Test PB Collection: FTE

It's rare for any one person to serve five terms as president of an organization. But such is the case with Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, who took the helm of the Western Apicultural Society for five terms.

Honey bees have a "choke hold" on artichokes. They absolutely love flowering artichokes. Take the artichokes blooming in the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. Sometimes 10 or 15 bees try to gather on a single blossom.

It's fun seeing little children sharing a cone...an ice cream cone. But have you ever seen a bumble bee and honey bee sharing a cone (coneflower)? Such was the case this morning at the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, the half-acre bee friendly garden located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

The honey bee sculpture that graces the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis is bee-u-tiful. It's the work of nationally renowned artist Donna Billick, based in Davis.

Ants, bees, flies and other insects--and people--ought to scatter from the Briggs Hall lawn on the UC Davis campus, on Friday afternoon, July 16. That's the date of the eighth annual Bruce Hammock Lab Water Balloon Battle, aka Bruce's Big Balloon Battle at Briggs.

As a child growing up in Washington state, I received an entomological nickname. "Katydid." My father, in a take-off of the name, Kate, affectionately called me "Katydid." Katy did. Katy didn't. Maybe Katy did. Maybe Katy didn't.

It was bound to happen. As soon as New York City lifted its ban on backyard (and rooftop) beekeeping, scores of folks began making a beeline to take classes from the New York City Beekeepers' Association.

Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, writes an interesting bimonthly newsletter. He's been writing from the UC Apiaries since he joined the department's faculty in 1976. Never missed an edition. Not one.

Last weekend we spotted a San Francisco-bound car sporting a bumper sticker that read simply: "I brake for bugs." Indeed. Bugs rule. Bugs are cool. Bugs are definitely worth stopping for (especially if it's the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis which houses seven million specimens).

We can learn a lot from insects, especially when a predator ambushes its prey. An ambush, as defined by Wikipedia "is a long-established military tactic in which the aggressors (the ambushing force) use concealment to attack a passing enemy.