Just before you open your carton of premier ice cream, you may want to enjoy the sound of violins and cellos.

There's an app for that. More specifically, there's a concerto for that.

And it all deals with the Häagen-Dazs premier ice cream brand supporting bee research at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis.

This is one business that's very concerned about the worldwide declining bee population.  One-third of the food we eat is pollinated by bees. Häagen-Dazs ice cream is dependent upon bees--some 50 percent of its flavors are bee-dependent. 

Häagen-Dazs is a longtime and generous supporter of UC Davis bee research. Background: in 2009 the brand launched the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly and educational garden planted next to the Laidlaw facility on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus.  It's a year-around food source for the Laidlaw bees and other pollinators. It provides an educational opportunity for visitors; they learn about the plight of the bees, and what they can plant in their own gardens to feed the bees.

Häagen-Dazs also funded the Häagen-Dazs Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Davis. It went to Michelle Flenniken, an insect virus researcher based at UC San Francisco. She's now a research assistant professor at Montana State University.

So, first a bee garden and then a fellowship for a scientist to study bee diseases. And now...drum roll...the Häagen-Dazs Concerto Timer app. 

Häagen-Dazs officials today announced the introduction of the Häagen-Dazs Concerto Timer app, described as "the first iOS mobile app to integrate detailed 3D Kinect technology and video data that delivers a cutting edge augmented reality experience."

According to a press release, “The Concerto Timer app features two-minute-long music concertos that help consumers understand the exact amount of time needed to prepare their Häagen-Dazs ice cream in order to get the full, rich consistency and allow all the flavors to fully bloom. Allowing the ice cream to soften slightly – also called tempering – for two minutes enhances the texture and exposes fans to the craftsmanship of premium ingredients that is characteristic of Häagen-Dazs ice cream, gelato, sorbet and frozen yogurt."

So, basically, you download the free app, open your freezer and remove the Häagen-Dazs product,  set it on your counter, and point your I-Phone at the lid of the cartoon. Voila! Two minutes of concerto music! Just the right amount of time to have your ice cream soften.

Now here's the good news for the bees: for every download, Häagen-Dazs will donate $5 to UC Davis bee research, up to $75,000.

Now that's a sweet gift!

Said Cady Behles, Häagen-Dazs brand manager: “The app concept came directly from our brand loyalists who recognized the necessity of tempering to enjoy all of the flavors in our ice cream. We took their feedback and developed an advanced mobile experience – something never seen before in the ice cream industry – that would be functional and also entertain them during the optimal time period.”

Developed by creative agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners and digital production company JAM3, the Häagen-Dazs Concerto Timer app is now available for download in the iTunes App Store.

The video begins with the text: "Just as wine needs to breathe, Haagen-Dazs ice cream needs to soften for two minutes. Now there’s a concerto  for that."

Check out the online video at http://www.multivu.com/mnr/62528-haagen-dazs-mobile-concerto-timer-app-classical-music-preparing-ice-cream and read about the app. You can download the app from I-Tunes. 

The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, home of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility and the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven thanks you; the bees thank you; and somewhere Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. (1907-2003), the father of honey bee genetics who devoted his entire life to the study of bees, must be smiling.

Sweet music indeed!

(Editor's Note: You can also donate to UC Davis bee research by accessing this page.)

So there you are, a little sweat bee, foraging in the buckwheat.

You sip some nectar, and suddenly, a flash of yellow.

A wolf is at your door.

It's a beewolf, a crabronid wasp from the genus Philanthus, as identified by Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at UC Davis, and native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, UC Davis emeritus professor of entomology.

Beewolves, also known as bee hunters, prey upon small bees, thus their name. They carry their kill to their offspring in their underground nests.

The beewolf we saw yesterday wasn't big enough to prey on a honey bee, but yes, there are European species, European species, Philanthus triangulum, that can. 

Thorp says that this particular beewolf (below) appears to be a Philanthus multimaculatus.  Check out the BugGuide.net image.

So tiny, but so colorful, too.

Breaking news shook the agricultural world today.

The Mediterranean fruit fly, considered the world's worst agricultural pest, is one of at least five fruit flies established in California. It cannot be eradicated.

So says entomologist James Carey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who has been dogging medflies since his faculty appointment in 1980. (See what drove him.)

Carey and UC Davis-affiliated colleagues Nikos Papadopoulos and Richard Plant wrote the eye-opening research piece, "From Trickle to Flood: The Large Scale, Cryptic Invasion of California by Tropical Fruit Flies" in the current edition of the renowned Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Their work "clearly demonstrates that at least five and as many as nine species of tropical fruit flies, including the infamous Medfly, are permanently established in California and inexorably spreading, despite more than 30 years of intervention and nearly 300 state-sponsored eradication programs aimed at the flies," wrote Pat Bailey in a UC Davis News Service story released today. 

The findings, Bailey pointed out, have "significant implications for how government agencies develop policies to successfully manage pests that pose a threat to California's $43.5 billion agricultural industry."

