Rangelands

(Update: The seminars are now uploaded for public viewing. See links.) The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology will launch its fall quarter seminars on Wednesday, Sept. 25.

Brenda Kyle is a California NaturalistNaturalista Certificada as she likes to sayand does outreach with at least 1500 individuals from January to September in English and also leads nature walks in Spanish. I do not look like what people expect an "outdoor" person to look like. Says Brenda.

What are the odds? Here you are, standing in the garden section of a home improvement store, and you select a tropical milkweed to purchase. You place it on the ground and admire the brilliant yellow blossoms and luxurious green foliage. It's the best of the best.

Jessica Gillung, who received her doctorate in entomology from the University of California, Davis, and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University, has won the Snodgrass Memorial Research Award from the Entomological Society of America (ESA) for her landmark dissertation on spider flies.

Where are all the monarch butterflies? There's good news and bad news. First, the bad news: "An Epic Migration on the Verge of Collapse," wrote the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation on its website detailing monarch conservation.

Today is Labor Day 2019, a federal holiday celebrated the first Monday of September. However, "the girls" are working, as they do every day of the year, weather permitting. "The girls" are the worker honey bees. Unless you keep bees or have access to a hive, you mostly see them foraging.

The date is set. The celebration of life for global bee expert Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis and a beloved scientist, is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 11 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Putah Creek Lodge.

If you've been finding more milkweed bugs than monarchs on your milkweed, join the crowd. Monarchs are scarce--at least around Solano and Yolo counties--but milkweed bugs are quite plentiful.

If you're a beekeeper or plan to be a beekeeper, you're aware of Public Enemy No. 1. That would be the varroa mite, Varroa destructor, an eight-legged external parasite that attacks and feeds on honey bees. Those mites can spread viruses and decimate a healthy colony.

They came to learn about honey bees, how to become a beekeeper, and how to plan for their first hive.