http://groups.ucanr.org/sbdisplay/blogs.cfm?county=6272&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed UC Gardening Blogs en-us UC ANR http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:40:22 PST Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:40:22 PST Humans aren't the only calendar pin-up models. Think native bees. Think the 2010 Native Bees Calendar. The Xerces Society and the Great Sunflower Project have joined forces to produce a calendar showcasing 12 commonly found native bees. You'll be able not only to to identity them, but to learn more about them, such as the plants they prefer and their nesting needs. What are these two organizations? The Great Sunflower Project, led by San Francisco State University associate professor......
]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:05:19 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2010&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2010 It probably bugs her but it doesn't kill her. But why? An entomologist at the University of Montreal is investigating why parasitic wasps (Dinocampus coccinellae) that lay their eggs on ladybugs (Coccinella maculata) do not kill them. Often a parasitic insect, such as a tachinid fly, kills its host. "What is fascinating is that the ladybug is partially paralyzed by the parasite, yet it's eventually released unscathed," says biocontrol specialist and professor Jacques Brodeur. "Once......
]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:55:29 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2008&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2008 A buggy thing happened on the way to a meeting. As we left Briggs Hall, a three-story building on the UC Davis campus that houses the Department of Entomology, we noticed a wasp at our feet. Entomologists warn against collecting biting and stinging insects, such as wasps, without dispatching them first. (Dispatching has nothing to do with a postal shipment or a completed transaction.) This one, a yellow-legged paper wasp, wasn’t moving very fast, so I latched onto the opportunity to......
]]> Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:45:33 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2005&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2005 They met and married in the 1960s when they were studying for their doctorates in entomology at UC Berkeley. They established exemplary careers in entomology at Cornell University. Now, at retirement age, they've moved back to Northern California. Meet Drs. Maurice and Catherine Tauber,  visiting professors, scientists and associates with the UC Davis Department of Entomology.Recently elected honorary fellows of the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, they're now closely linked......
]]> Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:12:36 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2002&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2002 Bees engage us. They fascinate, charm and inspire us. Last Sunday morning, as the temperature climbed from 40 to 50 degrees, the honey bees joined us in our garden. They buzzed in and out of the autumn blossoms, gathering pollen and nectar. I stood motionless, capturing their whir of wings with a macro lens, searching for a way to tell their story. Like many other artists involved with photography, I see the world through a viewfinder. Still other artists draw, etch, paint and sculpt them......
]]> Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:53:46 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1999&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1999 What's wrong with this photo?A honey bee is nectaring a lavender, right? Right.But if you look closely, you'll see a Varroa mite--a parasite--attached to her.  Varroa mites, considered the No. 1 pest in the honey bee industry, are linked to colony collapse disorder, a mysterious phenomenon characterized by adult bees abandoning the hive, leaving behind food stores and the brood.Varroa mites are so common that it's rare to find a hive without them. Female mites reproduce inside brood cells in......
]]> Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:06:36 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1992&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1992 A recent visit to the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden found honey bees making a...yes...beeline...for the pink oxalis (Oxalis herta), a native of South Africa. Some folks consider oxalis, especially yellow oxalis, a "weed." Indeed, "oxalis management" is a key topic at park conferences, at garden club meetings and over backyard fences. Now a weed is simply an unwanted plant in a particular place. It may be a "nuisance" because it crowds out desirable plants, steals the limited soil nutrients,......
]]> Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:59:22 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1986&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1986 The honey bees are hungry.There are fewer flowers blooming this time of the year, so the bees are foraging for what they can.This morning the bees were all over the lavender (Lavandula) in our yard. One bee, packing red pollen (probably from rock purslane), glided in, strapped herself to the lavender, and sipped the nectar from a floral "cup." The bees are a little testy this time of the year. They're foraging for their winter stores as the days grow colder and shorter and the floral supply......
]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:59:13 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1980&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1980 Pollination Nation. That's the title of a new display at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis. It's quite timely and appropriate because of the beleaguered bees. Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, has a keen interest in bees, and not just because she's an entomologist and a former beekeeper. She's instrumental in the administrative aspects of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Reseach......
]]> Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:34:58 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1978&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1978 "R" is for research at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Faciity at the University of California, Davis. What's it all about? The Laidlaw facility is a nexus for diverse bee research and scientists from throughout the world. A poster hanging in the Laidlaw facility explains: "We provide cutting-edge research on basic bee biology, genetics, pollination and conservation. We address international concerns about bee health and meet the needs of California's multibillion dollar......
]]> Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:18:54 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1971&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1971 In an aging queen bee, does age affect the quality of her offspring? Why do some bees leave the hive and never return?Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen (right), a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty, touches on these subjects in the latest edition of from the UC Apiaries, a bimonthly newsletter he's been writing since 1976.Mussen, who will be the keynote speaker at the 120th annual California State Beekeepers' Association, set Nov. 17-19 in San Diego, keeps beekeepers......
]]> Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:19:19 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1962&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1962 When a sweat bee and a honey bee share the same flower, the size difference is quite distinct.We took this photo of a honey bee on a rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora) blossom.  Above it stood a tiny female sweat bee (probably Halictus tripartitus, according to native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis).Two bees. Two sizes. One blossom. One native. One non-native. The sweat bee is a native, and the honey bee was......
]]> Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:25:33 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1957&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1957 Bees buzz. People "Tweet." Well, many people do. It's generous of the Häagen-Dazs brand to donate $1 per Tweet (up to $500 per day) from Nov. 5 through Nov. 11 to support honey bee research at the University of California, Davis. Häagen-Dazs, known for its superpremium ice cream and other desserts, is joining forces with ExperienceProject.com (EP), a San Francisco-based online community for sharing life experiences, to help the honey bees via EP’s TwitCause. TwitCause, which EP......
]]> Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:23:14 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1952&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1952 Butterflies, honey bees and hover flies can't get enough of red buckwheat. Tight clusters of pink blossoms, coupled with gray-green foliage, grace red buckwheat (Eriogonum grande rubescens), a California native. It's good for the insects and good for the gardener. It's drought-tolerant. We planted red buckwheat in our bee friendly yard several weeks ago, and among the first to find it were hover flies, aka flower flies. Hover flies (family Syrphidae) hover over flowers like a sightseeing......
]]> Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:44:27 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1946&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1946 Everything's coming up roses at the Bohart Museum of Entomology on the UC Davis campus. Roses? Make that rose-haired tarantulas. See, the Bohart not only houses some seven million insect specimens in its quarters in 1124 Academic Surge, but they have a few live ones, too. Such as Madagascar hissing cockroaches, praying mantids and rose-haired tarantulas. The Bohart, directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology is one of our favorite places. You......
]]> Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:41:45 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1942&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1942 Remember the ravenous light brown apple moth (LBAM) and all the controversy? The invasive agricultural pest, from Down Under, soars high on the agenda at the Northern California Entomology Society’s meeting on Thursday, Nov. 5 in Concord. Also on the agenda: honey bee regulatory research. The meeting, open to the public, will be held from 9:15 to 2:30 p.m. in the Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control District office, 155 Mason Circle, Concord. Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen of the......
]]> Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:17:46 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1936&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1936 The "honey bee reproductive ground plan" hypothesis that originated two decades ago at the University of California, Davis with bee geneticist Robert E Page Jr. (right) is drawing international attention. Page, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis and now founding director of the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, and his collaborator Gro Amdam, are featured in the Oct. 23rd edition of Science, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of......
]]> Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:26:25 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1930&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1930 There's something so magical and captivating about the metallic green sweat bee.Shouldn't it be yellow? No.Is it a bee? Yes.Does it attract attention? Definitely.We spotted this male green sweat bee, Agapostemon texanus, on what is commonly known as a Seaside daisy, Erigeron glaucus Wayne Roderick. This is a lavender-petaled flower with a yellow center.The location: the Mostly Natives Nursery, Tomales.Wayne Roderick (1920-2003) who developed many cultivars, served as head of the California......
]]> Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:14:01 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1923&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1923 Chemical ecologist Walter Leal, professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, and his postdoctoral researcher Zain Syed have done it again.In August of 2008, they discovered the secret mode of the insect repellent, DEET. In groundbreaking research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they found that DEET doesn't mask the smell of the host (that would be you and me), nor does DEET jam the insect's senses. Mosquitoes CAN indeed smell......
]]> Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:24:54 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1919&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1919 A bee is a bee is a bee? Poet Gertrude Stein ("a rose is a rose is a rose") could have said that.True, there's only one species of honey bee in the United States--Apis mellifera, the Western or European honey bee--but there are several races.The "gold standard" is Apis mellifera ligustica, also known as the Italian honey bee, the most common bee in America. It's basically your yellow or golden bee.But among the other popular races is Apis mellifera carnica, aka the Carniolans or "Carnies," a......
]]> Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:08:24 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1912&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1912 Officials at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and the Bohart Museum of Entomology are saving the bees--one T-shirt at a time. Fran Keller, a doctoral candidate in entomology, and Nanase Nakanishi, a senior animal science major, teamed to create a "Save the Bees" T-shirt, spotlighting the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility and the adjacent Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. The newly planted haven is a half-acre bee friendly garden designed to provide a year-around food source......
]]> Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:28:26 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1911&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1911 The dull brown moth may be dull-looking but as noctuid cutworms they're not. We spotted this noctuid cutworm, soon to be a dull brown moth, last week on a yarrow in the Storer Gardens at the University of California, Davis. Noctuids belong to--guess what--the Noctuidae family, which includes moslty the dull-colored moths. You're likely to see these moths flying around at night, attracted to your porch light. Another place you can see these moths--as specimens--is the Bohart Museum of......
]]> Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:32:41 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1906&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1906 Dianne DiBlasi did it. Back in January, we wrote a Bug Squad blog about Dianne DiBlasi’s three-year effort to overturn an Allendale, N.J. ban on backyard beekeeping. DiBlasi, who leads a group of teen environmentalists known as Team B.E.E.S. (Bergen Environmental Effort to Save Bees) and is a member of the the New Jersey Beekeepers' Association, simply wanted the Allendale Council to remove bees from the city’s list of “banned and dangerous animals” and allow non-commercial beekeepers to keep......
]]> Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:50:44 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1898&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1898 Honey bees are involved in a unique "sting operation" utilizing their sense of keen smell to detect explosives and narcotics. And now a scientist from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, will talk about the project on Wednesday, Oct. 21 on the UC Davis campus. Robert Wingo, with the Chemical Diagnosis and Engineering of the Chemistry Division, will speak on “Explosives and Narcotics Detection by Monitoring of the Proboscis (Tongue) Extension Reflex in Apis mellifera (Honey Bee)"......
]]> Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:30:22 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1893&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1893 Drones--remotely piloted aircraft used in reconnaissance and target attacks--are in the news, but so are the other drones--male bees.This time of year drones are as scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth. They're not needed in the hive now--just extra mouths to feed--so their sisters are booting them up. They're basically evicted, cold and shivering, from the hive.Drones are easy to identify: big eyes, bulky body, and lumbering movements. It's best to be a drone in the spring. When a virgin queen......
]]> Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:36:48 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1892&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1892 What can we learn from insects? Lots. But first, let's talk about the UC Seminar Network. It's a pilot program that involves Webcasting scientific seminars on University of California campuses. Scientists and other interested folks from all over California--indeed the nation and the world--can tune in live. The seminars are as close as your computer. You log in, listen, and at the end of the seminar, you can ask questions. And the seminars are free. It all started in Feburary when......
]]> Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:59:09 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1888&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1888 It was an unexpected visit. UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey noticed the critter in one of the restrooms at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. She found it several days after the massive Oct. 12 storm raced through Northern California. The heavy rain soaked the earth, apparently forcing the critter from its habitat. How it wound up in the restroom is anybody's guess. What is it? Jerusalem cricket. Not a true cricket, though. It's an insect......
]]> Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:20:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1883&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1883 Life and death in the bee observation hive... If you ever have the opportunity to check out a bee observation hive--a glassed-in hive showing the colony at work--you can easily spot the three castes: the queen bee, worker bees and drones. If you look closely, you'll observe the foragers performing their waggle and round dances and the royal attendants circling the queen in a retinue. The queen will lay from 1000 to 2000 eggs a day in peak season. From an egg, to a larva to a pupa to a newly......
]]> Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:45:29 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1879&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1879 It's a blue day for the honey bees. The massive Northern California storm--one of our worst-ever storms and marked by heavy rains and equally strong winds--means that bees are clustering inside their hives. No foraging today. Just last Sunday we saw honey bees nectaring blue marguerite daisy (Felicia amelloides), a colorful member of the sunflower family (Asteraceae). A native of South Africa, the marguerite daisy blooms through October. This bee was quite old (notice the lack of hair on......
]]> Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:24:36 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1857&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1857 Here's a "cold case" to investigate. Check your backyard or neighborhood park and see if a praying mantis has deposited an egg case on a tree limb, plant or fence. Case in point: Over at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, west of the UC Davis campus, a frequently watered potted plant attracts scores of honey bees seeking water to deliver to their hives. It also has attracted a cunning praying mantis. She just deposited an egg case on one of the stems, knowing that when......
]]> Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:56:03 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1858&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1858 It's not a pretty sight--the Varroa mite attacking a honey bee. Beekeepers are accustomed to seeing the reddish-brown, eight-legged parasite (aka "blood sucker") in their hives. UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, is among those who've declared war on the mites. She's carrying out an intensive and comprehensive breeding and selection program aimed at developing honey bees that are resistant to......
]]> Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:34:55 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1859&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1859 Caught between a rock and a...soft place... You'll often see tiny sweat bees nectaring rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora) in urban gardens. This plant, a native of Chile, brightens landscapes with its pinkish magenta blossoms. You probably wouldn't wear this color if you were in the federal witness protection program. It shouts "Look at me!"The old saying that "it's so loud it could stop traffic" applies here.It certainly stops insect traffic. (The lure, though, is the pollen, not the......
]]> Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:02:51 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1853&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1853 The UC Davis Aboretum--particularly the Storer Garden--is full of color--and sunflower bees. A recent trip to see the New England Asters (Aster novae-angliae from the Asteraceae or sunflower family) yielded a Nikon moment: fuzzy-wuzzy sunflower bees foraging on the striking purple flowers. The sunflower bee (Diadasia enavata), family Apidae, is a specialist bee instead of a generalist. You'll see it on members of the sunflower family, such as the asters, daisies and sunflowers. Unlike honey......
]]> Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:55:06 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1850&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1850 Like to know more about the biocontrol of tea pests? Aging of insects? What honey bee research is under way? If you can't physically attend the UC Davis Department of Entomology's fall seminars, starting Wednesday noon, Oct. 7 in 122 Briggs Hall, you can participate via Webinars or listen to the archived Webcasts. Most will be Webcast. UC Davis entomology professor James Carey, former chair of the UC Systemwide Academic Senate University Committee on Research Policy, launched a pilot......
]]> Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:26:04 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1846&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1846 It's not just the honey bees that will be foraging in the half-acre Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis. Scores of native bees and other insects will be there, too. They already are. A weekend visit to the haven, a bee friendly garden being developed next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, revealed assorted insects, including a dragonfly and a hover fly. A sage attracted the dragonfly, a Variegated Meadowhawk (Sympetrum corrugatum, family......
]]> Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:20:21 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1841&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1841 The green metallic sweat bee looks as if someone splashed green fluorescent paint on it.This uniquely colored bee is just one of some 1600 native bee species in California. It's about one-fourth the size of a honey bee and it's difficult to photograph because (1) it's tiny and (2) it moves fast.Gordon Frankie, professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley, and Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, and their colleagues wrote an......
]]> Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:40:36 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1833&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1833 Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito that transmits malaria, has a new foe. And his first name is Win. Win Surachetpong, a UC Davis doctoral candidate in immunology with a designed emphasis in vector-borne disease, has just received the American Committee of Medical Entomology student travel award to present his malaria research at the 58th annual American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) conference Nov. 18-22 in Washington, D.C. That's quite an honor, indeed. Surachetpong......
]]> Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:26:55 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1828&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1828 Summer is fading and the temperatures are dropping, too. You're more likely to see Vanessa. That would be Vanessa annabella, one of the Painted Lady butterflies. The West Coast Lady (Vanessa annabella), is seen more often in cool seasons, says UC Davis butterfly expert, Arthur Shapiro, professor of ecology and evolution. The West Coast Lady is a member of the Brush-Footed Butterflies (Nymphalidae) and the subfamily, True Brushfoots. On a recent trip to Tomales, we spotted the West Coast......
