Test PB Collection: FTE

The female black widow spider stood guard. She clutched her two teardrop-shaped egg sacs, suspended from the web she'd earlier woven on the lip of the swimming pool. She spent the day crawling up, over and around them. Two sacs, about 300 eggs inside each one. Her future offspring. Proud Mama.

This week we are finalizing plans for the 55th Annual UC Davis Weed Day on July 14th. It's not too late to register if you are interested in a sampling of the current weed science research at UCD! More info and registration information on Weed Day can be found here: http://wric.ucdavis.

How do bumble bees plan their route to find the most rewarding flowers in the shortest distance? That "is a mathematical puzzle which has vexed academics and traveling salesmen alike," according to an article in the June 29th edition of Science Daily.

If you're gearing up for the Fourth of July weekend, you'll probably head to the farmers' market, a roadside stand, or the produce department of your favorite grocery store for some freshly picked strawberries. And you can thank a honey bee if your berry is fully formed.

Male squash bees know just where to sleep--inside a squash blossom. If you're growing squash and you head out to your garden just after sunrise, you'll probably see the males fast asleep, waiting for visiting females to arrive.

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.

Salinity in rice fields - Difficult start for 2011.

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.