Released June 30, 2011, by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Agricultural Statistics Board, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Rice: Area planted to rice in 2011 is estimated at 2.68 million acres, down 26 percent from 2010 and the lowest planted acreage since 1987.
If it looks like a bee, sips nectar like a bee, and buzzes away like a bee, that doesn't mean it's a bee. Last weekend we visited a Fort Bragg nursery specializing in succulents, and these "little white bees" were all over the red flowering thyme (Thymus serphyllum). "Little white bees.
The Conservation Tillage workgroup has initiated a long-term study that directly compares the use of subsurface drip irrigation and overhead irrigation in a diverse no-till crop rotation.
Not all bumble bees are primarily black. Take the Bombus flavifrons. We spotted a male Bombus flavifrons nectaring on Centaurea montana, aka perennial cornflower or mountain cornflower, recently in Mill Valley.
After an extended cool and wet spring, we are finally getting summer-like weather in most of the Central Valley. If your garden and home landscape are like mine, now is the time of the year where the winter weeds are winding down and the summer weeds are coming in to take their places.
Forceps, please! Have you ever stopped to admire a blossom and seen forceps protruding? Earwig! We were walking near Mrak Hall, UC Davis, on a hot summery afternoon and spotted a tell-tale sign: abdominal forceps, aka pinchers or pincers. Earwig! We unfolded the blossom and an earwig crawled out.
Honey bee foragers collect nectar, pollen, water and propolis. Propolis? What's propolis? It's that sticky plant resin or "goo" that the bees use to seal small spaces in the hive. It's also known as "bee glue.