]]> Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:15:51 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1822&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1822 Ever seen a tachinid tiptoeing through the lavender? The tachinids are parasitic flies that lay their eggs in hosts such as Lepidoptera (butterfly) caterpillars. As larvae, they live in and kill their hosts. As adults, they sip nectar and other plant juices. That's why you'll see the adults tiptoeing through the lavender, sage and mints. The scenario is unforgettable. The soft, silken flowers contrast sharply with the insect's long, hairy bristles. But beauty is in the eye of the......
]]> Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:06:40 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1819&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1819 The honey bee nectaring the Penstemon, aka Beardtongue, in Tomales, Calif., didn't seem to mind my presence. Perfect. The amber-colored bee was foraging among the purple two-lipped flowers. The plant derives its name from what appears to be a "tongue" (staminode) poking from the "mouth" of the blossom. It's an attractive flower--indeed, humans hold Penstemon festivals in Flagstaff, Ariz. and Holden, Utah--and the bees like it, too. The little Marin County honey bee glanced at me and then......
]]> Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:18:23 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1815&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1815 Surprise: it's in the antennae! Neurobiologists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have long wondered how monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) can migrate from across eastern North America to a specific grove of fir trees in Mexico. That's 2000 miles, as a crow flies--or as a monarch flies. The scientists figured that the key mechanism that steers the monarchs is in the brain. Nope. It's in the antennae. The antennae aren't just "noses" or "odor detectors." "We've known......
]]> Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:10:20 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1805&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1805 Two highly talented and enthusiastic university students from Brazil have joined the Walter Leal lab in the Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, as part of a unique and growing international agricultural exchange program. The program is known as SUSPROT. SUSPROT? That's the Sustainable Crop Protection in Agriculture Program, a federally funded program designed to promote scientific cooperation and collaborative education between academic and professional communities in......
]]> Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:04:51 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1800&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1800 Sage advice: If you're thinking of planting a bee friendly garden, think sage.Also commonly known as salvia, this bee friendly plant belongs to the mint family, Lamiaceae. The Salvia genus includes some 900 species, so your choices are good.Red, pink, blue and purple are common; yellow and white, less common. Carpenter bees and bumble bees like to pierce the tubular calyx for the sweet nectar. Sage is also a favorite of honey bees, hover flies and hummingbirds.For a really stunning sage, check......
]]> Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:06:12 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1796&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1796 What's not to love about a baby bee?At one day old, the worker (female) bees are exquisite little creatures. Helpless, really. They can neither flee nor fight; they cannot fly and they cannot sting. No venom. That will come later.They're all big eyes, fluffy hair and downy softness. As worker bees, they will live a busy life. First they wiil become house bees, serving as the builders, the architects, the guards, the royal attendants, the coolers and the heaters, the nurse maids, the nannies and......
]]> Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:47:10 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1791&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1791 If there's one plant in our yard that the honey bees don't like, it's the begonia. Lavender, sage, catmint and sedum? Bring 'em on. Sunflowers, citrus and pomegranate? Yes! Yes! Yes! Rock purslane? Like rock candy. Oh, how about a little begonia, Ms. Honey Bee? Sorry, not interested. So were we ever surprised last weekend to see a honey bee foraging on our pink begonia. See, the begonia isn't exactly a bee friendly plant. It's not like the dearly beloved sage, lavender and catmint. We......
]]> Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:00:17 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1784&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1784 Good news! Entomologist Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and a member of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences faculty, has just received one of three Pest Management Alliance Grants awarded by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) to reduce the use of pesticides over a three-year period. This is good news for the environment, people and pollinators. Parrella, principal investigator of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM)......
]]> Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:40:00 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1776&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1776 Apimondia. No, it's not a rock band or a new dance move or a new Billboard hit. It's the name of a worldwide bee organization. The 41st World Apiculture Congress is meeting this week through Sunday, Sept. 20 in Montepellier, France, and the buzz is all about what's killing the honey bees. Some 10,000 entomologists and beekeepers are attending the conference and they're worried--and rightfully so. As Emmanuel Angleys wrote in an article published today: "The Western honey bee is a vital......
]]> Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:45:13 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1771&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1771 Rising soon from the ashes of the Baxter House fire will be the soothing colors of the Campus Buzzway. It's a story that began in May 1938 with a farmhouse-turned-lab-turned-eyesore. It will end with the honey bees' version of "A Field of Dreams"--the Campus Buzzway. UC Davis firefighters torched the abandoned building in a control burn on June 30. Where flames erupted will be where California poppies, coreopsis (tickseed) and lupine will spring to life. The Campus Buzzway will be......
]]> Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:26:13 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1766&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1766 It's raining rain lilies in the Carolee Shields White Flower Garden of the UC Davis Arboretum. The Argentine Rain Lily (Zephyranthes candida), also known as the White Rain Lily, White Fairy Lily and White Zephyr Lily, is drawing a few honey bees, but the bees like the lavender and sage best. The white Zeph is one of the "Arboretum All-Stars," a list of 100 plants that thrive in the Central Valley and stay attractive most of the year. Most of the All-Stars are also drought tolerant, require......
]]> Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:04:25 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1760&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1760 If you stuff your turkey with sage, chances are it's Salvia officinalis. Not the turkey, the sage. And if you visit the Storer Garden at the UC Davis Arboretum, you'll see bumble bees stuffing themselves with nectar from the purple flowers of Salvia officinalis, cultivar Berggarten, also known as Berggarten sage. Scores of Bombus californicus nectared the flowers last weekend, seemingly proving that this is indeed a culinary sage favored by people AND bumble bees. Salvia officinalis......
]]> Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:34:51 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1757&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1757 Aquatic Gardens, Not Aquatic Pests: How To Practice Responsible Water Gardening (ANR Publication 8369), has now been published online and is available FREE at the ANR CS Web site at http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8369.pdf. To view the catalog listing for this title, go to this URL: http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/InOrder/Shop/ItemDetails.asp?ItemNo=8369. Let us know if you have any trouble viewing, downloading, or printing the publication.Many gardeners are looking for aquatic plants that...... Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:57:05 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1755&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1755 If you're into composting, chances are you've seen this one.Common name: black soldier fly (BSF). Scientific name: Hermetia illucens.Before you say "yecch"--wait! This is considered a beneficial insect because its larvae are quite desirable in compost piles. In fact, your friendly neighborhood compost instructor will probably teach you how to set up BSF bins. The adult, about three-fourths of an inch long, looks like a dark wasp. A distinguishing feature: white tips on its tarsi......
]]> Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:14:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1745&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1745 Today has been a blur.  Woke up early, dressed carefully and ate breakfast while we discussed a morning meeting with Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and pinned down details about our White House visit. Because it’s late and has been an amazingly long day, I’m mostly going to share about our visit to the White House garden.  After attending a meeting at the USDA – and again visiting one my favorite gardens, the People’s Garden – our group walked over to the White House.  We took...... Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:02:22 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1739&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1739 It's time to pop open a bottle of champagne and do a happy dance. Finally, finally, we saw a yellow-faced bumble bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) in our yard. After a 20-year absence. Dusted with yellow pollen, it (or rather he) was nectaring the rock purslane--he, along with assorted honey bees and hover flies. This Bombus brought to mind the May 27th Webinar that bumble bee expert Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis presented on "The Plight of the Bumble Bees" at UC......
]]> Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:10:39 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1738&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1738 This morning found me at the National Food Policy Conference.  The keynote speaker was Kathleen Sebelius, former governor of Kansas, and now serving in the Obama administration as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). In her brief tenure, Sebelius has been busy framing a response to H1N1 influenza, and dealing with a host of food system issues for the new administration, an administration that is focusing seriously on food safety. She got right to the point about...... Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:19:32 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1731&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1731 You've probably seen carpenter bees engage in the practice known as "nectar robbing." Due to their large size, they cannot enter tubelike blossoms such as salvia (sage), so they slit the base of the corolla. They rob the nectar without pollinating the flower. But have you ever seen a honey bee come along and enter the very spot of a corolla that a carpenter bee has pierced? We saw a honey bee do just that at the UC Davis Arboretum last weekend. Maybe this UC Davis bee was "smarter" than the......
]]> Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:12:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1730&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1730 I was up early this morning, eating a breakfast with Wisconsin dairy farmer Jim Goodman, a national advocate for small organic family farms.  Each time I talk to him, I learn more about the challenges facing small family farm operators in the U.S. Immediately after breakfast, I walked to the 32nd annual National Food Policy Conference, which is being presented by the Consumer Federation of America and the Grocery Manufacturers Association.  This year’s theme is “Assuring a Safe and Nutritious...... Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:18:43 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1724&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1724 Pollen-packing honey bees dangling from gaura (Gaura linheimeri) are a joy to photograph. Gaura, native to Louisiana, Texas and Mexico, is a long-stemmed plant with a burst of pinkish-white petals that resemble whirling butterflies. A member of the Onagraceae family (think primroses, fireweed and fuchsias), it's a perennial that needs little care. Gaura! Gaura! Gaura!...
]]> Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:26:30 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1723&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1723 I have not posted since July on my Victory Grower blog.  It’s been – at times - a difficult and disheartening summer.  Like many Californians, I will remember this period as the “summer of our discontent” here, a period when we struggled with the realities of limitations.   Limitations imposed by a crushing state budget deficit, a dysfunctional system of state governance, double digit unemployment, furloughs, and a lack of water to support California agriculture and residents.  It’s been a......
]]> Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:04:14 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1717&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1717 Don't know if silence is GOLDEN, but Italian honey bees definitely are.Early morning Saturday, I watched a bee the color of liquid gold nectaring the lavender in our yard.A golden opportunity to capture her brilliance. She won't live long. Field bees live only four to six weeks in the peak season, so in a few weeks she'll be gone. Others will take her place.A click of the shutter and a moment preserved in time.Meanwhile, work is progressing on the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee......
]]> Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:11:28 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1716&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1716 Carpenter bees (Xylocopata tabaniformis orpifex) can't get enough of the day lilies in our yard. In the early morning, they buzz into the patch of day lilies to forage for nectar and pollen. When they're finished, it's easy to tell where they've been: they're covered with telltale yellow pollen. Blue sky, yellow lily, yellow pollen on a magnum-black carpenter bee. What a contrast. And definitely worthy of a photograph....
]]> Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:42:14 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1715&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1715 Congratulations are in order. Chemical ecologist Walter Leal, professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, has just been selected a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America, a prestigious honor granted to only 10 or few members of the 6000-member organization each year. Leal is internationally known for his pioneering and innovative work on insect communication. “This is a highly prestigious honor and richly deserved,” said Michael Parrella, professor and chair......
]]> Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:49:49 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1711&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1711 It was delightful hearing UC Davis nutritionist and fitness expert Liz Applegate extol the virtues of honey at the 31st annual Western Apicultural Society (WAS) conference, held recently in Healdsburg. Like many of you, we've always loved honey. Watching Father tend the bees and extract the honey seemed miraculous. But the end product--the amber-colored honey--this was heaven itself. Honey, however, is more than just a sweetener. "I always have my athletes consume honey before and during......
]]> Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:33:40 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1705&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1705 Call it the "Mournful Dusky-Wing" or the "Sad Dusky-Wing." Call it what you will, but the Erynnis tristis, a member of the skipper butterfly family (Hesperiidae), is neither mournful nor sad when it's nectaring lavender. The skipper, distinguishable from other dusky wings by its white fringe, is a frequent floral visitor.  As a caterpillar, its host is oak, including Valley Oak and Cork Oak, says UC Davis butterfly expert Art Shapiro, professor of evolution and ecology. Compared with other......
]]> Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:39:31 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1694&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1694 It's no secret that bees like sedum.The Autumn Joy sedum (family Crassulaceae) growing in our garden is still a tight cluster of broccoli-like buds--not ready for prime time.But don't tell the honey bees that.Sedum is a slow bloomer, and bees poking their heads in the dusty pink buds is a common sight.Plant sedum and they will come. (As will the butterflies, hover flies, carpenter bees and other insects.)We are eagerly anticipating the blooms, too, in the half-acre Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee......
]]> Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:58:46 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1690&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1690 Periwinkle or Vinca major is a ground cover that has been popularly planted in many areas of California.  It has also become a major pest in many coastal and valley riparian areas where it has naturalized and now out competes many of the native flora.  It is also a major pest in my garden and I am looking for great alternatives to take its place.  The good news is that there is a web link on the California Gardening website to a group called PlantRight.  (http://plantright.org)  They have......
]]> Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:28:55 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1689&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1689 Oo-laa! Ookow!What a treat to see the Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutullus) gliding into a patch of ookow (Dichelostemma congestum), also known as wild hyacinth. A recent outing to Healdsburg, Sonoma County, found the tiger on the ookow.The colors were perfect: the bright yellow butterfly bordered in black visiting the delicate purple flower with light yellow stamens.Fortunately, the Western Tiger Swallowtail cooperated with the photographer by lingering in the flowers. He perched,......
]]> Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:38:56 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1687&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1687 A tip of the bee veil to Susan Cobey. Cobey, bee breeder-geneticist and manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis, has won the 2009 “Outstanding Service to Beekeeping” award from the Western Apicultural Society (WAS). Cobey received a plaque at the organization’s 31st annual conference, held last week in Healdsburg. Known world-wide for her expertise in instrumental insemination and stock improvement, she trained under Harry Laidlaw......
]]> Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:06:31 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1681&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1681 I live along an historic boulevard of beautiful Canary Island Date Palms,  Phoenix canarensis.  They are really majestic but they do drop a lot of fronds during much of the year.  Anytime there is a breeze, one can expect to see the large fronds or flower clusters littering the ground around the base of the trees and  the street.  The dropping fronds are not really a huge issue in our area because the road is quite rural, and infrequently traveled.   However, there are many plantings that are......
]]> Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:47:14 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1670&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1670 If you're in the right spot at the same time, you may get a double bonus: a non-native bee and a native bee on a native plant.We took this photo in Healdsburg last week of a non-native bee (the common European or Western honey bee, Apis mellifera) and a native sweat bee (Halictus ligatus) sharing a plant native to the Americas: the sunflower. A golden moment....
]]> Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:10:40 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1677&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1677 What's causing colony collapse disorder (CCD)? Are we any closer to determining the cause? CCD, the mysterious malady characterized by bees abandoning the hive, leaving behind the brood and food storage, continues to be of great concern--and rightfully so. The headlines today read: Scientists discover virus that could explain drop in bee population--Science News, Timesonline DNA clue to honey bee deaths--BBC Which brings us to Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis......
]]> Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:24:22 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1669&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1669 Squatters' rights. A dandelion poking through the rocks near Nick's Cove on Tomales Bay, in Marshall, Sonoma County, seemed an unlikely host for squatters' rights. It first drew a tiny bee, barely a quarter-inch long. It was a female sweat bee, family Halictidae, genus Lasioglossum, subgenus Dialictus. She claimed the dandelion all to herself. Not for long. Another insect shadowed the dandelion and swooped down to feed. It was a hover fly, family Syrphidae. (Probably a Eristalinus......
]]> Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:39:06 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1665&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1665 All hail the honey bee.  Tomorrow  (Saturday, Aug. 22) is the first-ever National Honey Bee Awareness Day, as proclaimed by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. It's "hive time" this insect has its own day. After all, as Vilsack says, bee pollination is responsible for “$15 billion in added crop value and is an essential component of the production of more than 90 food crops.”Vilsack points out that "Honey bees are critical to the process of pollination of our crops throughout our country......
]]> Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:47:10 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1654&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1654 Gleanings from the Western Apicultural Society's 31st annual conference, being held in Healdsburg this week under the direction of president Eric Mussen, Extension apiculturist and member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty:Honey bees can fly a distance of about two to two-and-a-half miles. Golf courses are not bee friendly. There's no forage for bees. Water run-off, containing fertilizer, insecticides and fungicides, is toxic to bees. So, if you're a beekeeper, you know NOT to......
