Bug Squad

 If you're thinking about heading over to the California Honey Festival in downtown Woodland on Saturday, June 21, don't.It's moved to the nearby Yolo County Fairgrounds, located at 1250 East Gum Ave., Woodland. "Plans change, but the fun doesn't," organizers said.The event, free and open to the public,…

     It's National Pollinator Month, the month to raise awareness about the importance of pollinators and their vital role in food production and in our ecosystems. Take this male foothill carpenter bee, (Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex).We spotted it nectaring on mallow in a…

 "Tropical milkweed is not the first thing that we need to worry about in monarch butterfly conservation.”So says UC Davis professor and monarch scientist Elizabeth Crone of the Department of Evolution and Ecology.Crone is the senior author of the newly published “Neither Source Nor Trap: Urban Gardens…

 Where are all the butterflies?Many butterfly species you remember from your childhood simply aren’t around anymore or their numbers are dwindling.  Nationally, we’ve seen a 20 percent decline in our butterfly population over the last 24 years, and that, coupled with the rising threat of extinction…

 How much do lady beetles love aphids?It's love at first bite. And it amounts to some 50 bites a day.The lady beetle, commonly known as a ladybug, is a legend when it comes to its voracious appetite. It eats some 50 aphids a day--a 50-course meal--and in its lifetime, it can polish off a whopping 5000…