Archive Nut, Prune and Olive Programs

It's National Pollinator Week, and Ann Sievers couldn't be happier. She has her olive groves, her California olive oil company that mills what's praised as the "finest of the fine" artisan olive oil, and now...drum roll...bees. Honey bees.

As we continue an historic drought in California, trees all over Southern California are showing symptoms of stress, and in some cases have died due to drought and pests that attack drought stressed trees.

"Generally, butterflies are brightly colored on the top side and have dull colors on the underside. The bright colors are used to attract a mate and the dull colors are used to hide from predators.

Talk about a pollen-packing bumble bee. A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, displayed quite a heavy load of orange pollen recently as it foraged on hairy vetch in the Hastings Preserve, Carmel, owned and operated by the University of California, Berkeley.

Who's that knocking on our front door? Actually, we didn't hear it knock. It appeared out of nowhere and climbed up to our doorbell. We gingerly placed the jumping spider, Phidippus audax, in a vial to transport it to our backyard bee garden. Phidippus audax, aka P.A.

The University of California Cooperative Extension Rice site (UC Rice On-line) has been updated with a new look and a lot of new information which we think you will find useful.

Ever heard of Schinia sueta? It's a moth. We spotted this little moth, from the Noctuidae family, in a meadow at the Hastings Preserve in Carmel in early May during the BugShot Macro Photography Course, taught by Alex Wild, John Abbott and Thomas Shahan.

It's almost time to celebrate! Or cele-bee-ate! In observation of National Pollinator Week, the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology has scheduled an open house at its half-acre bee garden, the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven from 5:30 to 7 p..m., Friday, June 19.

Bootcamp participants outside historic Mulford HallOur bootcamp on Spatial Data Science has concluded. We had three packed days learning about the concepts, tools and workflow associated with spatial databases, analysis and visualizations.

You never know what you'll see in your pollinator garden. That's why it's always a good idea to carry a camera with you, or you might miss a bit of drama. Not in drama queens, but in drama kings.