]]> Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:42:51 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1635&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1635 The Western Apicultural Society (WAS) conference, taking place this week in the Dry Creek Inn, Healdsburg, is drawing a lot of interest.Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen, member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is finishing his yearlong term as president of WAS. The key point: Honey bees are in trouble. The beekeepers and scientists attending the conference are receiving up-to-date, unpublished research on colony collapse disorder (CDD) the mysterious phenomonen characterized by adult......
]]> Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:07:55 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1634&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1634 Look for the fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus) in your garden. It's likely sharing your catmint, lavender and sage with honey bees and other pollinators.It's the only one holding a "fighter-jet" position.Says UC Davis butterfly expert Arthur Shapiro:  "The folded-wing skippers have a characteristic posture when they land: the forewings are held at a 45-degree angle to the rest of the body while the hindwing is held open and flat. This gives them a 'fighter-jet' like appearance."These......
]]> Tue, 18 Aug 2009 08:20:48 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1633&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1633 Apricots and cherries can have a fairly short lifespan in many climate zones in California due to a disease called Eutypa.  This disease is able to invade through pruning wounds especially during the wet winter months.  This disease causes limbs or twigs to wilt and die suddenly in late spring or summer with the leaves still attached.  The bark may appear dark with an amber colored gumming on the branches.  To combate that the disease and reduce the potential for Eutypa to infect trees, you......
]]> Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:20:22 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1637&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1637 It's smaller than a honey bee.And faster and louder.Anthophora urbana, a solitary, ground-nesting bee, frequents our garden to nectar the catmint, lavender and sage. Sometimes the forager's buzz is so loud that it's startling. "What was THAT?"In this case, THAT is a female Anthophora urbana, as identified by UC Davis pollinator expert Robbin Thorp, emertus professor of entomology. It belongs to the family Apidae, as do honey bees, carpenter bees, cuckoo bees and others. In sheer numbers, it's......
]]> Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:35:49 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1632&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1632 Talk about a tiger by the tail. That would be the Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus). It's returned to the Davis area after a 15-year hiatus. Butterfly expert Arthur Shapiro, professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, says the Western Tiger, one of the largest and showiest of butterflies, “was relatively common in Davis until the early 1990s, when it suddenly disappeared.” "Since then there have been no sightings at all--or at most one or two per......
]]> Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:06:36 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1630&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1630 The bees have it. That would be honey bees and native bees. The UC Davis Department of Entomology has just launched its new bee biology Web site. It's a place to learn about research, outreach, publications and upcoming courses; read the news stories, and follow the progress of the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, the half-acre bee friendly garden to be planted next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. The people who make it happen--the honey bee team and the native bee......
]]> Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:39:38 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1626&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1626 Entomologists, geneticists and virologists are still searching for the cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD). Yes, they're still searching, and no, there' s no known cause yet. CCD is a mysterious phenomonen characterized by adult bees abandoning the hive. They leave behind the brood and stored food. When we attended the 55th annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America in December 2007, one of the highly attended seminars dealt with the plight of the honey bees. Pennsylvania......
]]> Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:38:46 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1614&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1614 Spotted spurge is one of those weeds that seem to defy our best efforts to control it.  It is a low growing plant that develops into a dense mat that can overgrow turf and compete with ornamental ground covers and annuals.  It can be characterized by its dark green tiny leaves, which often have a red spot about mid way down the center leaf vein.  The stem, when broken, exudes a milky latex juice. The plant has a central taproot system that is capable of extending more than 2 feet into the soil.......
]]> Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:29:30 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1613&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1613 Thunder boomed across the garden.The carpenter bee (Xylocopata tabaniformis orpifex) meant business.She headed straight for the slowly opening rock purslane  (Calandrinia grandiflora). Never mind that the petals hadn't quite unfolded. Tackling the tiny pink blossom, she sipped her fill of nectar, and then, with another thunderous roar, vanished.No wonder large, loud carpenter bees scare little children. ...
]]> Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:32:37 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1609&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1609 Honey bees love catmint as much as cats love catnip. Fact is, catmint and catnip belong to the same family: the mint family or Lamiaceae. The family also includes such aromatic celebrities as peppermint, sage, thyme, lavender, basil and oregano. So, when the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven opens Oct. 16 on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis campus, you'll see 13 catmint (Nepeta faassenii) plants sharing the garden with scores of other bee favorites. It's a good choice. Catmint boasts colorful......
]]> Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:10:47 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1598&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1598 It's a crazy world out there. Now our beleaguered honey bee has a new foe: the Rasberry crazy ant,  Paratrechina sp. nr. pubens. The Rasberry crazy ant is driving Texans crazy. A UC Davis entomologist sent me an Associated Press news story about how these crazy ants are wreaking havoc in Houston and are now spreading to about a dozen counties in the Lone Star State. Some facts: First, this ant, about the size of a grain of rice, is named for an exterminator named Tom Rasberry who......
]]> Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:08:15 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1592&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1592 Beekeepers consider stings just a part of their job. However, say the word "bee" and John Q. and Jane Q. Public may not think about the pollination of fruits, vegetables and nuts. Or the end product: honey. The bee conjures up the "S" word: sting. Of the scores of questions that Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen has fielded since 1976 (when he joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty), many relate to bee stings. Here are his answers to some of the most commonly asked......
]]> Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:36:14 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1590&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1590 A spider web is nature's lace, a symmetrical work of wonder. Well, a sticky, deadly trap if you're an insect. Then you become just another tasty morsel for the predacious, albeit artistic, spider. Watching an orb weaver or garden spider maneuver a web is like watching a circus acrobat glide from one silken rope to another. The finished product--a combination of delicacy and strength--looks like the needle lace doily that your great-grandmother crafted for her parlor chairs. Sure, some......
]]> Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:06:41 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1588&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1588 Catching up with the carpenters is not always easy. Not the construction workers--the carpenter bees. They move fast as they buzz from flower to flower. California is home to three carpenter bee species, says native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis. You can find Xylocopa varipuncta in the Central Valley and southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and southward through Mexico. It is large  (about the size of a queen bumble bee). The females......
]]> Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:12:00 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1582&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1582 Thar’s gold in them thar hills. And also bumble bees. If you visit the Sonoma County coastal town of Bodega Bay, and drive up to Bodega Head overlooking the ocean, you’ll see a carpet of gold flowers known as coastal goldfields or Lasthenia minor. And you’re certain to see bumble bees nectaring those flowers. Noted bumble bee expert Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor at UC Davis, says the most common species of  bumble bee at Bodega is the yellow face bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii.  The......
]]> Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:15:15 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1577&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1577 This time of year, it is not uncommon to see the valley oak trees (Quercus lobata) with their leaves yellowed and splotchy with numerous small seed like balls on the underside.  These are called Jumping oak galls and they are made by a small Cynipid wasp larva (Neuropterus saltatorius) that is developing inside the gall.  Don’t worry-the wasp doesn’t sting humans.  In fact, you would be lucky to actually see the critter.  While the galls do cause some defoliation, they are not particularly......
]]> Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:41:19 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1575&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1575 Oh, to be a queen bee... Her Royal Highness (HRH) is quite pampered. She's always surrounded by her royal attendants, called the retinue. They tend to her every need. They feed and groom her. They keep her warm or cool, depending on the temperature inside the hive. They know it's her and not an imposter. Her Excellency releases a pheromone (chemical) that identifies her. The retinue--with attendants circling the queen--reminds me of a NFL quarterback huddle. Form a tight-knit circle.......
]]> Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:32:42 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1574&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1574 The cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae) looks like a Lady in White when she perches on catmint. The colors are striking: A long, flowing white gown nestled among the rich lavender blossoms and earthy green leaves. UC Davis Butterfly expert Art Shapiro says this insect flies an average of 44 weeks of the year in the Davis-Sacramento area. It seems to particularly love the catmint in our garden. Last night, however, it was flying in our kitchen. There is no catmint in the kitchen. There......
]]> Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:48:50 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1546&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1546 Chemical ecologist Zain Syed of the Walter Leal lab, University of California, Davis, knows just where to find mosquitoes for his research. Rice fields. He's been collecting up to 3000 mosquitoes a night along the Yolo Causeway, located on Interstate 80 between Davis and West Sacramento. The Yolo basin is home to the Vic Fazio Yolo Wildlife Area. It's easy to catch mosquitoes. Syed is using carbon-dioxide traps to capture host-seeking mosquitoes. The female skeeters are seeking a blood......
]]> Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:21:58 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1545&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1545  The lawn, from a distance, looks lush and green.  When walking across it, however, the exploding seed pods of the densely growing oxalis spread seeds across my boots and across my lawn.  In one year the newly planted cool season turfgrass has become an oxalis or creeping wood sorrel lawn.  Creeping woodsorrel is a major weed in turf, ornamental plantings, gardens, and nurseries. Uninfested landscapes can become contaminated if infested container stock is used in plantings. As seed pods mature......
]]> Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:24:47 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1565&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1565 Amazing. An article posted on the ScienceNews Web site today indicates that North America did, too, have a honey bee. For nearly 400 years, we've been told that the honey bee (genus Apis) did not exist on this continent until 1622. That's when the colonists brought it over from Europe.The Native Americans dubbed it "the white man's fly." But wait! Honey bees existed at least 14 million years ago in North America, according to a fossil record recently identified by......
]]> Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:21:11 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1544&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1544 Camping season is upon us, and with it came the news of California's first confirmed human case of West Nile virus (WNV).The San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) announced today that a 76-year-old man contracted WNV, but "he did not acquire the virus locally." The HHSA, along with other agencies, is urging folks to avoid outdoor activity at dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are the most active. If you must be outside at that time, they say, use an insect repellent with......
]]> Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:32:08 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1562&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1562 Seems like many folks assume that all bees are "honey bees." They're not. If you look around you, you'll see bees of all shapes, colors and sizes nectaring flowers. And they're not all honey bees (Apis mellifera)! The one below, as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, is a medium-sized striped sweat bee, Halictus ligatus. It's a ground-nesting bee. It's also a native bee (unlike honey bees which arrived here from Europe in......
]]> Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:22:19 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1543&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1543 It’s the lemon law. When life hands you a lemon (cucumber), make honey. The lemon cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is an increasingly popular garden vegetable that doesn't look like your typical cucumber. The vegetable is round to oval in shape and is pale yellow to pale green in color. A key point about all cucumbers: No bees, no cucumbers. Or, no pollination, no cucumbers. The photos below show a honey bee nectaring a lemon cucumber blossom and then packing the pollen. You can see the......
]]> Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:42:53 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1542&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1542 You may not know about Lavandula "Goodwin Creek Gray" but the honey bees do. They love lavender. That's one of the plants selected for the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden being implemented near the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. The Goodwin Creek Gray, a cross between Lavandula dentata and Lavandula lanata is a hearty plant with lavender floral spikes and silvery-gray, sawtoothed leaves. Ground preparation is under way, and......
]]> Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:59:26 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1538&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1538 Butterflies,  dragonflies, ladybugs and honey bees. What exists in nature is replicated in art. We sculpt them, draw them and paint them. We create their images on everything from clothing and jewelry to quilts and stepping stones. We never tire of their shapes, colors, textures and the extensive variety. Many replicas find their way into exhibits at county fairs. We saw more than a dozen "insects" today in McCormack Hall at the Solano County Fair, Vallejo. A butterfly morphs into a quilt.......
]]> Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:39:31 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1534&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1534 It's not just two-legged humans that take a dip in the pool. So do six-legged honey bees searching for water. When temperatures soar, honey bees scramble to collect water for their colony. They release droplets of water in the hive as their hardworking sisters fan their wings to "cool it." This airconditioning system works much like a swamp or evaporative cooler. Usually honey bees seek water from bird baths, fish ponds, streams, fountains, dripping faucets, freshly watered potted......
]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:07:59 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1527&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1527 I have been growing the most wonderful variety of cantaloupes called “Athena” in my vegetable garden.  This variety is to die for….sweet, firm, and longer lasting than the Tuscan varieties.  The vines were vigorous, productive and gorgeous until the aphids moved in and started curling the leaves and excreting honeydew, making everything a sticky mess.  I am partly to blame because I watched the small aphid population just explode to a huge problem.  I knew I should have done something early on......
]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:27:31 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1525&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1525 It’s triple-digit hot and you’re relaxing in a swimming pool when suddenly you realize you have company. A knat-sized insect with a red abdomen lands next to you. It looks like a wasp. No, it looks like a bee. Wait, what is it? In this case (see photo below), it's a female cuckoo sweat bee from the genus Sphecodes, according to native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis. Sweat bees are attracted to perspiring skin and often drop into swimming......
]]> Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:44:53 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1521&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1521 The economy is tanked. The cuts keep coming. The smiles fade. Not tomorrow. Friday afternoon, July 17 is the seventh annual Bruce's Big Balloon Battle at Briggs. Bruce? That would be Bruce Hammock, distinguished professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, and a longtime member of the National Academy of Sciences. He and fellow researchers, faculty, staff and students will leave their offices and labs at 1:30 p.m. to fill up 2500 water balloons, and then exactly at 3:45......
]]> Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:37:17 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1517&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1517 Honey bees--what do you know about them? Do you know what the queen bee, worker bees and drones do? Do you know why bees swarm? Do you want to learn to be a beekeeper? Or, if you already are a beekeeper, how do you keep your hives healthy? If you're a researcher, what are your colleagues doing? Are we closer to finding the cause/causes of colony collapse disorder (CCD)? You'll find the answers to those questions--and more--on a newly launched Bee Health Web site, the work of Cooperative......
]]> Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:10:47 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1510&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1510 Peter Pan vowed he'd never grow up. "I won't grow up!" yelled the boy, a figment of a Scottish novelist's imagination. "I won't grow up!" So it is with Peter Pan Agapanthus (Agapanthus africanus), a dwarf version of a spectacular flower known as Lily of the Nile. It won't grow up. And that's a good thing. Sometimes good things come in small blue packages. Honey bees go absolutely berserk over this little African lily. It's fascinating to......
]]> Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:15:23 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1505&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1505 Summer is an important time not only for fruit harvest but also for insuring a good crop in subsequent years. For example, typical summer fertilizing calls for: Summer Growing Season Fertilize young trees monthly. Use 0.5 lb. urea or 25 lb. manure/tree/appl. Mature trees need 50% more. Water fertilizer in. If drip irrigated, do not exceed 1 oz. urea/emitter/mo. Drip irrigate daily or sprinkler irrigate about every 3 weeks. Maintain a weed free area around the base of the......
]]> Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:15:56 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1504&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1504 Eagle-eyed Carol Nickles saw it first. The graduate student coordinator for the UC Davis Department of Entomology spotted the bee swarm from a third-floor window of Briggs Hall. There it was, swaying on a tree branch, about 25 feet above the ground. A bee swarm, shaped like a bowling pin, but about 2.5 or 3 feet long. What exactly is a bee swarm? The late Harry Hyde Laidlaw Jr. (1907-2003), noted bee geneticist-breeder at UC Davis, defined it as "a cluster of worker bees with or......
]]> Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:36:16 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1499&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1499 We’ve got an exciting program coming up on August 14 at the Wolfskill Experimental Orchard. Spend the day with us learning about creating and maintaining sustainable home orchards of any size. We’ll be tasting fruit, offering a hands-on demonstrations, touring Wolfskill and much more! Your registration of $45 includes lunch, fruit tastings and a pomegranate plant. Please join us – you’ll leave prepared to start your own backyard fruit production! You can pay by......
]]> Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:00:05 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1495&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1495 Sometimes you don't think about the declining bee population when you see a pollen-dusted honey bee rolling around in a poppy blossom, but colony collapse disorder (CCD) is still with us. Pollinator protection is a must. That's why we were glad to see the U. S. House of Representatives yesterday pass HR 2997, the "Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act" for fiscal year 2010. The vote was 266-160, and now the bill is......
]]> Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:34:40 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1490&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1490 Two newly moulted insects in the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, look just like leaves. But these “leaves” are made for walking. These are camouflaged insects (Phyllium giganteum), commonly known as "walking leaves." They're green, wide, and flat. “They’re hard to......
]]> Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:11:48 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1486&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1486 Do you recognize the native bee that graces the cover of the current edition of California Agriculture, a peer-reviewed journal published by the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources? Yes, it's a carpenter bee. The spectacular photograph by Rollin Coville captures this native pollinator nectaring a mint flower in an urban garden. You've probably seen this insect in your own garden.......
