- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
He readily names the three castes: queen bee, worker bee and drone. He explains that the workers are all females, and that drones are males and they can't sting because they have no stingers. He knows how to tend a hive and he knows the importance of bee pollination.
His father, beekeeper Garry Haddon Jr., of GLH Honey Bees, Fairfield, has kept bees for four years.
Nathaniel talked about bees at the recent Solano County 4-H Presentation Day, held at Willis Jepson Middle School, Vacaville. The annual event is an opportunity for 4-H'ers to share what they've learned in their projects, and to gain presentation experience.
Nathaniel illustrated his hand-crafted poster, “Honey Bees,” with drawings of the queen bee, worker bee and drone; a drawing of the life cycle of a bee; and photos of him working the hives and holding a frame.
“Thank you for telling us about the bees,” one of the evaluators told him. “We learned a lot about bees. We didn't know that all the workers are female.”
Following the presentation, we asked Nathaniel what he likes best about bees. “How drones can't sting,” he said.
Learning about bees is lifelong. “I pass on the information I've learned to the kids,” Haddon said. One of his mentors is beekeeper John Foster of John Foster Bz Bee Pollination Esparto. Garry hopes to take a course from the University of California, Davis soon. “The courses (taught by Extension apiculturist Elina Niño and her group) were already filled when I tried to sign up," he said. "I was on the waiting list. I'm looking forward to the next course offered."
Earlier this year Garry trucked some of his bees to Turlock to pollinate the almonds. He bottles his honey and also produces honey sticks.
He has not always been enamored with bees. “When I was in high school, I thought bees were pests,” Garry acknowledged.
Not any more. He considers bees a treasure.
Lately the 4-H beekeeping leader has been showing his project members how to build hives, and he encourages them to decorate their own hive, "to make it their own." Three 4-H'ers, Ashlyn Haddon, Adrianna Haddon and Hallee Winchell, displayed their decorated hives at the Solano County 4-H Presentation Day.
4-H Youth Development Program
The 4-H Youth Development Program is a non-profit youth educational program administered through the UC Cooperative Extension. In 4-H, youths from ages 5 to 19 learn skills through hands-on learning and have fun doing it, said Valerie Williams, Solano County 4-H program representative. The international organization draws youth from all ethnic, racial, and socio-economic backgrounds who live in rural, suburban, and urban communities. The four H's in 4-H stand for head, heart, hands, and health. The motto: "To make the best better."
Age-appropriate projects within each club are the heart of 4-H's hands-on learning. Each project focuses on a topic, anything from A (art) to Z (zoology). Among the many projects: animal sciences, bicycling, camping, computers, drama, entomology, leadership, music, photography, quilting, rocketry, textile arts, and woodworking.
For information on the Solano County 4-H Program, access http://cesolano.ucanr.edu or contact Valerie Williams at vawilliams@ucanr.edu or (707) 784-1319.
UC Davis Beekeeping Courses
- Beekeeping Courses. To get on the list for UC Davis-offered beekeeping courses, send an email to sympa@ucdavis.edu from the address you want to subscribe to the list and in the subject line of your message, type in: subscribe elninobeelabclasses Firstname Lastname
- Master Beekeeping Courses. To get on the list for the newly created UC Davis Master Beekeeper Program, send an email to sympa@ucdavis.edu from the address you want to subscribe to the list and in the subject line of your message, type in: subscribe camasterbee Firstname Lastname
For more information on UC Davis beekeeping courses, contact the E.L. Nino lab at 530-380-BUZZ (2899) or access the website at http://elninobeelab.ucdavis.edu/ and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/elninolab.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Xena the Warrior Princess, a 16-year-old tuxedo cat that we rescued from the pound, crossed the Rainbow Bridge today in a local veterinarian's office. We had her 16 years, or if cats have staff, we were her staff for 16 years. She allowed us to feed her, pet her, and love her.
A black outline of a butterfly adorned her left hind leg, the mark of a pollinator partner. She followed me from blossom to blossom as I captured images of bees, butterflies, dragonflies, sweat bees, spiders, praying mantids and every other little critter imaginable in our pollinator garden. She'd sit beneath my garden chair, just glad to be there, just glad to be alive.
That's what a Pollinator Partner does.
Xena the Warrior Princess was part warrior and part princess: a cunning predator and a purring princess. A predator that would delight in showing us her trophies, and a princess that loved to snuggle.
Then on Leap Year Day, Feb. 29, 2016, Xena the Warrior Princess suffered a debilitating stroke. Sixteen short years, and she's gone. She didn't want to go and we didn't want her to leave.
Rest in peace, Pollinator Partner.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Native Brazilian Walter Leal, chemical ecologist and professor in the UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, is there.
So is the mosquito.