Carey, an international authority on fruit-fly invasion biology, told her that "Despite due diligence, quick responses, and massive expenditures to prevent entry and establishment of these insects, virtually all of the fruit-fly species targeted by eradication projects have been reappearing in the same locations — several of them annually — and gradually spreading in the state."

Carey, Papadopoulos and Plant detailed the problem in the opening paragraph of their meticulously researched paper: "Since 1954 when the first tropical tephritid fruitfly was detected in California, a total of 17 species in four genera and 11,386 individuals (adults/larvae) have been detected in the state at more than 3348 locations in 330 cities." That's three out of four California cities.

Among those who weighed in on the research paper: 

Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology: "The study has dramatic implications for California agriculture and the state’s international trading partners, and speaks to the urgent need to alter current eradication policies aimed at invasive species."

Frank Zalom, UC Davis entomology professor and incoming president of the 6500-member Entomological Society of America: “This study deserves serious consideration, and I hope that it helps lead to new discussions on a long-term approach for dealing with fruit flies and similar exotic pests by the United States and international regulatory authorities."

Former UC Davis chancellor Ted Hullar (1987-1994), one of the first to believe in "the science" that Carey presented, said:  “From our first conversation, Jim struck me as a serious-minded guy, with strong ideas and clear focus, pursuing his insights and beliefs no matter the struggle. Good science and progress comes from that, making new paths in tough terrain, believing in the power of journey, as well as goal.”

The Medfly, smaller than a house fly, was first detected in California in 1975. It's considered the world's worst agricultural insect pest due to its wide distribution, wide range of hosts (its larvae infest more than 260 fruits and vegetables), and its ability to tolerate cool climates. 

The Medfly prefers such thin-skinned hosts as peach, nectarine, apricot, avocado, grapefruit, orange, and cherry. The female may lay one to 10 eggs per fruit or as many as 22 eggs per day. She may lay up to 800 eggs during her lifetime, but usually about 300. 

We remember when the Medfly wreaked economic havoc in the Solano County city of Dixon in September 2007. We were there.

At the time, Carey told us that "this may be just one of many isolated pockets of medfly infestations in California. This is really serious because the invasion process is so insidious."

The Medfly has been multiplying and spreading undetected--like cancer--for years, he said.  "It may be a symptom of a much larger problem. But any way you look at it, this is the first really big outbreak in the Central Valley."

CDFA set up a command center at the Dixon May Fair and imposed a 114-mile radius quarantine of fruits, vegetables and nuts. Dixon was deep in the throes of tomato and walnut harvesting. The owner of a 65-acre organic produce farm that ships to 800 clients worried  that he might lose $10,000 a week in potential sales.

Among the actions that the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) took at the onset:

• Stripped all fruit from trees within a 100-meter radius of all Medfly finds
• Ground-sprayed the organic compound Naturalyte (the active ingredient is Spinosad, a naturally occurring product of a soil bacteria) within a 200-meter radius of all Medfly finds
• Set 1,700 fruit fly traps within an 81-square mile grid in all of Dixon and the surrounding area from near the Yolo County border to Midway Road
• Began aerially releasing 1.5 million sterile male medflies (dyed pink for easy detection) over a 12-square mile area on Sept. 14, with weekly releases of 3 million medflies scheduled for at least nine months
• Set up a yearlong command center, with four portable buildings and a task force of 25, on the Dixon May Fair grounds

Fast forward to today. Now that the Medfly has been declared a "permanent resident," what's next?

Carey agrees that “CDFA needs to continue to respond to outbreaks as they occur, but he advocates long-term planning based on “the science” that the insects are established. This includes heightened monitoring levels for the agriculturally rich Central Valley, an economic impact study, risk management/crop insurance, cropping strategies, fly fee zones/post harvest treatments, emergency/crisis planning, genetic analysis and a National Fruit Fly Program.

“Inasmuch as the Mediterranean, Mexican, Oriental, melon, guava and peach fruit flies have all been detected in the Central Valley, monitoring this incredibly important agricultural region should be increased by 5 to 10-fold in order to intervene and suppress populations and thus slow the spread,” Carey says.

“These pests cannot be wished away or legislated out of existence. Policymakers need to come to grips with this sobering reality of multiple species permanently established in our state in order to come up with a long-term, science-based policy for protecting agriculture in our state.”

(See James Carey's website for links to his work on fruit fly invasion.)

So you're sitting there watching the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars chowing down on the passionflower vines.

It's sort of like watching the grass grow, or the paint dry, but there's much more drama.

These, as children's book author Eric Carle writes in the children's book, "The Very Hungry Caterpillars," are very hungry caterpillars.

They're famished. They're ravenous. They could eat a horse (except they don't eat horses). And that's a good thing, as Martha Stewart would say.

If they're allowed to, these caterpillars will decimate the leaves, spin cocoons and eventually turn into spectacular reddish-orange butterflies (Agraulis vanillae).

So, you're sitting there watching the caterpillars eat. And out of the shadows, something else appears.

You think you're the only ones watching them eat? Think again.