]]> Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:17:48 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1480&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1480 So, you spot a bug crawling up and down a plant in your garden. What is it? Plant bug. Plant bug? No kidding. The common name for certain members of the Miridae family is--you guessed it--"plant bug." Entomologist Lynn Kimsey, who directs the Bohart Museum of Entomology on the UC Davis campus, quickly identified this little bugger. "It's a Hemiptera," Kimsey said. Hemiptera, the fifth largest order of insects, all have a tubular beak for piercing and sucking. They're......
]]> Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:45:11 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1476&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1476 Now here's something that will tick you off. You're taking photos of bumble bees and honey bees in tall grass near a wooded area, minding your own ISO, shutter speed and aperture. All's well with the world. Not! When you arrive home, there's an eight-legged visitor in your hair from the genus Dermacentor. That's the bad news. The good news: You discovered the blood-sucking parasite, aka dog tick or wood tick, before it could embed or engorge. This tick (below) is a reddish brown female......
]]> Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:02:38 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1472&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1472 Vegetables grown in most California soils often require some fertilizer for best growth. Nitrogen is the most important nutrient and can be applied using either organic forms such as manures or compost or inorganic forms (chemical fertilizers) to supply needed nutrients. Learn More..........
]]> Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:14:35 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1469&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1469 They're up and at it long before the honey bees. Before dawn breaks, you'll see the tiny bees gathering nectar and pollen in squash, pumpkins and other cucurbits. They're squash bees (Peponapis pruinosa), sometimes called the plush bee. Unlike honey bees (which European colonists brought here in the 1600s), these are native pollinators. And unlike honey bees, these are solitary bees that nest underground. You'll find them from Quebec southward into Mexico. Entomologists say they do a better......
]]> Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:53:10 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1464&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1464 As a U.S. historian, I can provide examples of the many ways – both positive and negative - that patriotism has been expressed at different times in our nation’s history. There are many ways that individuals and communities can express their patriotism today. Eating local foods can be one of them. Local foods are patriotic, whether you’re buying them directly from producers in your area or growing your own. They’re good for our local farmers, our economies, our health,......
]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:16:10 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1462&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1462 When you look at the tiny unassuming walnut twig beetle--it's smaller than a grain of rice--you wonder how it could possibily kill a majestic black walnut tree. By itself, it can't. But when it's associated with a specific fungus that hitchhikes on the beetle, we’re talking serious problems. A fungus from the genus Geosmithia is hitchhiking on the walnut twig beetle and together they are killing black walnut trees in California and seven other......
]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:16:38 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1461&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1461 The Baxter House is no more. The UC Davis Fire Department burned it down yesterday. It's gone, along with assorted black widow spiders, scattered crane flies, munchkin termites and maybe a meandering ant or wandering fly or two. (After all, this is a "bug" blog.) The Baxter House, built in May 1938, was an abandoned, rundown house on Bee Biology Road, on the west end of the UC Davis campus. It stood east of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, the only other......
]]> Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:41:59 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1457&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1457 The honey bee hive is not all sweetness. The first virgin queen bee to emerge from her cell (each queen cell resembles a peanut shell) will rid the colony of her competition. After emerging, the queen makes a mark on the other queen cells. That's an indication--or really, an order--for the worker bees to destroy the developing queen inside, says Cooperative Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty.. There can, after all, be only one queen bee in the......
]]> Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:32:44 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1453&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1453 The bees are dropping like flies--in swimming pools all over northern California during this triple-digit heat wave. Honey bees collect water to aircondition their hive. They sip from bird baths, dripping faucets, water-splashed plants and even wet laundry hanging on the line. They return to their colony where they release droplets of water. The buzz of hundreds of wings fanning the hive sounds like hundreds of super-charged fans or a ramped-up swamp cooler. Cool it! "This hot weather......
]]> Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:47:42 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1450&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1450 Mowing your lawn entails much more than just mowing on a weekly basis or whenever the lawn appears too long. For a healthy turf, you must pay special attention to: Learn more . . ....
]]> Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:40:05 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1442&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed dcseaver@ucdavis.edu(Donna Seaver) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1442 A trip today to Marin County, with a side trip to the Marshall Post Office in Marshall, yielded a triple bonus. A bumble bee, a honey bee, and a syrphid or flower fly all were nectaring flowers on the post office grounds, located right across from a restaurant and marina we were visiting. They must have known it was National Pollinator Week. They were all sharing the same space. "Insect pollinators, including honey bees, pollinate products amounting to $20 billion annually in the......
]]> Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:14:15 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1440&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1440 It's National Pollinator Week, and what a perfect time to welcome native pollinator specialist Neal Williams to the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty. He's actually no stranger to UC Davis. He's been collaborating with researchers at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility since 2001. The assistant professor joins us from the Department of Biology, Byrn Mawr College in Byrn Mawr, Pa. Before that he served as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton. You can read all about......
]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:56:05 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1433&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1433 They're as long and thin as darning needles. And, sometimes they’re as difficult to find as a needle in the proverbial haystack. These slender, frail-looking insects (below) are damselflies. They fly around ponds and streams and perch on plants near the shoreline. As adults, they prey on flying insects such as mosquitoes and gnats, and in turn, they're preyed upon by dragonflies, other insects, and birds. Occasionally a spider snares......
]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:01:54 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1431&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1431 Today, in honor of National Pollinator Week, we turn to the Picris echioides. Picris echioides? You either hate it or love it. Honey bees love it. Gardeners hate it. ?If you plant a lawn with Picris echioides, expect a visit from Code Compliance.  What's Picris echioides? Think of it as a bright yellow flower with tap roots strong enough to withstand a nuclear war.?Think European invasive weed. ?And you get: bristly oxtongue.  It looks like somewhat like a dandelion or sowthistle. It’s......
]]> Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:27:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1428&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1428 This week (June 22-28) is National Pollinator Week, and what better time to celebrate the honey bee than now? The White House Victory Garden, planted the first day of spring on part of the South Lawn, now has thousands of new residents: honey bees (Apis mellifera). The two bee hives are a joy to see. America's First Family has First Hives in its First Garden with First Bees that will soon provide First Honey. The "commander-in-chef" will add First Honey to the White House favorite......
]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:00:17 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1425&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1425 To get the most from your vegetables, harvest them when they are at the best stage for eating and store them under conditions that will keep them as close to garden-fresh as possible. Learn more . . ....
]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:50:15 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1422&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed dcseaver@ucdavis.edu(Donna Seaver) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1422 Quick! How many legs does a honey bee have? If you said "three pairs" or "six legs," you'd bee right. But have you ever noticed the honey bee in flight? The worker bee packs pollen in her pollen baskets or corbiculae, located on the midsegments of her outer hind legs. The legs are fringed with long, curved hairs that hold the pollen in place. Once she's gathered pollen, she moves it to the pollen press located between......
]]> Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:09:06 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1417&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1417 President Obama caught a little flak when he smacked a fly during a recent press interview in the White House. During the interview, a pesky fly buzzed around his head and then landed on his hand. Big mistake. The commander-in-chief nailed him. The bug stopped there. "I got the sucker," he said. That prompted the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to protest the fly......
]]> Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:14:19 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1413&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1413 John Emery is a spider man. Oh, he’s not a super hero who clings to city skyscrapers and chases villains and rescues damsels in distress. He’s the IT manager for Sue Mills, a company which sells school uniforms. But he's truly a spider man. He has "his" very own spider cocoon right outside his office window on Harrison Street, where he watches mama and her babies. In a......
]]> Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:12:15 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1405&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1405 UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr., Honey Bee Research Facility, is the kind of person who would give you the shirt off her back. Really. And that's exactly what she did when several visitors recently toured the Laidlaw facility. Cobey let one visitor borrow her long-sleeved denim shirt. Then, bare-armed, Cobey opened a hive to display the colony. That says two things: her generosity and the temperament of her bees: gentle. "Sue's......
]]> Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:56:40 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1400&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1400 The Smithsonian Institution is the place to "bee" on Monday, June 22. UC Davis pollinator specialist and researcher Robbin Thorp will join other bumble bee experts from across the country in a "Plight of the Bumble Bees" public symposium from 10 a.m. to 12:30 The location: Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History. The Smithsonian is located at the corner of 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington D.C. Thorp will discuss "Western Bumble Bees in......
]]> Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:20:22 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1396&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1396 Most all gardens in California will require some irrigation especially in summer. Irrigation that is inadequate will cause a significant reduction in productivity. However, water can be very expensive so creating an irrigation system that will adjust to the rooting depth of various plants is important. Learn more .......
]]> Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:37:23 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1393&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed dcseaver@ucdavis.edu(Donna Seaver) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1393   "WHY I'M A VICTORY GROWER": PLANT YOUR INDEPENDENCE! Kids, Submit Your Own "Vision Video" for Food Independence Day   Do you love growing food in your garden? Maybe your dream is to become a farmer and spend your days outside in the field? Do you hope to one day feed others with the food you grow? That makes you a Victory Grower! If you know a youth that has a green thumb, thinks growing food in your own garden is cool, or is a lover of fresh, healthy vegetables, organizers of "Food...... Sun, 14 Jun 2009 16:06:58 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1388&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1388 Faster than a speeding bullet... As soon as UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey opened a beehive and removed a chunk of honeycomb to show visitors, here came the speeding bullet. A fast camera shutter caught what the eye couldn't see. It was a queen yellowjacket taking dead aim at the comb. "The yellowjacket queen this time of year zeroes in on the honey as soon as you open a hive," said Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. "They......
]]> Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:54:10 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1392&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1392 WAS is not just the first and third person singular past indicative of be. It's the Western Apicultural Society, an organization dedicated to the science and art of rearing honey bees. You'll find scores of commericial beekeepers at the 31st annual WAS Conference, scheduled Aug. 17-20 in Healdsburg, Sonoma County. You'll also find native pollinator specialists, university researchers, vendors, and folks just concerned about the declining bee population and what they can do about it. UC......
]]> Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:47:40 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1389&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1389 Vegetables grown in most California soils often require some fertilizer for best growth. Nitrogen is the most important nutrient and can be applied using either organic forms such as manures or compost or inorganic forms (chemical fertilizers) to supply needed nutrients. Learn more........
]]> Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:01:08 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1387&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed dcseaver@ucdavis.edu(Donna Seaver) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1387 “You’re not going to be able to jump on the pomegranate bandwagon with your pockets bulging with gold without a lot of hard work,” Kevin Day, farm advisor with UC Cooperative Extension Tulare County, told a reporter for a news story published May 14 in the Western Farm Press. Yes, hard work. Day told Western Farm Press that from 2006 to 2009, the number of acres in California planted with pomegranate trees "has increased from 12,000 or 15,000 acres in 2006, to 29,000......
]]> Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:42:33 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1381&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1381 The competition was fierce. We're talking 800 postdoctoral scholars on the UC Davis campus, 12 finalists and two winners. Chemical ecologist Zain Syed, who helped discover the mode of action for the insect repellent DEET in the Walter Leal lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology, emerged as one of the two winners. The occasion: the sixth annual postdoctoral scholar research awards, sponsored by the UC Davis Postdoctoral......
]]> Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:01:28 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1380&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1380 Honey bee geneticist Robert E. Page Jr. is in good company. Good company, indeed. Think scientists Marie Curie, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin. Page, who received his doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 1980 and then became a noted geneticist at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis, has just been elected to the oldest scientific academy of science, the Germany Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, which dates......
]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:01:15 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1377&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1377 UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey loves flies. So, every chance I get, I shoot an image for him. Many of the images wind up in his classroom PowerPoint presentations. "Keep 'em coming," he says. So, I shoot flies. Yes, indeed. I shoot flies. No, I am not a candidate for a 12-step program. Well, not yet. Truth is, we think of flies as noxious. We don't think of flies as having parts like a head, abdomen and thorax--or compound eyes, arista, antenna, prescutum, scutum,......
]]> Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:31:28 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1371&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1371 Colony collapse disorder (CCD), the mysterious phenomonen characterized by honey bees abandoning their hives, is still with is, and the cause is still mysterious. Over the past three years beekeepers throughout the United States have reported losing from one-third to 100 percent of their colonies to CCD, says UC Cooperative Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen, a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology Faculty since 1976 and a noted authority on honey bees. The bees just vanish, leaving......
]]> Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:54:32 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1363&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1363 To catch a carpenter bee... The carpenter bees (Xylocopa tabaniformis) that nectar the sage, lavender, catmint and coral bells in our bee friendly garden move fast. How fast? As fast as a buzz. They buzz into a blur and then back into a buzz. Oh, but there are ways to capture their images. Consider not just the camera, but the time of day, the habitat, and your presence. Camera: A macro lens will enable you to get up close. Remove the lens hood so you can get even closer. Like people,......
]]> Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:16:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1358&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1358 If you like squash, you have a bee to thank. Without bees, no pollination. Without pollination, no squash. Honey bees in California pollinate some 100 agricultural crops, including fruits, nuts and vegetables. One of them is squash. When a squash blossom burst open last weekend in our garden, a honey bee buzzed inside, shadowed by a carpenter bee. The carpenter bee chased off the honey bee, but not for long. The honey bee returned to roll in the pollen, victorious. A victory in the garden.......
]]> Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:09:05 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1349&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1349 Look closely at Charles Darwin's ceramic face. You'll see selections from his secret notebooks and images of organisms that most influenced his scientific studies. His beard is peppered with moths. You'll also find barnacles, iguanas, finches, orchids and other creatures on his face. It is, says Diane Ullman, "a profound learning experience in and of itself." The ceramic mosaic, appropriately titled "The Face of Darwin," will be among the art work displayed June 3-July......
]]> Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:02:11 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1343&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1343 California has a unique vegetable growing climate and we can grow many different types of vegetable crops throughout the year. Crops are classified as warm season or cool season crops. It is important that you plant at the right time of year for each crop for optimum yield. . . . . . Learn more...
]]> Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:54:51 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1340&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed dcseaver@ucdavis.edu(Donna Seaver) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1340 A field of dreams, for a honey bee, almost certainly would be a field of lavender. Call it what you want, but if a bee could talk, it would probably be "lovely lavender." When UC Cooperative Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen, member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty, guided a group of scientists from Ho Chi Minh City to commercial bee operations in the Central Valley, one of the stops was to Ann Beekman's lavender fields in Hughson, Stanislaus County. Ann......
]]> Fri, 29 May 2009 17:37:10 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1337&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1337 Making a difference--that's what it's all about. An integrated pest management (IPM) team from the United States is in Central Asia for the third Integrated Pest Management Stakeholders' Forum, June 1-5 in Bishhek, Kyrgystan. Among the team members is UC Davis entomology professor and IPM specialist Frank Zalom. He'll be participating in the stakeholders' forum and a pest diagnostics training workshop. The event is sponsored by a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)......
]]> Thu, 28 May 2009 13:05:29 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1334&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1334 They're now back in Vietnam, but for three days they went on a honey of a tour. UC Cooperative Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen, a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty since 1976 and a worldwide authority on honey bees, guided a six-member contingent of scientists from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on a three-day tour. That included a day at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on the UC Davis campus; and two daylong Central Valley tours that encompased two......
]]> Wed, 27 May 2009 17:30:09 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1329&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1329 You rarely see two male adult carpenter bees in the same photo. They are very aggressive and territorial. While they're waiting for females to arrive, they chase all prospective suitors away. Unlike the females, however, they can't sting. I was watching a male carpenter bee ((Xylocopa tabaniformis) nectaring sage when I heard a loud buzz. From out of nowhere, a ferocious-sounding male carpenter was heading straight toward the unsuspecting male like a bat out of the proverbial......
]]> Tue, 26 May 2009 16:57:31 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1322&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1322 I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine, There's gotta be a little rain sometimes. --Joe South And maybe a rose curculio or rose weevil. When Grammy-winning songwriter Joe South wrote "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden," popularized by country singer Lynn Anderson, he mentioned nothing about the rose curculio or rose weevil. Perhaps he should have. This distinctive looking enemy of roses is a brick red and black weevil with a......
]]> Mon, 25 May 2009 12:25:50 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1317&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1317 Cosmos flowers are somewhat like Libras. They balance. In fact, the word, "cosmos," means "harmony" or "ordered universe" in Greek. Plant cosmos and you'll soon be enjoying colorful flowers that belong to the Asteraceae family, which also includes sunflowers, daisies and asters. Plant a variety of colors--white, pink, orange, yellow and scarlet--and you'll see why the Spanish missions in Mexico favored cosmos. They're beautiful and easy to grow. An added......
