California during this triple-digit heat wave. Honey bees collect water to aircondition their hive. They sip from bird baths, dripping faucets, water-splashed plants and even wet laundry hanging on the line.

A trip today to Marin County, with a side trip to the Marshall Post Office in Marshall, yielded a triple bonus. A bumble bee, a honey bee, and a syrphid or flower fly all were nectaring flowers on the post office grounds, located right across from a restaurant and marina we were visiting.

It's National Pollinator Week, and what a perfect time to welcome native pollinator specialist Neal Williams to the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty. He's actually no stranger to UC Davis. He's been collaborating with researchers at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

They're as long and thin as darning needles. And, sometimes theyre as difficult to find as a needle in the proverbial haystack. These slender, frail-looking insects (below) are damselflies. They fly around ponds and streams and perch on plants near the shoreline.