At the symposium today, Constancia Ayres, research coordinator of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Centro de Pesquisa Aggeu Magalhaes/FIOCRUZ, considered one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific research institutes in South America), reported that the common southern house mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus, may be a potential vector of the Zika virus.
Studies in the Ayres lab confirmed that Culex quinquefasciatus infected with Zika (isolated from local patients) showed high transmission rate (as determined by virus replication in the salivary glands).
Of course, these studies were done in the lab, not the field, and this is the beginning of the research.
We asked medical entomologist William Reisen, editor of the Journal of Medical Entomology, and professor emeritus, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, about this.
"In California less than 3 percent of the Culex including Cx. quinquefasciatus have been found to feed on humans, even in cities like Los Angeles, where humans are the most numerous host," Reisen said in an email. "Therefore, even if they are susceptible to infection, the probability of a female feeding on humans to acquire and then refeed on humans to transmit would be 0.03 x 0.03 = 0.0009 or a rare event indeed. That said, there are areas of the world where quinquefasciatus feeds predominantly on humans in domestic settings. (See his research paper, Host Selection Patterns of Some Pakistan Mosquitoes (U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health).
In his research paper on Pakistan mosquitoes, Reisen mentions Culex pipiens fatigans, now known as Culex quinquefasciatus. Its feeding patterns "varied opportunistically with host availability," he wrote in the abstract. Resting in cattle sheds during the winter, it "fed on birds and bovids, changing to man and bovids during the spring and then to man and birds during summer."
Medical entomologist Thomas Scott, distinguished professor of entomology (now emeritus) of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is a global authority on Aedes aegypti, which transmits dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya and the Zika viruses.
"Vector competence studies in the lab is valuable information, but before we come to the conclusion that Culex quinquefasciatus is an important contributor to transmission of Zika virus, the lab results would need to be confirmed," Scott told us. "Other laboratories and appropriate field studies would need to be carried out in areas where Zika virus is being transmitted to confirm that this species is naturally infected and is regularly biting people. Although it is a potentially important discovery that would change they way we think about Zika virus transmission, it would be wise to carefully explore all of the details necessary to incriminate a mosquito vector before coming to a strong conclusion."
UC Davis medical entomologist Anthony Cornel of the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center and UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, weighed in: "I have to examine the vector competence data carefully to determine its infectivity dose relative to Aedes aegypti. If Culex quinquefasciatus does play an additional role in transmission then it would be of even greater concern because the threat of autochthonous transmission will occur in areas other than where Aedes aegypti is found in California. Culex quinquefasciatus also feed on people but do so at dusk and at night."
"Brazil could be facing a greater fight against the zika virus than previously feared as researchers investigate whether the common mosquito is transmitting the disease," Moraes wrote in the article, headlined "Brazilian Experts Investigate if 'Common Mosquito' is Transmitting Zika Virus."
"The Aedes aegypti species of mosquito was thought to be solely responsible for spreading the virus," Moraes pointed out. "But scientists are now studying whether the Culex mosquito--the variety (species) most commonly found in Brazil--could also be passing on the infection."
Constancia Ayres was quoted as saying: "This may be the reason for the virus replicating faster. The interaction of the mosquito with the virus may explain the epidemiological profile of disease transmission.”
Meanwhile, the headlines continue as research proceeds.
The Outbreak News Today related that researchers in the Ayres lab "are now investigating the possibility that other, non-Aedes mosquito species, might carry and spread Zika and Chikungunya."
"The concern is that the Culex mosquito--which is 20 times more prevalent than the Aedes variety in Brazil-- might also play some role in the rapid spread of these viruses," Outbreak News Today noted. "Researchers hope to have some answers in a few weeks,"
Valor.com.br is hot on the story as well. Reporter Marina Hawk emphasized that the work was done in the lab, but field collection is underway.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
We remember seeing a varroa mite attached to a foraging honey bee one warm summer day in our pollinator garden. The mite was feeding off the bee and the bee was feeding on the nectar of a lavender blossom.
Didn't seem fair.
We've never seen a varroa mite on bumble bees or carpenter bees, but Davis photographer Allan Jones has--and he's photographed them. (See below)
When varroa mites tumble off a honey bee and into a blossom, they can hitch a ride on other insects, such as bumble bees and carpenter bees.
"Varroa have been recorded hitching rides on bumble bees and yellowjackets," observed native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis. "Varroa have been reported as feeding on larvae of these and other critters--but not successfully reproducing on them. Also bumble bees and yellowjackets typically overwinter as hibernating queens not as perennial colonies like honey bees. Thus they are not suitable hosts for Varroa."
Extension apiculturist emeritus Eric Mussen says that bees other than honey bees aren't reproductive hosts for the varroa mite.