]]> Fri, 22 May 2009 18:39:21 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1316&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1316 Let's have a show of hands. How many of you have seen Franklin's bumble bee in the wild? Never HEARD of it, you say? Well, you probably will never SEE it, either. Bumble bee experts think it may be extinct. Franklin's bumble bee is native to southern Oregon and northern California, but in recent years, it's been a "no show." "Franklin's bumble bee has the most restricted distribution range of any bumble bee in North America, and possibly the world," said UC Davis......
]]> Thu, 21 May 2009 18:24:07 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1310&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1310 Sheridan Miller's gift to UC Davis for honey bee research was both generous and thoughtful. The 11-year-old Bay Area resident raised $733 for the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility through the sale of jars of honey, candles, baked goods and a self-penned booklet on the plight of honey bees. The fifth grader and her family (father Craig, mother Annika and sister Annelie, 8) traveled from their home in Marin County to present the check to Lynn Kimsey, professor and chair of the......
]]> Wed, 20 May 2009 17:30:13 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1307&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1307 Insects love the lavender. Think honey bees, syrphids, and carpenter bees. The noisiest are the male carpenter bees. They buzz the lavender looking for females and then touch down for the nectar. They're quick, territorial, aggressive and noisy. We see carpenter bees buzzing the garden as early as 7 a.m. and as late as 7:30 p.m. The male carpenter bees, like drone honey bees, are all bluff and bluster. Only the females sting....
]]> Tue, 19 May 2009 18:01:23 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1301&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1301 It's a curious-looking insect, the tachinid fly. The first thing you notice are the thick, dark bristles covering its abdomen. By human standards, this insect, about the size of a house fly, is not pretty. No way, no how. But there it was, resting on a purple-leaf sand cherry (genus Cistus, rockrose family Cistaceae) in our garden. As an adult, the tachinid fly nectars on flowers. In its larval stage, it's an internal parasite. The female is known for laying her eggs in Lepidoptera......
]]> Mon, 18 May 2009 15:02:04 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1295&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1295 The governor has released a list of state properties that might be for sale in this time of unprecendented budget crisis. On that list are a couple of fairgrounds, including the Ventura County Fairgrounds. The Ventura County Fairgrounds is actually California's 31st Agricultural District, and is under the oversight of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. You can visit that website to learn more about our Fairs and Expositions; they represent a great, and perhaps underutilized......
]]> Sat, 16 May 2009 10:30:31 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1293&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1293 Patience. That's what it takes to capture images of syrphids, aka flower or hover flies. They are oh, so tiny and they move oh, so quickly. As the morning dawns, you wait, camera poised, near their preferred blossoms. You'll need a keen eye and a quick trigger finger--not to mention a good macro lens and a high shutter speed to freeze a moment in time and space. If you're stealthy and don't startle or shadow them, you can observe them nectaring just inches away from you. This is big game......
]]> Fri, 15 May 2009 18:28:26 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1291&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1291 If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it's probably a duck. If it looks like a bee, buzzes like a bee, and visits flowers like a bee, it might not be a bee. It could be a fly, or more specifically, a syrphid or flower fly. Syrphids, also known as hover flies (from the family Syrphidae and order Diptera), are everywhere. They hover over flowers like a helicopter over a meadow and then touch down. You'll see them nectaring blossoms, zipping from one flower to the......
]]> Thu, 14 May 2009 18:00:32 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1289&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1289 What's happening to our bees? The International Bee Research Association (IBRA), a non-profit organization formed in 1949 that promotes the "value of bees by providing information on bee science and beekeeping worldwide," has just posted several free downloadable pamphlets on bees, including honey bees, bumble bees, and solitary bees. There's also a pamphlet on colony collapse disorder (CCD), the mysterious malady characterized by bees abandoning their hives. The pamphlets are......
]]> Wed, 13 May 2009 17:54:40 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1282&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1282 "Gossamer" means something sheer, light and delicate, as in gossamer fabric. You can also apply it to the wings of a carpenter bee. We captured this image of a male carpenter bee (Xylocopa tabaniformis) nectaring on lavender. The wings look sheer, fragile and airy. Note the thorax brushed with pollen....
]]> Tue, 12 May 2009 19:04:18 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1277&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1277 You won’t want to miss the seminar on “Bee Problems and Colony Losses” on Wednesday, May 13 in 122 Briggs Hall, UC Davis. If you can’t make it in person, you can listen to it live via Webinar. Guest lecturer Richard Fell of the Department of Entomology, Virginia Tech, will speak on "Bee Problems and Colony Losses - Are Things Really That Bad?" from 12:10 to 1 p.m. He'll answer questions following his......
]]> Mon, 11 May 2009 19:43:43 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1275&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1275 I’ve been pondering a lot the last three weeks, trying to think outside the box, and trying to proceed as if there is no box at all. Two weeks of conferences in a row, one the Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Conference, the second sponsored by the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Very different conferences, but a common theme: Food Systems All the Time. At the UC-sponsored professional conference that I recently attended, I had the opportunity to hear......
]]> Sun, 10 May 2009 14:11:02 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1271&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1271 A honey bee newsletter, "From the UC Apiaries" newsletter, written by Cooperative Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology Faculty, provides linformative and educational information for beekeepers and those interested in the plight of the honey bee. In his latest edition, Mussen writes: "Since years of study on colony collapse disorder (CCD) of honey bees have not produced the smoking gun (a single cause) for the malady, scientists are......
]]> Fri, 08 May 2009 04:21:50 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1268&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1268 Brian Turner, outreach coordinator at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis campus, is used to walking around with a walking stick. Not just any walking stick. The Giant New Guinea Walking Stick and the Vietnamese Walking Stick. Although the Bohart Museum houses more than seven million insect specimens, some are quite alive, thank you. They include the walking sticks, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, giant cave cockroaches, black widow spiders, and the rose hair tarantulas. All are taking......
]]> Thu, 07 May 2009 05:21:01 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1264&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1264 "Insects are the most successful animals that have ever existed on Earth and have been around for just over 400 million years," writes George Gavin in Insects, an American Nature Guide published by Smithmark Publishers, N.Y. "Of the nearly one and a half million described species of all animals, just over 930,000 of them are insects," Gavin points out. "Thousands of new insect species are described every year and recent estimates from work in the world's diminishing......
]]> Wed, 06 May 2009 12:05:37 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1258&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1258 The rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora) attracts its share of insects. This morning the brilliant magenta blossoms drew honey bees, carpenter bees and hover flies. As a hover fly (aka syrphid fly or flower fly) gathered nectar, a spider crawled up a leaf of the succulent, presumably to check out the best place to weave a web. The rock purslane is drought-tolerant and a good plant for xeroscaping. And perfect for attracting pollinators--and an occasional spider....
]]> Tue, 05 May 2009 10:32:09 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1255&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1255 It looks like a giant mosquito. But it isn't. It's a crane fly (family Tipulidae), also known as a "mosquito hawk." It's a slender, long-legged insect that cats like to target. Our cat, Xena the Warrior Princess, loves to bat them out of the air--and then look around for more. Most crane flies "feed on decaying organic matter, but some are predaceous or feed on living plants such as mosses," according to entomologists Jerry Powell and Charles Hogue in their guidebook,......
]]> Mon, 04 May 2009 18:03:19 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1253&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1253 Ever seen bees at a watering hole? Bees not only bring back nectar, pollen and propolis to the hive, but also water. "Water dilutes the concentrated food, maintains humidity in the brood nest, and it's used to air-condition the hive, like an evaporative cooler," said Cooperative Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen, who's entering his 33rd year as a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty. Beekeepers use a variety of watering devices to make sure their colonies have......
]]> Fri, 01 May 2009 18:35:36 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1247&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1247 What's happening with the honey bees? Those following the mysterious phenomonen known as colony collapse disorder (CCD)--characterized by bees abandoning their hives--are eagerly waiting the latest developments. So, when UC Davis bee breeder-genetist Susan Cobey recently offered a class on queen-bee rearing at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis, she invited Cooperative Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen to address the group. Mussen, who is entering his 33rd year......
]]> Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:14:55 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1245&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1245 Strong structural support is needed to support the vines and crop; this can be a trellis, an arbor, or a fence. Many gardeners grow grapes on an arbor to provide both shade and fruit. A trellis provides the easiest method . . . Learn more...
]]> Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:53:05 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1243&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed dcseaver@ucdavis.edu(Donna Seaver) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1243 Great article in the Tuesday, April 28 edition of The New York Times on "Let's Hear It for the Bees." And did I mention that the photo accompanying the article is one I shot last year on a Yolo County farm tour? The bee is nectaring a button willow (Cephalanthus occidentalis). In The Times' article, Leon Kreitzman writes about the rhythmic opening and closing of blossoms. "Flowers of a given species all produce nectar at about the same time each day, as this increases the......
]]> Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:03:33 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1237&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1237 If you see a caterpillar near a cluster of aphids, don't squash it. It could very well be the larva of a syrphid or hover fly (family Syrphidae) and it's eating aphids. What do they look like? I happened to capture an image of a tiny syrphid larva on a rose leaf, and sure enough, it was eating aphids. Community ecologist Louie Yang, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty last year, has also photographed syrphid larvae. He recognized this one right away. If you want to......
]]> Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:03:09 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1234&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1234 Got aphids? The important work that soldier beetles (family Cantharidae) do is never more exemplified than in the "before" and "after" photos. When the aphids landed on our rose bushes, a few ladybugs came to dine, but the insects that really stopped the aphid onslaught were the soldier beetles. Veni, Vidi, Vici! They came, they saw, they conquered. And now, since their food source is gone, the soldier beetles have flown off to find another tasty smorgasbord. Yesterday......
]]> Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:40:32 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1230&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1230 Insects are cold-blooded so their temperature coincides with their environment. Before the sun rises, they lie ever so still. As the sun warms them, they stir ever so slowly. At 6 a.m. yesterday, we checked the roses for aphids (yes, they were there) and so were the predators: the soldier beetles and ladybugs. A soldier beetle crawled to the edge of a leaf. A ladybug cartwheeled over a leaf and then clung to the tip. Breakfast is ready!...
]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:18:34 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1224&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1224 Starting your vegetables indoors early can give your garden a jumpstart on spring. It also reduces the cost of seedling transplants in that a packet of seeds cost about the same as 1, 4-inch tomato plant. It also allows you to grow seedlings of varieties that may be difficult to find in the nursery as transplants. To start you will need . . . . . Learn more...
]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:01:21 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1226&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed dcseaver@ucdavis.edu(Donna Seaver) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1226 Perfect planning. Except it wasn’t planned. On the last day of a two-day advanced workshop on "The Technique of Instrumental Insemination,” taught by bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. UC Davis, bees from one of the hives began to swarm. It was perfect for one of Cobey's students, Ventura resident Bill Weinerth, a veteran beekeeper and......
]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:41:19 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1221&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1221 They're good soldiers, those soldier beetles. Members of the family Cantharidae, they are beneficial insects that eat other insects, especially aphids and caterpillars--but just about any soft-bodied insect will do. If no insects are available, you'll see them dining on nectar and pollen. We saw these soldier beetles, with their long, narrow reddish-orange bodies and brownish-gray wing covers, on our rose bushes this morning. As aphids scooted up and down the steps and leaves, so did the......
]]> Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:14:24 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1214&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1214 I'm at the Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Conference in San Jose, where several hundred indivdiuals interested in all aspects of the food system are convening. It's busy and hectic and wonderful. This evening, The Washington Post published a story by noted writer Jane Black about a USDA announcement important to all Victory Growers. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announces the expansion of The People's Garden...and more. Per Jane Black at The Washington Post, "The garden now will...... Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:21:11 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1211&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1211 Ladybugs eat lots of aphids. Did we say lots of aphids? Lots of aphids. They have no portion control. If you watch closely, you'll see them gobble aphids like theater-goers devour buttered popcorn. Ladybugs eat so many aphids you wonder if they'll ever be able to lift off the plant. Last Saturday we observed the usual: a ladybug chomping down aphids. But wait! What was that riding on her back? Coud it be? Was it? It was. An aphid was riding the ladybug like a cowboy on a bucking rodeo......
]]> Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:14:36 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1210&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1210 It wasn't the Battle of the Sexes. It was the Battle of the Males. I spotted two male carpenter bees buzzing loudly over the salvia (sage) in our back yard Saturday morning. Each was lying in wait for a female, but instead found a competitor. Now male carpenter bees are quite territorial and these two were no exception. The would-be suitors chased one another all over the yard, from saliva to salvia. One would buzz into a blossom for a quick nectar fix and the other would aggressively chase......
]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:14:46 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1204&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1204 Who hates termites? Raise your hands. Those dratted termites damage our homes, decks, furniture, fence posts and other wooden materials. But at the 95th annual UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday, April 18, you’ll see termites “walk the line”--ala the Johnny Cash song--between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at Briggs Hall. (Too bad Cash didn't sing about termites "walking the plank." But then,......
]]> Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:59:24 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1197&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1197 Poet Gertrude Stein wrote in her 1913 poem, "Sacred Emily," that "a rose is a rose is a rose." Things are what they are. The laws of identity. No matter where I go, there I am. When I captured this photo last Sunday of a fly on a rose petal, I immediately thought "A fly is a fly is a fly." Not to an entomologist. The common house fly (Musca domestica Linnaeus) commonly breeds in manure, compost piles and dumpsters. The housefly is known to transfer at least......
]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:03:25 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1193&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1193 If you attend the 95th annual UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday, April 18 and stop by Briggs Hall between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., you'll get a taste of honey. In fact, six tastes of honey. Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen, a 32-year member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty, will provide six different flavors of honey: Eastern buckhweat, redwood forest, orange blossom, California sage, Northwest raspberry and Georgia gallberry. Here's the procedure: you scoop up six toothpicks, one......
]]> Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:21:40 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1190&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1190 If you're accustomed to seeing ants crawl, wait a minute...some can actually jump. Ants? Jump? Like leaping lizards? True. Harpegnathos saltator, aka Jerdon's jumping ant, a species found in India, can indeed jump. It can leap a distance of about 10 centimeters (about 3.9 inches). It does this to catch prey and to escape sticky situations. Christian Peeters, director of the Laboratoire d’Ecologie,......
]]> Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:10:58 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1187&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1187 In a matter of days, the aphids discovered our newly purchased rose bushes. They clustered around the buds and unfolding leaves, piercing the tender stems and sucking the plant juices as if there were no tomorrow. For some of them, there would be no tomorrow. A ladybug arrived and began feasting on the colony of aphids, like a 10-year-old kid with a bag of french fries from a fast food place. She gobbled the aphids and then, satiated, off she flew. With spray from a garden hose, we......
]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:14:12 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1183&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1183 With the opening of baseball season, it's "peanuts, popcorn and Cracker Jacks!" But to beekeepers, it's peanuts. Or rather, peanut-like shells. Immature queen bees grow to maturity in cells that resemble peanut shells. When UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis, led a recent queen-bee rearing class on a tour of commercial queen bee producers, one of the stops was at C. F. Koehnen & Sons, Inc.,......
]]> Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:08:45 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1176&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1176 A baby hooded praying mantis is among the new residents of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, 1124 Academc Surge, on the UC Davis campus. It's a Rhombodera basalis or Giant Malayasian Shield Mantis and is a gift from a teacher in Elk Grove. "It will grow to be about three inches long," said Brian Turner, the Bohart's outreach coordinator. It prefers warm, wet climates. Visitors to the Bohart Museum can check out the hooded praying mantis during the campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day, set......
]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:40:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1172&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1172 If you want to create art that's bound to be a conversation piece, you need to head over to Briggs Hall at the University of California, Davis on Saturday, April 18. April 18 is the 95th annual UC Davis Picnic Day, a campuswide event that showcases, the organizers say, "the richness and diversity of campus life." Make that "the richness and diversity of insects," too. Briggs Hall, home of the Department of......
]]> Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:07:02 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1170&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1170 Irving Berlin wasn't writing about carpenter bees when he penned "Easter Bonnet": In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade I'll be all in clover and when they look you over I'll be the proudest fellow in the Easter parade However, if you watch carpenter bees move from flower to flower as they gather nectar, you're bound to see one with its head inside a blossom. An Easter bonnet, to be sure. I captured this image of a......
