Test PB Collection: FTE

Honey! That very word summons a smile. A public celebration--appropriately titled Honey!--will take place Friday, Oct. 21 in the UC Davis Conference Center. Save the date! The event, sponsored by the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, will include tastings and a honey-focused lunch.

Honey bees are still in trouble. University of California scientists hammered home that point tonight during the PBS NewsHour program on the colony collapse disorder (CCD) and the declining bee population.

Craft Expo, New Leader Orientation Dates, and National 4-H Week information.

Be careful when you're harvesting an artichoke. You might find a European paper wasp (Polistes dominula) hunting for a little protein, such as ants, flies and tiny bees to carry back to its nest.

What the ?? Wheres this coming from and what does that have to do with weeds? A few years ago, I noticed that when I was wearing my cool polarized sunglasses it was like I had a superpower for spotting smooth crabgrass in turf.

Last year we had a bad blast year - several fields that had never experienced blast got the disease and some reported yield losses. This year growers and PCAs are paying more attention to try to prevent the disease from causing damage.

Ten tenants. That's how many tenants are occupying our wooden bee block, aka "bee condo." It's "home, sweet home" for leafcutting bees (Megachile spp.).

Well, I survived my first turn as the chairperson for the annual UC Davis Weed Day and I thought it went very well.

Oh, to go through life being called a "short fat fly." Such is the case with a specific tachinid fly (family Tachinidae, genus Gymnosoma), which we spotted on a coreopsis (aka tickseed) growing along a Fort Bragg cliff. It's an odd-looking fly. Its abdomen resembles a ladybug or lady beetle.

An article was posted a couple days ago on the Scientific American blog in which the author deconstructed what she saw as common myths about organic agriculture.