"As far as I know, Varroa destructor may be able to find soft areas of the exoskeleton of insects other than honey bees and feed on them," he says. "I have no idea whether or not the substitute hemolymph would sustain the mites for very long. The mites have practically no digestive capabilities. They simply utilize the previously-synthesized bee blood, to which they seem to be perfectly adapted."
"Since the mites reproduce on honey bee pupae, there are a number of considerations about potential other reproductive hosts," Mussen said, citing:
- Are the nutrients of the substitute host close enough to those of honey bees to support immature mite development?
- Can immature mites that develop properly at honey bee cell environmental conditions (temperature and relative humidity) find a similar environment in the nests of other insects?
- Do other insects tolerate the presence of mites on their bodies or in their brood nests?
Like honey bees, bumble bees do segregate their pupae in single cells, Mussen says, but he was unable to find any studies devoted to whether bumble bee pupal conditions support Varroa destructor reproduction.
Sounds like a good research project!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
You're in luck. Two almond field days-- one set Thursday, March 10 in Lost Hills, Kern County, and the other on Tuesday, March 15 in Zamora, Yolo County--are scheduled and you're invited. They're free to all interested persons and no reservations are required, says coordinator Katharina Ullmann, crop pollination specialist for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation who holds a doctorate in entomology (Neal Williams lab) from UC Davis.
UC Davis pollination ecologists and other experts will be among those speaking.
For the March 10th event, titled “Almond Field Day: Integrated Crop Pollination,” participants will meet from 9 to 11 a.m. in an orchard east of Highway 33, about 5.8 miles north of the intersection between Highway 37 and Highway 36, Ullmann said. Signs will guide the way.
“This field day will provide an overview of integrated crop pollination for almonds,” Ullmann said. Topics will include almond pollination, minimizing risks to pollinators during bloom, and research updates on blue orchard bees and wildflower plantings for almond pollination in Kern County. The field day will include a tour of an orchard integrating honey bees, blue orchard bees, and wildflower plantings.
The speakers at the March 10th field day:
9 a.m.: Welcome by David Haviland, UC Cooperative Extension, Kern County, and Gordy Wardell, manager of pollination operations Wonderful Orchards, formerly Paramount Farms
9:10: Integrated crop pollination and almonds by pollination ecologist Neal Williams, associate professor, UC Davis, and Katharina Ullmann, crop pollination specialist, Xerces Society
9:25: Blue Orchard Bee research update by Natalie Boyle, postdoctoral researcher, U. S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS)
9:45: Wildflower plantings for almond pollination by Neal Williams
10:05: Reducing risks to honey bees for almond pollination by Gordy Wardell, Wonderful Orchards
10:25: Mating disruption for navel orangeworm by Brad Higbee, director of entomology research, Wonderful Orchards
10:45: Technical and financial support, Nikki Smith, soil conservationist, USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Sponsors are the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, UC Davis, Integrated Crop Pollination Project, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Wonderful Orchards, and USDA's NRCS.
For the March 15th event, titled “Almond Pollination and Orchard Pollinator Planters,” all interested persons will gather from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at 8304 County Road 91B, Zamora.
“This field day will provide an overview of integrated crop pollination and on-farm wildflower plantings for almonds in the Sacramento Valley,” Ullmann said. “We will hear the latest research from a UC Davis lab studying almond pollination and wildflower plantings, learn about almond pollinators and how to support those pollinators using wildflowers. We will also discuss establishment and maintenance practices for planting habitat on field crop edges and provide an overview of plant species appropriate for plantings in the Sacramento Valley and beyond. Two growers will share their perspectives.
The March 15th lineup:
9 a.m.: Welcome by Kat Pope, orchard advisor, UC Cooperative Extension, Sacramento, Solano and Yolo counties; and Rachael Long, owner of the DH Long Farm and Yolo County farm advisor
9:10: Integrated crop pollination, almond pollination and research update by Kimiora Ward, research associate, Neal Williams lab, UC Davis; Ola Lundin, postdoctoral researcher, Williams Lab, and Katharina Ullmann, crop pollination specialist, Xerces Society
9:40: Almond wildflower plantings 101 (DH Long Farm) by Kimiora Ward, research associate, Williams lab; Kitty Bolte, junior research specialist, Williams lab; and Tom Barrios, Barrios Farms
10:25: Solarization for wildflower planting success (Tadlock Farm) by Jessa Kay Cruz, pollinator conservation specialist, Xerces Society; orchard manager, Tadlock Farm
10:45: Technical and financial support, Ha Troung, Yolo County NRCS
The sponsors include UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, UC Davis, Xercies Society, Integrated Crop Pollination Project Colusa County Resource Conservation District, and the Yolo County Resource Conservation District.
Continuing Education Credit (CEC) will be given. Participants at the almond field days are asked to bring a hat, sunscreen and good walking shoes. For more information contact Katharina Ullmann at katharina@xerces.org or at (530) 302-5504.