]]> Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:03:19 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1167&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1167 If you built it (a field of dreams), they will come. And if you bring flowers, that's all the bettter. Melissa "Missy" Borel, program manager of the California Center for Urban Horticulture, UC Davis, and a strong proponent of bee friendly plants, brought salvia, lavender (Otto Quast Spanish lavender) and some stalked bulbine (Bulbine frutescens) to a television interview today at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. Darsha Philips and camerman......
]]> Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:44:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1165&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1165 She looked like a ballerina, with her long, thin antennae; slender, delicate body; and translucent, finely veined wings. She dropped down on a stem in a UC Davis flower bed. Her eyes glowed a metallic gold. Perhaps she was about to feed on pollen, honeydew or an aphid. Maybe she was just investigating a site to lay her eggs. Whatever, she graced a plant for only a moment and then was gone. Lacewings lay their eggs on plant stems......
]]> Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:27:45 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1160&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1160 It's not spring until you see honey bees, carpenter bees and butterflies on Tidy Tips. That would be Layia platyglossa, a wildflower native to southern California. Its common name is "Tidy Tips" or "Coastal Tidy Tips." It's a daisylike flower with yellow petals tipped in white, thus the name. It's a member of the aster family. A flower bed in the center of the UC Davis campus (near the Science Laboratories Building) boasts an intermingling of the......
]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:04:42 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1156&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1156 They’re big, bold and beleaguered. And now, they’re big, bold and finely detailed. Western Hercules beetles became a part of the Bohart Museum of Entomology’s educational and outreach program this month through a T-shirt design that’s drawing raves. Courtney Lambert, an undergraduate student in entomology at the University of California, Davis who plans a career as a scientific illustrator,......
]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:48:01 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1150&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1150 The painted ladies are back. No, not the Victorian and Edwardian homes painted in three colors. No, not women wearing excessive amounts of makeup and pounding the sidewalk with their stiletto heels. These are BUTTERFLIES. "Another Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) migration is occurring in north-central California," reports noted butterfly expert Arthur Shapiro of UC Davis.......
]]> Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:06:14 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1146&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1146 Remember the landmark "insects-on-the-radiator" trial that led to a murder conviction? Animal Witness, part of Animal Planet, will soon be showcasing the work that UC Davis insect identification expert Lynn Kimsey did as an expert witness in the trial. The documentary, "Bugs in My Alibi," is scheduled to air at 11:30 a.m. April 6 and again at 11 a.m. April 10. Check local listings. For Kimsey,......
]]> Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:44:29 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1142&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1142 Today we salute Andrea Lucky. To be perfectly frank, anyone who takes a class from her is a lucky person indeed. For excellence in teaching in the lab, field and classroom, UC Davis entomology doctoral candidate Andrea Lucky has won a 2009 UC Davis Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award. Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef will present the award--one of 12--at a ceremony on Monday, April 6 in the Buehler Alumni and Visitors' Center. Her major professor, Phil Ward, who nominated her for the......
]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:24:31 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1138&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1138 The Berkeley City Council did the right thing. The council members voted this week to landscape city parks and open spaces with pollinator-friendly plants. The plan: to provide a friendly habitat and food source for pollinators, especially honey bees. Within the next few weeks, the park staff will plant native, flowering plants. They'll take precautions by placing the plants at least 30 feet from children's play areas, garbage cans and restrooms. Bee behavior being what it is, a single bee......
]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:03:16 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1137&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1137 Charles "Charlie" Summers is outstanding in his field. And come Monday, March 30, the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America will honor the University of California entomologist whose career spans 39 years in the pest management of field and vegetable crops. He's the 2009 winner of the prestigious Charles W. Woodworth Award from the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America. Summers, stationed at the UC Kearney......
]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:40:48 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1129&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1129 Scientists have long been studying alternative pollinators, especially with the decline of the honey bee population and growing concerns about "How will we pollinate our crops?" Now a newly published study in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) shows that wild bees, which are not affected by Colony Collapse......
]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:11:29 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1126&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1126 An article in today's San Francisco Chronicle indicated that the Berkeley City Council is "poised to transform all the city's parks and open spaces into habitats for bees." That's the kind of news we need more of, more often. "If the council approves the resolution," wrote Chronicle reporter Carolyn Jones, "all future landscaping would be 'pollinator-friendly' flowering native plants intended to attract bees, bats, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, beetles and......
]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:58:21 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1123&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1123 To really know the honey bee industry, visit an apiary or bee yard. From a distance, you'll see a beekeeper working the hives. Look closer, and you'll see bees landing on visitors. Look even closer, and you'll see an individual bee going about her work. In the camera world, it's like going from a telephoto to a macro lens. Close, closer and closest yet. These photos were taken yesterday (March 19) at three queen bee producing companis in Glenn County, located some 100 miles north of......
]]> Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:53:47 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1118&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1118 When the half-acre Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven is implemented by the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis later this year, honey bees won't be the only ones enjoying the garden. Expect to see butterflies, bumblebees and other insects. Remember the project? Last December Häagen-Dazs ice cream committed $125,000 to the UC Davis Department of Entomology for the bee haven. A Sausalito team-- landscape architects Donald Sibbett and Ann F. Baker, interpretative......
]]> Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:42:24 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1114&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1114 Let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees And the flowers and the trees... The Birds and the Bees (music and lyrics by Herb Newman) Don't know about "the birds and the flowers and the trees," but the bees were definitely there. Lots of bees. More than 250,000. I captured this image on Tuesday, March 17 at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on the UC Davis campus. The occasion: UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.......
]]> Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:37:08 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1110&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1110 The next time you enjoy a bowl of steamed rice, thank the California rice industry. And a University of California Cooperative Extension Team. A nine-member UC Cooperative Extension team recently won the annual Circle of Life award from the California Rice Commission for two decades of dedication, commitment and accomplishments to the rice industry. The commission annually recognizes a “partner that......
]]> Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:29:09 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1109&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1109 It wasn't too surprising. Reuters posted a story online today about flies spreading drug-resistant "superbugs" from chicken droppings. Seems that researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, matched bacteria from houseflies and litter from poultry barns in the Delmarva Peninsula, a coastal region shared by Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. They published their findings in the journal Science of the Total Environment Pesearcher Jay Graham said in a......
]]> Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:38:42 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1105&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1105 Recently, to mark the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack broke ground on The People's Garden at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In his speech, Secretary Vilsack set a goal of creating a community garden at every USDA site in the world. It is fitting that the USDA should choose to honor President Lincoln through the creation of a People’s Garden. When Lincoln established the USDA in 1862, at a time when more than half the population of the...... Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:22:25 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1084&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1084 A honey bee exhibit at the 133rd annual Dixon May Fair featuring Cooperative Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen has just won a top regional honor. The exhibit, housed appropriately in the floriculture building, won second place in the Western Fairs’ Association’s non-competitive exhibit category. WFA represents fairs and festivals in 27 states and Canada. “The honey bee exhibit was a first at the Dixon May Fair and very popular,” said Ester Armstrong, the......
]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:12:13 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1094&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1094 The BBC this week examined colony collapse disorder (CCD), a mysterious phenomonen characterized by bees abandoning their hives. The adult bees buzz off, leaving the brood and stored food behind. They do not return. Many bee specialists believe it's not just one thing causing CCD--it's a combination of factors or a "perfect storm": parasites, pesticides, malnutrition, stress, diseases and global weather changes. The blood-sucking varroa mite, a parasite of honey bees, is a......
]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:40:32 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1087&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1087 A chimpanzee holds a monarch butterfly in a ceramic art work titled “Darwin.” Human hands cradle insects and assorted objects in a ceramic work titled “Analyze This.” Those are just two of the art works featured in a juried show under way at the Pence Gallery, 212 D St., Davis. The show, sponsored by the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program and the Pence Gallery,......
]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:58:41 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1085&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1085 Tomorrow's a good day to learn about carabid beetles. Kipling "Kip" Will, associate professor of insect systematics, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley, will discuss his research at a noon seminar, Wednesday, March 11 in 122 Briggs Hall, UC Davis. His topic: "The Phylogeny of Pterostichine Carabid Beetles and the Diversification of Continental Island Faunas." His lecture is the last in a series of 10 winter seminars sponsored by the......
]]> Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:08:51 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1079&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1079 The skies brightened last weekend and the rain-weary honey bees returned to the nectarine blossoms in our yard They were in the pink again! Capturing images of the bees gathering nectar and pollen is more fun than eating cotton candy at a county fair. Springlike day. Radiant pink flowers. Industrious honey bees. What more could anyone ask for a garden party?...
]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:36:00 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1076&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1076 Pistol packin’ mamas have nothing on honey bees. Have you ever seen the pollen load that a honey bee carries? What's pollen? It's the fine, powder-like material produced by the anthers of flowering plants, or the grains that contain the male reproductive cells of a seed plant.......
]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:36:08 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1073&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1073 The honey bee population is declining throughout the world, but not the interest in the art of queen rearing. The annual class taught by bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis, filled up within a week and 25 are on the waiting list for next year. It’s so popular that Cobey may teach two classes in 2010: one for commercial beekeepers and one for......
]]> Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:00:24 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1068&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1068 Blue merle mini-Australian shepherds have one. So do honey bees. What? A tongue. For a puppy, the tongue can symbolize pure happiness. For a worker honey bee: a solid work ethic. It's easy to take a photo of a happy puppy with her tongue hanging out, but not so easy to capture an image of a honey bee nectaring a flower--unless you have a macro lens, a quick trigger finger and a state of endurance called patience. To be technically correct, entomologists refer to the honey bee......
]]> Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:45:25 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1064&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1064 If you like to take nature walks and lean against an occasional tree, you might rub shoulders with a red-eyed, red-shouldered bug. On warm, springlike days, soapberry bugs are exploring their territories--and doing what comes naturally. These predominately black-and-red bugs are seed feeders on plants but they're much more than that. Scientists consider them the evolutionary “canary in the coal......
]]> Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:35:48 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1058&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1058 Eck, Joe and Wayne Winterrowd. Our Life in Gardens. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. Practical and prophetic, particular and poetic, and entirely personal, Our Life in Gardens is a book well worth reading. Part memoir, and part garden book, it is a completely engaging and riveting book to enjoy, perhaps while sitting in a favorite chair in the garden on a sunny afternoon, or by the fire on a cool, wet day, when gardening might be more of an intellectual pursuit. Composed of...... Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:38:30 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1056&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1056 Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) lamented in his poem “To a Mouse” (1786) that “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” He had just plowed into a mouse nest on his farm. The loss of life disturbed him. Today folks have only to hear "best laid plans" and know about the "awry" or "astray" part.. Friday we were out......
]]> Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:18:19 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1052&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1052 A sure sign of approaching spring... As the cold weather subsides, out come the overwintering queen bumble bees. They're gathering nectar and pollen, building their nests and laying eggs. Lynn Kimsey, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, found a young queen bumble bee (Bombus melanopygus) on campus yesterday. The confused queen managed to fly into Briggs Hall, home of the UC Davis Department of......
]]> Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:58:50 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1049&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1049 It's a wonderful gift. Häagen-Dazs last December committed $125,000 to the UC Davis Department of Entomology to establish a bee friendly garden at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, and today, the winner of the design competition takes center stage. The winner...drum roll, please...a......
]]> Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:35:44 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1046&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1046 They're early. Very early. Vacaville residents Mark and Julie Vasquez began finding the little flies in Birds Landing, near Rio Vista, in late January. Their numbers are increasing rapidly. “They’re everywhere,” said Mark. “They’re in our storage shed and inside Julie’s parents’ home and grandmother’s home. They were under my rubber boots in the storage......
]]> Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:41:05 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1042&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1042 Have you seen it? Insect.Desperto? Internationally renowned artist Eduardo Kac, who uses biotechnology and genetics to create provocative works, created the runtime animation, "Insect.Desperto" back in 1995. (By the way, "Desperto” means “awaken” in......
]]> Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:35:31 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1038&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1038 The rain and wind took turns destroying the flowers in our garden last Sunday in a siege not unlike a scene from The Wrestler. The rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora) took a beating, but like Mickey Rourke, it will return. Last year the blossoms drew honey bees, native bees and hover flies--and, one spotted cucumber beetle. The blossoms were simply gorgeous. With the warmth of the morning sun, the magenta petals peeked open and then unfolded to the tune of Vivaldi's Spring. Or maybe it......
]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:32:08 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1037&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1037 Claire Preston isn't a beekeeper but she's written an informative book titled Bee. Published in 2006 by Reaktion Books, London, it's short, simple and sweet. Especially sweet. Her 10 chapters tantalize us with such headings as "The Reason for Bees," "Biological Bee," "Kept Bee," "Political Bee," "Pious/Corrupt Bee," "Utile Bee," Aesthetic Bee," "Folkloric Bee,"......
]]> Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:23:17 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1033&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1033 It promises to attract a large crowd. The UC Davis Center for Population Biology is planning a Darwin Day on Monday, Feb. 23. If it sounds like a belated birthday party, it is and it isn't. Darwin Day, billed as "a global celebration of science and reason," is held on or around Feb. 12, the birthday anniversary of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin, according to a specially set up Web site dedicated to him and his work. The Davis celebration, free and open to the public, begins......
]]> Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:35:34 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1030&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1030 Midge madness? Yes, and Briggs beckons. "Midge madness" will occur from 12:10 to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25 in 122 Briggs Hall on the University of California, Davis, campus. That's when Claudio Gratton of the Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, will discuss "Midge Madness! Quantifying Linkages Between Lake and Land" during the eighth of 10 winter seminars sponsored......
]]> Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:49:49 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1027&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1027 They're Down Under and on deadline. Entomology professors Penny Gullan and Peter Cranston of the University of California, Davis, are finishing the fourth edition of their popular textbook, The Insects: An Outline of Entomology. They're not in Davis, though. They're in their Canberra lab in Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is located 170 miles southwest of Sydney and 400 miles northeast of Melbourne.......
]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:57:38 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1024&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1024 When my mother died in 2002, she left a little box in her estate labeled "Texas bug." A native Texan, she grew up on a West Texas ranch where she loved to ride horses. She may have collected the bug on one of her horseback rides. Or someone may have collected it for her. No matter. She kept it. The bug, as she would be the first to say, is "a big 'un." It measures two-and-a-half inches long and an inch wide. Its coloration, an integration of black, mahogany and white,......
]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:03:00 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1021&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1021 There's a lot of history in this photograph. If you connected with the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 1970, you'll recognize some of the names, if not the faces. Sixteen distinguished faculty members posed for this photo. Among them were nationally known entomologists, researchers and former department chairs. No Toms, but one Dick and two Harrys. The roll call: Oscar Bacon, Dick Bushing, Vern Burton, Elmer Carlson, Charles Judson, Al Grigarick, Harry Laidlaw, Harry Lange, Ed......
]]> Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:27:09 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1019&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1019 "The Beetles." When you hear those two words, you think of four Liverpool musicians named John, Paul, George and Ringo. Not so at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Say "beetles" and that means insects. Lots of insects. When Michael Caterino, the museum's curator of entomology, speaks Wednesday, Feb. 18 at UC Davis, he'll be talking about patterns of diversity in Southern California beetles. And their names are not John, Paul, George and Ringo. Caterino's......
]]> Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:11:26 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1014&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1014 There are so many caring, kindhearted and generous people out there concerned about the plight of the honey bee. From little girls who share their monthly allowance and birthday gifts, to all the schools, organizations and businesses who donate to the honey bee research fund at the Department of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, the cry to "Save the Honey Bees" is resounding throughout the world. In particular, the response to the Häagen-Dazs' educational Web......
]]> Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:56:27 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1011&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1011 Kids love bugs. And they love books on bugs. One of the bug books we bought our son during his childhood was “Insect World: A Child’s First Library of Learning,” published by Time-Life Books. It includes such chapters as: Why Do Butterflies Love Flowers? Why Are a Dragon Fly’s Eyes So Big? Why Do Ladybugs Spit Yellow Liquid When They’re Caught? Why Do Bees Sting? How Do Grasshoppers Jump? An illustration in the back of the book depicts......
