- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
People aren't the only ones favoring fava beans.
Fava beans growing in a raised bed in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis, are attracting honey bees, European paper wasps, lacewings, ladybugs, aphids and carpenter bees.
We saw all six insects on a trip to the haven last Friday.
While the honey bees and carpenter bees gathered nectar, the European paper wasps, lacewings and the ladybugs searched for prey. The ladybugs were also searching for mates.
The half-acre bee friendly garden, located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, west of the central campus, is open year around from dawn to dusk. Admission is free. Visitors can conduct their own self-guided tours by following the signs and reading the plant labels. Groups that want a guided tour (the cost is $4 per person) can contact Christine Casey at cacasey@ucdavis.edu.
Meanwhile, life is good in the fava beans.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
There's a good reason why jumping spiders are named "jumping spiders."
They jump.
A jumping spider, according to National Geographic, can jump 50 times its body length.
We saw this jumping spider (family, Salticidae and probably genus Phidippus) in our flower bed last weekend.
Perched on a pink petunia, it waited for dinner, its four pairs of eyes surveying the floral menu; its rear legs poised to jump; its front legs ready to grasp unsuspecting prey. Meanwhile, its iridescent chelicerae glistened in the sunlight.
Wikipedia says that "the genus name is likely derived from Cicero's speech speech Pro Rege Deiotaro (Speech in Behalf of King Deiotarus): Phidippus was a slave who was physician to King Deiotaros. Literally, the word means 'one who spares horses' in Ancient Greek."
One thing's for sure: A hungry Phidippus would not "spare" a bee! Check out this National Geographic video on You Tube about a jumping spider and a honey bee.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The seventh annual Bee Symposium, a fundraiser for Partners for Sustainable Pollination, will take place on Saturday, March 9 in Sebastopol.
That's when five speakers will talk about pollinator habitat--what's good to plant and why. The theme is "Pollinator Habitat and Forage."
The event takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, located in the Veterans' Building at 282 South High St., Sebastopol.
Pollination ecologist Neal Williams, assistant professor of pollination and bee biology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will be among the speakers at the all-day event.
Williams will discuss "Development of Wildflower Mixes to Promote Native Pollination in Agriculture."
A core faculty member in the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute, Williams focuses his research on pollination that spans the disciplines of conservation biology, behavioral ecology and evolution. One of his primary research foci is on sustainable pollination strategies for agriculture. This work is critical given ongoing pressures facing managed honey bees and reported declines in important native pollinators such as bumble bees.
He and his colleagues explore the role of wild native bees, honey bees and other managed species as crop pollinators and the effects of landscape composition and local habitat quality on their persistence.
Williams' continuing goal is to provide practical information that can be used to improve the long- term stability of pollination for agriculture in California, as well as promote pollinator conservation and management.
Other speakers at the symposium will include bee industry expert Peter Borst of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University. He will deliver two talks: "A Short History of Pollination" and "Pollinator Panorama." Borst is a regular contributor to the American Bee Journal.
Professor Gordon Frankie of UC Berkeley will discuss "Bees and Flowers: A Selective Love Affair.”
Master Gardener Cheryl Verettto will share “Plant 4 Bees: Help The Bees by Planting All 4 Seasons”
Farmer Paul Kaiser of the Singing Frogs Farm will cover “Farming for Pollinators: How Can We Humans Produce Nutrient Dense Food While Improving the health, Vitality and Resiliency of Mother Nature?”
Tickets are $35 pre-sale or $45 at the door. Members receive a $5 discount. For more information or to purchase tickets, access http:// www.pfspbees.org/store or cash tickets may be purchased at Beekind, 921 Gravenstein Highway South., Sebastopol.
For general information, contact Jeanine Robbins at jeaninepfsp@gmail.com or (707) 824-2905.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you love to watch pollinators at work in your garden--especially the honey bees and the bumble bees--first you have to provide the plants.