]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:29:09 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1008&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1008 UC Davis Cooperative Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen, a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty for 32 years, says this looks like a challenging year for almond growers. There's this water problem. Think "drought." There's this honey bee crisis. Think "bee health" and "declining bee population." Then there's these increased production costs. Think "tanked economy." Christine Souza, assistant editor of Ag Alert, published by the......
]]> Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:21:50 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1004&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1004 Malaria is indeed a global terrorist. The disease, caused by the parasite Plasmodium and transmitted by infected anopheline mosquitoes, strikes some 350 to 500 million people a year, killing more than a million individuals, primarily in Africa, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So, it's good news to hear that malaria researcher Win Surachetpong, a doctoral candidate in the Shirley Luckhart......
]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:53:36 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1002&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1002 Cardello, Hank with Doug Garr. Stuffed: An Insider’s Look at Who’s {Really} Making America Fat. New York: HarpersCollins Publishers, 2009. Hank Cardello knows a great deal about the food industry; for more than three decades, he helped some of the world’s largest companies sell their products to you. In his book, Stuffed: An Insider’s Look at Who’s {Really} Making America Fat, Cardello shares his vast knowledge about the industry in a readable, organized...... Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:08:56 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=999&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=999 Biodiversity creates biodiversity. That point comes through loud and clear when you read the scientific paper on the apple maggot/parasitic wasp research led by UC Davis evolutionary ecologist Andrew Forbes. The news embargo lifted at 11 a.m. today and the research will be published Friday, Feb. 6 in the journal Science. When the apple maggot shifted hosts from the hawthorn to the apple, that triggered a cascading effect on the ecosystem. A parasitic wasp (Diachasma alloeum) that attacks......
]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:38:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=997&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=997 Vacaville resident James Moehrke was out geocaching last weekend in the Vaca Valley Parkway-East Monte Vista Avenue area of the city when he spotted some red-shouldered black bugs. "There were many clusters, probably thousands of individuals, in the trees and a few on the ground," he recalled. Some were on deciduous trees and others on evergreen trees. What were they? At first glance, they looked like boxelder bugs. We asked Steve Heydon, senior museum scientist at the Bohart......
]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:03:49 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=993&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=993 It's a sense of urgency. When UC Davis researchers Bruce Hammock and Nipavan Chiamvimonvat and their team discovered that a prototype drug reduces heart enlargement--one of the most common causes of heart failure--and published their work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the response was overwhelming. Electronic and print news media throughout the world picked it up. So did bloggers and other social networkers. But the most heartwarming responses came from heart......
]]> Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:42:11 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=991&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=991 “Honey bee insurance” buzzed into the news Feb. 1 when Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appeared on the CBS Show, "Face the Nation" and blasted the state of the economy and President Obama's economic stimulus plan. "I doubt if the government buying $600 million worth of automobiles would provide the kind of stimulus that we're talking about here," McConnell said. "And we certainly don't need......
]]> Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:20:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=987&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=987 It’s Friday, so it must be Friday lite… When you’re hosting a birthday party for an entomologist, you have to think “bugs.” That’s the rule. It’s written right there in the Entomological Society of America’s official guidebook, Chapter 10, Page 387, Line 38. (OK, I made that up.) When a group of us from the UC Davis Department of Entomology hosted a party today for department chair Lynn Kimsey......
]]> Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:00:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=981&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=981 It's often mistaken for a honey bee. It's not a honey bee. It's a hover fly or flower fly. And this one, hovering around the plants last Saturday in the Storer Gardens at the University of California, Davis, looked like a Syrphus opinator to me. So I asked UC Davis entomologist Robert "Bob" Bugg, who specializes in flower flies (Syrphidae), what it is. "If I have to be an opinator, I'd opine that you're right," he quipped. Bugg, who received his doctorate in entomology......
]]> Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:44:20 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=973&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=973 UC Davis bee specialists were well represented in a recent edition of The IPM Practitioner, which landed on our desk last week. The edition, devoted to “Pesticides and Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder,” includes four photos from the UC Davis Department of Entomology. They show bee specialist Michael “Kim” Fondryk tending his bees in the Roy Gill almond orchard, Dixon; a honey bee heading......
]]> Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:41:03 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=970&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=970 It blooms in winter and the bees love it. Winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum), a rambling vine with trumpetlike yellow flowers, is charming visitors in the Storer Gardens at the University of California, Davis. The plant originates from western China. The six-petaled blossoms gleam like gold in the wintry garden. When the pelting rain strikes them, they look like delighted kindergarteners splashing around in......
]]> Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:52:53 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=964&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=964 When you think of a teddy bear, you think of a huggable stuffed animal. Not so entomologists. When they think of a teddy bear, they think of the male Valley carpenter bee. It's a green-eyed, fluffy golden insect that's nicknamed "teddy bear." You can hug it, too. Unlike the females, male carpenter bees don't sting. When a Davis resident recently cut down a plum tree, hordes of buzzing insects tumbled out. Seeking identification, the resident carted a chunk of the wood and......
]]> Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:43:56 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=959&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=959 If you like to combine art with science, here you go. In keeping with the theme, “The Consilience of Art And Science," the Pence Gallery and the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program are sponsoring a juried exhibition, open to all artists and scientists. The deadline to submit a CD and entry information is Feb. 20. The Pence Gallery, located at 212 D St., Davis, will exhibit the selected work March......
]]> Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:37:09 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=956&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=956 Call it serendipity. Call it a major collaborative effort. Call it a keen eye for science. Whatever you call it, research that sprang from studies on insect pest control in the Bruce Hammock lab at the University of California, Davis, has resulted in a prototype drug that reduces heart enlargement, one of the most common causes of heart failure. We all know of people suffering from heart failure, which occurs......
]]> Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:01:38 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=950&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=950 Yes, they are. The ladybugs are out, at least in some parts of Northern California. We received an email last week from a professional wildlife photographer from Germany who wants to film hibernating ladybugs in February. He's on a magazine assignment. So, where are the hibernating ladybugs in the wild? Last weekend, while over in Fairfield, Calif., I captured some images of Asian ladybugs and pupae in and around a redwood tree. So, some are out. Lynn Kimsey, professor and chair of the UC......
]]> Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:05:44 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=947&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=947 He did it. I knew he would Hardly anyone can beat University of California, Davis professor Arthur Shapiro in finding the first cabbage white butterfly of the year. For the past 38 years, he's been hosting a "Beer-for-Butterfly" contest. If you're the first to find a cabbage white butterfly (from a three-county area: Yolo, Solano or Sacramento), you win a pitcher of beer. He won his own contest. For that, he wins his own pitcher of beer. Bottoms up! Shapiro......
]]> Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:13:05 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=946&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=946 The praying mantis glared at me. It was not afraid of me, my camera, or my jockeying around to get a better position. When I captured the image (below) last fall in a neighbor's garden, I decided that in 2009, I would get my very own praying mantis. Or maybe dozens of them. Praying mantises, you see, help control aphids, thrips, flies, whiteflies, mosquitoes, and grubs. They also make great portraits. So, how do you get your very own praying mantis? You can order egg cases online (just......
]]> Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:19:29 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=944&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=944 Dianne DiBlasi is frustrated. She’s the advisor of Team B.E.E.S. (Bergen Environmental Effort to Save Bees), a group of six high school students in Allendale, N.J. involved in a honey bee project. Two years ago the students conducted research and interviewed locals to find a community-based environmental project. They decided on bees. They learned about bees......
]]> Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:42:56 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=940&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=940 I'm writing a quick note on my lunch break about one of my favorite UCCE Master Gardeners, Vance Askew, who passed away last week. Vance, a resident of midtown (and my around-the-corner neighbor) was a fixture at the Loma Vista Elementary gardening projects I ran for six years, the older gentleman with the healthy tan, great attitude and amazing head of hair. If your child attended Loma Vista with Natalie, he/she met and worked with Vance. (He always broke the safety rule about closed toe shoes...... Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:09:51 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=939&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=939 “Dear Bee Scientists,” wrote 6-year-old Katie Brown of Phoenix, Ariz. “I am giving this money to you so you can help the bees. I love the bees.” She enclosed $20 from her allowance savings. Hannah Fisher Gray, 11, of Wilmington, Del., asked her friends to skip birthday presents for her and instead help support honey bee research. Hannah collected $110 at her birthday party and then contributed $110 from her own money so that both UC......
]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:44:20 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=936&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=936 If you meander over to the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis campus, you'll see a very tiny predator that looks for all the world like a green leaf. It's the Gambian spotted-eye flower mantis and it's one of the many live specimens housed there. It's green with pointed eyes (it appears to have a pointy little head, too) and it grows to one-inch in length. Its scientific name is Pseudoharpax virescens (order Mantodea) and it's found in Gambia, the smallest country (in square miles) on the......
]]> Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:15:54 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=934&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=934 If you've been around honey bee hives much, you know what a smoker is. It's a tool that beekeepers use to inspect, manipulate or handle a hive. They smoke a hive to check the health of the colony, to add a little food, and to take a little honey. In a way, it's a form of "blowin' smoke" or a deception. Moses Quinby of St. Johnsville, N.Y. invented the modern-day bee smoker in 1875. He created a firepot with......
]]> Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:59:14 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=930&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=930 Know your ants. If you want to identify red imported fire ants and other invasive ants found in the Pacific Island region, a newly launched Web site by an entomology graduate student at the University of California, Davis, will help you do just that. Eli Sarnat created the interactive ant key to assist users in identifying invasive ant species commonly encountered in the Pacific Island region. The ant key includes 15 species recorded in......
]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:04:51 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=926&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=926 Here’s another good reason to be kind to ladybugs. But we are, aren’t we? EurekAlert! alerted us Jan. 6 to a study relating that an abundance of ladybugs in olive orchards is an “indicator of health and sustainability.” In the study, scientists in Spain collected ladybugs in olive orchards for two years and found that the richness and abundance of ladybugs "were higher in the organic than the non-organic orchards."......
]]> Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:02:39 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=923&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=923 Catherine Chalmers hates cockroaches. She said so at her presentation Wednesday night, Jan. 7, at UC Davis. The occasion: “The Consilience of Art and Science centennial colloquium, sponsored by the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion experimental learning program. “We have an adversarial relationship. I essentially worked with the cockroach because I hate it.” But as a multi-media artist (video, photography,......
]]> Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:51:59 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=921&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=921 Walnuts are packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, right? Right. And sometimes a little protein. Protein, as in larvae. That's not a welcome sight. Sometimes you'll find two or three navel orangeworm (NOW) larvae inside a single walnut, along with copious amounts of webbing and frass. We once stored a bucket of untreated walnuts inside a vacant outbuilding. By spring, we had larvae crawling up the walls and moths trying to find an opening and us trying to find our sanity. Last......
]]> Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:00:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=919&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=919 DAVIS—He's back. Entomology folks at UC Davis remember when Louie Yang was a doctoral candidate, studying population biology with major professor Rick Karban. Yang received his doctorate in 2006 and then became a UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at UC Santa Barbara. Now he's back. Yang joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology as an assistant professor on Jan. 2. “Louie is one of our rising stars,” said Lynn......
]]> Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:52:59 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=915&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=915 There she was, snuggled beneath a garbage can lid, seeking warmth as temperatures dipped to freezing levels. She was lucky. It was City Garbage Pick-Up Day. She could have been trucked to the local landfill had we not rescued her. Luck be a lady and she was. The little lady, aka ladybug, aka lady beetle, aka L-bug, survived. She'll stay in the garden....
]]> Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:59:07 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=908&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=908 Like one of the BBQ meals described in its pages, America Eats!, by author/writer Pat Willard is tasty and completely satisfying. It’s a timely book, too: not only because of the material’s origin as a New Deal project (which the nation’s current economic situation has all of us thinking and talking about), but because of the growing interest in American food culture and sustainable food systems. America Eats! is an unusual book. It incorporates extensive pieces of regional...... Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:13:36 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=909&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=909 Chemical ecologists at the University of California, Davis, are changing their navel-orangeworm research direction after an elementary school student’s science project found that the major agricultural pest prefers pistachios over almonds and walnuts. Gabriel Leal, 11, a sixth grader at Willet Elementary School, Davis, prefers pistachios over all other nuts so he figured that the navel orangeworm (NOW) would, too. “Pistachios taste better,” reasoned Gabriel, whose family......
]]> Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:12:41 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=906&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=906 Twenty-nine days to go. If you love bees and know how to design a bee friendly garden, remember Jan. 30. Jan. 30 is the deadline to submit your design for the half-acre bee friendly garden at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. The nationwide competition is funded by Häagen-Dazs. This will be a pollinator paradise that will meet the nutritional needs of honey bees and serve as a living laboratory. "It will provide a much needed, year-around food source......
]]> Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:56:31 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=905&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=905 For my New Year's resolution, I resolve to turn over a new leaf. Oh, sure, most folks resolve to eat less, exercise more, drink less, read more, stress less, save more, gripe less, and volunteer more. Not me. I'm turning over a new leaf. You never know what kind of insect you'll find there or what kind of insect will "pose" for you. Happy New Year! (And may one of your resolutions involve "turning over a new leaf.")...
]]> Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:23:37 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=904&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=904 Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun compared the butterfly to a flying flower: The butterfly is a flying flower, The flower a tethered butterfly. At the recent Entomological Society of America meeting in Reno, a blue butterfly drew the attention of lepidopterists and photographers alike. It was one of dozens showcased in the live butterfly display at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. And if you took a few steps inside the nearby exhibit hall, where vendors sold their wares, you saw......
]]> Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:28:25 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=903&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=903 Right out of Champaign, Ill., comes a research story about honey bees on coke. Cocaine. University of Illinois entomology and neuroscience professor Gene Robinson and his colleagues have found that honey bees on cocaine dance more. "In a study that challenges current ideas about the insect brain, researchers have found that honey bees on cocaine tend to exaggerate," wrote Diana Yates, life sciences writer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in a Dec. 23 press......
]]> Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:12:23 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=901&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=901 'Tis the season for brotherly love, but not in the bee hive. As the honey-gathering season ends and the weather turns colder, the worker bees (infertile females) push their brothers--the drones--out of the hive. Drones are of no use to the colony in the winter. They're another mouth to feed. (The sole function of the drones are to mate with the queen.) So how are the worker bees able to shove the much-larger drones from the hive? "The sisters quit feeding their brothers so that they're......
]]> Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:49:22 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=898&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=898 I always thought the red-hot poker was primarily red. Not. This one in the Storer Gardens at the University of California, Davis, was mostly yellow. It was Saturday, Dec. 20, 2008, five days before Christmas, and a lone honey bee, packed with pollen, was heading for the red-hot poker, variety "Christmas Cheer" (Kniphofia). Seemed quite appropriate. Happy holidays!...
]]> Thu, 25 Dec 2008 07:02:47 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=896&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=896 If there ever were a Christmas bug, it would be the ladybug, aka lady beetle. The insects (family Coccinellidae) are brightly colored and spread joy in the garden when they feast on aphids. Last summer we enjoyed watching them hanging out and hooking up. Their voracious appetites reminded us of holiday diners. Please pass the aphids!...
]]> Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:31:23 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=895&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=895 You're sitting around discussing the importance of honey bees. The points include: they give us honey, they pollinate agricultural crops, and they serve as an example of a well-organized society. But wait, there's more. They scare off plant predators. "Researchers in Germany discovered that the flapping of bees' wings scared off caterpillars, reducing leaf damage," writes BBC correspondent Richard Black in a Dec. 22 post. "Many wasp species lay their eggs in caterpillars, and......
]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:23:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=893&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=893 Seen any cabbage whites lately? If you capture one before UC Davis professor Arthur Shapiro does, he'll trade you a beer for your butterfly. Actually, a pitcher of beer or its cash equivalent. Yes, it's time for Shapiro's 38th annual Butterfly-for-Beer contest. The "state-of-the-Art" rules are easy: the first person to find and capture a live cabbage white butterfly outdoors in California's Central Valley (Sacramento, Solano or Yolo counties) after the first of the year, will win a......