Promise yourself to plant pollinator plants periodically.
But which ones?
The UC Davis Arboretum staff gets asked that question a lot. As part of its 75th anniversary celebration, the Arboretum has scheduled a Member Appreciation Sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 9 at its plant sales nursery on Garrod Drive.
Folks can become members on the spot, and the privileges are many. "Members of the Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum and the Davis Botanical Society not only receive 10 percent off their plant sale purchases but they also receive an additional $10 of of their purchases at this sale," said Missy Gable, public engagement manager (mjgable@ucdavis.edu).
The Arborteum prides itself on providing "the area’s largest selection of attractive, low-water, easy-care, region-appropriate plants, including Arboretum All-Stars." Live music, free refreshments and children's activities are also planned that day.
Three more spring public plant sales are upcoming (folks can become members then, too):
- Saturday, April 6 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Sunday, April 28 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Saturday, May 19 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (clearance sale)
Here are some of the pollinator plants that will be available for sale:
- Salvia clevelandii, Cleveland sage
- Saponaria x lempergii ‘Max Frei’, hybrid soapwort
- Leucophyllum frutescens, cenizo
- Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Mozart’, Ed Carman’s rosemary
- Achillea ‘Coronation Gold’, coronation gold yarrow
- Perovskia atriplicifolia ‘Little Spire’, little spire Russian Sage
- Dasylirion wheeleri, desert spoon
- Salvia chamaedryoides, Mexican blue sage
- Teucrium fruticans ‘Azureum’, azure bush germander
- Epilobium canum, California fuchsia
- Origanum ‘Betty Rollins’, Betty Rollins oregano
- Salvia microphylla, Graham’s sage
The plants above are among those showcased at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus.
And, have you heard about the UC Davis Arboretum Shovel Drive? At each of the plant sales, you can donate an old shovel, spade or trowel to the Arboretum for a campus/city sculpture project!
Just think, the garden tools you not longer need or want will be sculpted into something quite spectacular.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA) has decided to provide travel funds to entomology undergraduates who want to present their research at entomological associations.
So EGSA has established the Jude Plummer Travel Grant, so named because Plummer, a pest control manager in Florida, donated $50 “to be used for such a cause,” said EGSA president Jenny Carlson, a Ph.D. candidate in the Vector Genetics Lab.
This week EGSA announced the first recipient of the Jude Plummer Travel Grant: Daren Harris, who received his bachelor of science degree in entomology from UC Davis in December.
Harris will receive a travel grant of $300 to present his poster on the spotted wing drosophila at the 2013 meeting of the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America, set April 6-11 at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, Stateline, Nev.
Harris' poster is titled “Seasonal Trapping of Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in a Multi-Crop Setting.” He works as a lab assistant in the Frank Zalom lab, studying with professor Zalom and Ph.D candidate Kelly Hamby.
“We will be providing an opportunity for UC Davis undergraduates to apply twice a year for a total of $300, depending on funds,” Carlson said. “We will have one in the winter and one in the fall.” Those who want to support the project can donate to the EGSA fund or buy entomology t-shirts.
Harris, who minored in fungal biology and ecology, plans to pursue a master’s degree in forest entomology. “I would like to study insect-fungus interactions with a focus on inoculation of forest pests with entomophagous fungi,” he said. “Many of these pests are gregarious so capture, inoculation and release of a few individuals may disseminate the pathogen to a large population.”
“My ultimate goal is to work with the USDA forest service. I would love nothing more than to make my living tromping around in beautiful north American forests."
Harris said he initially wanted to be a taxidermist. “As a child I had bookshelves filled with biological oddities and ‘specimens,’ including dead animals in jars of formaldehyde. My collection included everything from pet rodents to road kill. A high school biology teacher turned me on to entomology and I was hooked. The capture and curation of insects satisfied that childhood collection impulse, with the added bonus of frolicking through fields with a net.”