]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:43:50 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=888&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=888 This week’s selection of former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture lit up sustainable food systems listservs like a switchboard. Vilsack’s nomination is not without controversy. He has been criticized for his ties to agribusiness and his support of biofuels and biotechnology. To many, Vilsack represents “agribusiness as usual.” But Vilsack also has a reputation for being a good listener and being able to work successfully with those who hold differing...... Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:00:48 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=881&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=881 You CAN have your cake and eat it, too. You can also "have your BUG and eat it, too." Even if you're not into entomophagy. When Randy Veirs, executive assistant to Lynn Kimsey, chair of the Department of Entomology, brought cupcakes into the office that wife Faye made, atop each cupcake perched a little ladybug. Little as in "M&M" size. Little as in a real "M&M." Little as in "Wow! How creative!" Faye is a marketing and development assistant......
]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:49:10 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=887&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=887 Who put the “killer” in “killer bees?” Someone named “B. Melon” asked that question on the “Strange but True” segment of the Web site, readthehook.com. To answer the bee question, Bill Sones and Rich Sones did what many do. They asked UC Davis apiculturist Eric Mussen, a Cooperative Extension specialist and UC Davis faculty member for the past 32 years. The answer, printed......
]]> Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:15:22 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=884&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=884 American humorist-entertainer Will Rogers said "I never met a man I didn't like." I wonder if he would have said the same thing about insects. Oh, sure, he probably liked--and appreciated--the butterflies, the honey bees and the ladybugs. But cockroaches? I bet not. Cockroaches just don't give you that fuzzy-wuzzy-lovey-dovey feeling--unless you're another cockroach. Enter Catherine Chalmers, a New York-based multi-media artist who centers much of her work on cockroaches, their......
]]> Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:33:47 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=883&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=883 What has five eyes, six legs, two pairs of wings and can fly about 20 miles per hour? Got to be an insect, right? Right. But which one? More hints: It’s been around for 30 million years. Its primary form of communication is a chemical called a pheromone. Well, that could be… Okay, now it gets easier. The queen lays about 2000 eggs per day during the peak season. The males are called drones. The workers carry pollen on their......
]]> Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:36:26 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=880&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=880 We’re outnumbered. Plain as day. And they’re not going away. The estimated ratio of insects to humans is 200 million to one, say Iowa State University entomologists Larry Pedigo and Marlin Rice in their newly published (sixth edition) textbook, Entomology and Pest Management. Rice is the 2009 president of the Entomological Society of America. There's an average of 400 million insects per acre of land, they say. 400 million! Per acre.......
]]> Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:25:22 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=877&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=877 We're in a recession, but the mosquitoes aren't. The mortgage meltdown and the resulting green swimming pools are perfect breeding sites for mosquitoes, which can transmit the deadly West Nile virus (WNV). So far this year WNV has sickened 411 Californians, killing 13. Research just published by UC Davis research entomologist William Reisen and colleagues from Kern County should be required reading. Titled "Delinquent Mortgages, Neglected Swimming Pools and West Nile Virus,......
]]> Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:59:17 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=876&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=876 It's a high-flying butterfly--rarely seen and rarely recognized. Ironically, it's now down-to-earth, frequently seen, and frequently recognized, thanks to the Internet. Last year the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis published a poster of the California dogface butterfly, the official state insect. Visitors to the Bohart Museum, located at 1124 Academic Surge on the UC Davis campus, love it. So does Gov. Arnold......
]]> Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:56:00 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=872&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=872 Did you catch the "The Burns and the Bees" episode on The Simpsons Sunday night? Dead honey bees take over the otherwise animated TV show. Bart, on a dare from schoolyard bullies, knocks a bee's nest from a tree and it lands kerplop on the playground. Bart's sister Lisa pounces on it to save the would-be targets--a group of second graders--from painful stings. But all the bees are dead. Then Lisa visits a beekeeper and he shows her a carpet of bees. They're dead. All the bees......
]]> Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:13:40 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=870&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=870 I first met Marcia Eames-Sheavly, a youth program leader in Cornell University’s Garden-Based Learning Program, a number of years ago, at a garden-based education conference where she gave a wonderful keynote speech. I’ve always kept up with her work, because she’s written so much about gardening with kids that I think is incredibly good. She’s tops in our field. I’m also inclined to love Marcia’s work because she’s from Cornell (home of Liberty Hyde...... Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:26:17 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=865&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=865 "To bee or not to bee." That is the question. What is the solution? The plight of the honey bees has not escaped the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Students' Association (EGSA). This year's winning t-shirt, the result of a departmental faculty-student-staff-vote, stars the "unsung heroes": the honey bees. Randall "Randy" Veirs, executive assistant for department chair Lynn Kimsey, and communications specialist Kathy Keatley Garvey (yours truly), came up with the......
]]> Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:06:13 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=866&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=866 There's been trouble in paradise far too long. Now, thanks to a generous donation from Häagen-Dazs, there will be a pollinator paradise--in the way of a bee friendly garden--at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. Häagen-Dazs announced this week it will donate $125,000 to the UC Davis Department of Entomology to launch a nationwide design competition to create a one-half acre honey bee haven garden on Bee Biology Road. Häagen-Dazs has commited......
]]> Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:24:46 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=863&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=863 Call them plant lice. Call them plant suckers. Call them aphids. The tiny, soft-bodied insects with pear-shaped bodies form denses colonies on plants. They suck. Literally. Their destructive feeding habits do not endear them to gardeners and farmers. No love lost. No lost love. California has more than 450 species of aphids, according to the book, Caliifornia Insects, written by Jerry A. Powell and Charles L. Hogue. I spotted these aphids on a friend's gaura (Gaura linheimeri). She called......
]]> Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:20:07 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=857&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=857 They did it. The University of California team that developed a successful insect pest management program for almond growers, leading to significant pesticide reduction, drew praise and applause at the Entomological Society of America's 56th annual meeting, held recently in Reno The seven-member Almond Pest Management Alliance Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Team received the Entomological Foundation’s “2008 Award for Excellence in IPM." The team includes IPM specialist......
]]> Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:44:21 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=849&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=849 God in His wisdom made the fly And then forgot to tell us why. --Ogden Nash, "The Fly" Every time I see a fly I think of the Ogden Nash poem. Our bee-friendly garden is attracting a few flies. I captured this one visiting sage and then preserved it for posterity: I posterized it in Photoshop....
]]> Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:14:47 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=848&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=848 Folk singer Pete Seeger asked "Where have all the flowers gone?" UC Davis butterfly expert Art Shapiro wants to know "Where are all the Monarchs?" In the current edition of the Bohart Museum Society newsletter, Shapiro notes that California populations of the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) "are notoriously unstable, fluctuating wildly in numbers." "Because the Monarch is just about everyone's favorite butterfly, certainly the best known, the public is......
]]> Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:30:59 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=846&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=846 I ran into two members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Patrol this afternoon. No, I wasn't at a border. I was merely walking the halls of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. The border patrol agents were there to meet with entomology department officials in Briggs Hall. They handed me a pamphlet, "Don't Pack a Pest," urging vacationeers (who me? I didn't go anywhere on T-Day, honest, 'cept for an insect safari in my back yard) to bring back memories, not pests. The......
]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:52:42 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=843&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=843 When UC Davis chemical ecologist Walter Leal received a major award from the Entomological Society of America at its 56th annual meeting, held in Reno, DEET has something to do with it. Leal, who received the Recognition Award in Insect Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology from ESA president Michael Gray, has amassed an amazing record of productivity. Most recently: his lab discovered the mode of action for the mosquito repellent, DEET. Contrary to previous hypotheses, DEET doesn't jam a......
]]> Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:57:59 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=838&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=838 Happy Turkey Day! The last Thursday of November is Thanksgiving Day, but it really should be Honey Bee Day. Without the bees, we’d have no Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving as we know it. They are our unstung heroes. They pollinate more than 90 agricultural crops in California. One third of the American diet is pollinated by bees. So, as we sit around the dining room table giving thanks, we should also consider the insect that makes it all happen. The honey bee. Happy Honey Bee Day!...
]]> Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:05:39 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=837&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=837 One of the highlights of the Entomological Society of America's 56th annual meeting, held Nov. 16-19 in Reno, was the presentation of the Fellow awards. This year two of the 10 recipients came from the University of California faculty--or more specifically, from UC Davis. Entomology professor Michael Parrella, associate dean of the Division of Agricultural Sciences, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and a former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, and......
]]> Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:54:51 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=836&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=836 Those dratted mites. UC Davis entomologist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor and a native bee pollinator specialist, sent us a BBC report linking a varroa mite infestation to a devastating honey production loss in the UK. It's the worst honey crisis ever to hit the UK. In short: beekeepers are concerned that by Christmas, there may be no more domestically produced honey left on the supermarket shelves. The mite infestation has already killed off an estimated quarter of the UK's honey bees,......
]]> Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:36:03 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=834&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=834 Okay, what are the answers? In a prior blog, we listed several questions asked at the Linnaean Games, a college-bowl type of quiz that’s a traditional part of the Entomological Society of America’s annual meeting. You have to know insect facts and figures and ESA history to win. It's a fun game that draws entomologists and would-be entomologists......
]]> Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:26:06 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=828&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=828 The fires that raged through Southern California less than two weeks ago affected thousands of residents and destroyed hundreds of homes. California is bone dry, the result of an extended drought. Our building patterns put thousands of homes in the canyons and hills at greatest risk for burning. We have fires more frequently these days - fire season now seems to be year round - and they seem to burn more intensely and cause greater damage. One of the places destroyed in the Tea Fire that...... Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:00:09 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=824&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=824 In football lingo, a curl is a spin on a football, which makes it swerve when it's kicked. Honey bees can also "curl." I took this photo today of a lone bee curled on purple sage. The worker bee was gathering nectar in the summerlike weather. "That's the same position a bee has to get in to sting you," observed UC Davis apiculturist Eric Mussen. "She can't lie flat to sting. She curls up and stings." Like a comma. A death "sentence" for her; a......
]]> Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:54:36 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=823&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=823 He knows his ants. Michael Branstetter, a doctoral candidate in entomology at the University of California, Davis, won a coveted President’s Prize for his oral presentation on ants at the 56th annual Entomological Society of America (ESA) meeting in Reno. Branstetter delivered an illustrated presentation on “Phylogeny and Biography of the Ant Genus Stenamma: Uncovering the Evolutionary Origins of Mesoamerican Taxa.” Stenamma is a little studied......
]]> Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:47:53 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=817&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=817 The movie, "Sideways," has nothing on a spotted cucumber beetle climbing up, down and sideways on a rock purslane. The spotted cucumber beetle is a pest, while the rock purslane has to be among the world's most beautiful flowers. (And also very attractive to insects.) The 2004 movie is about two guys on a life-altering journey through the wine country of Napa. They drank copious amounts of the adult beverage. The spotted cucumber beetle was just feeding on nectar, the insect's......
]]> Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:24:40 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=808&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=808 Quick! Name three states that have no official state insect. That was one of the questions at the Linnaean Games, a traditional part of the Entomological Society of America's annual meeting. This year's meeting, the 56th annual, is now under way in Reno. The Linnaean Games have begun. This is a "bug bowl" type of quiz pitting university teams (graduate students in entomology) against one another. UC Davis competed in the semi-finals. Several of us from UC Davis watched in the......
]]> Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:42:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=806&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=806 Last Saturday the rock purslane in our bee friendly garden drew a honey bee, several hover flies and one spotted cucumber beetle. A hover fly landed on a blossom, only to find a spotted cucumber beetle there first....
]]> Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:44:07 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=807&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=807 Honey isn't always amber-colored. It can range from white to dark brown, depending on the flowers the bees visit. Back in 1971, a group of UC Davis bee specialists wrote a booklet, Fundamentals of California Beekeeping, published by the "University of California College of Agriculture." Although now 37 years old, it's still a good source of information in many respects. The authors included UC Davis faculty members Harry H. Laidlaw (for whom the bee biology facility at UC Davis is......
]]> Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:35:31 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=805&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=805 When the Entomological Society of America's 56th annual meeting takes place Nov. 16-19 in Reno, UC Davis entomologists will be out in force. And they'll be highly honored. Entomology professors Michael Parrella and Frank Zalom will be inducted as Fellows, which means they are among the top insect scientists in the world. The 5700-member ESA, formed in 1889, is a non-profit organization that includes representatives from educational institutions, government, health agencies, and private......
]]> Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:01:22 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=800&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=800 You may not know it, but you've eaten insects. Oh, yes, you have. The other day I meandered over to the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis campus, and a sign told me that. There it was--plain as day (as if a day can be plain). "In your lunch, you probably eat more insects than you realize," the sign read. It went on to quote the Food and Drug Administration, that veritable institution that protects our eating habits--or tries to. If you eat 100 grams of chocolate, you will......
]]> Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:42:41 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=795&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=795 Today marks the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day, the official end to WWI. Armistice began during the 11th month, on the 11th day, at the 11th hour (11/11/1918 at 11:00 a.m.). It wasn't until 1954 that Armistice Day became Veterans Day in the United States, as a way to honor the military service of all the nation's veterans. If you've read my blog before, you already know that Victory Gardens had their origins in WWI. These gardens had important impacts on the homefront, not only because...... Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:30:14 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=796&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=796 It's Tuesday, Nov. 11, Veterans' Day. I walked into our bee friendly garden hoping to find a honey bee. One buzzed erratically over the purple sage and rock purslane and disappeared. The rest are nestled in a hive somewhere, trying to ward off the cold. Which got me to thinking--where's that fuzzy wuzzy newborn bee photo? Oh, here it is. See all the yellow hair on the thorax? When this bee grows old, the thorax will be smooth and almost devoid of hair. This baby bee photo I shot last......
]]> Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:36:37 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=794&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=794 Chances are if you walked up to a group of people and asked "Have you seen a Megachile today?" they’d stare at you blankly. What's a Megachile? It's a native bee, also known as a leafcutter bee. When most people think about bees, they think about honey bees, which are native to Europe. They don't think of the some 4000 bee species native to the United States. Of that number, about 1600 species are found in California. Enter Jaime......
]]> Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:49:02 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=789&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=789 The election is over, and it's time to think about the future. Glass ceilings have been shattered, and all sorts of barriers we thought existed have disappeared. I've got gardening on my mind...it seems even more important now. The Victory Gardens of World War I and World War II - and the garden efforts of the Great Depression - helped Americans successfully negotiate hard times. These gardens helped the family budget; improved dietary practices; reduced the food mile and saved fuel;...... Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:41:46 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=783&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=783 Most entomologists I know maintain a keen sense of humor. They have to, or the insects (or the people concerned about them) will drive them buggy! At the Northern California Entomology Society meeting in Concord last Thursday, entomologist William Roltsch of the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Biocontrol Branch delivered a presentation on “Biocontrol of the Light Brown Apple Moth.” He talked about the release of several......
]]> Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:14:34 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=782&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=782 Not again! The light brown apple moth, also known as "the eat-everything moth" because its larvae dine on about 250 host plants, is back in the news again. We received a press release yesterday (Nov. 5) from Stephen Pierce, public information officer for the City of Fairfield, that a light brown apple moth was found during a routine trap inspection near Powell Court, Fairfield. This is the third appearance of the light brown apple moth (Epiphyas......
]]> Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:42:55 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=774&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=774 UC Davis medical entomologist Thomas Scott is mentioned in "The War on Dengue Fever," a news article published Nov. 3, 2008 in the New York Times. Scott is a leading expert on dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease transmitted by Aeges egypti. Reporter Thomas Fuller began his story: BANGKOK — There was little that doctors could do for a 3-year-old boy brought to Bangkok’s main children’s hospital two weeks ago with dengue fever. Like thousands before him, he had......
]]> Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:28:30 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=772&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=772 What a series! You won't want to miss the Consilience of Art and Science speaker series that gets under way Nov. 12 and continues through April 9 at the University of California, Davis. The lectures are free and open to the public. UC Davis entomologist Diane Ullman, associate dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and professor of entomology, helped initiate this series. Ullman and artist Donna Billick, co-directors of the UC Davis......
]]> Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:56:44 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=771&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=771 Ah, rain! Ah, liquid precipitation! Just when we were feeling drought-stressed, the weather forecast turned to rain. I don't know if "the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain," but the rain in Northern California fell squarely on our bee friendly garden last weekend. The honey bees weren't there, but the hover flies, aka syrphids and flower flies (family Syrphidae), were. Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.......
]]> Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:47:07 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=768&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=768 What's medical entomolology? Anyone who's an entomologist or who works in entomology is asked that question periodically. Medical, they know. Entomology? Often not. But medical entomology? Well, it's the study of relationships among arthorpods, microbial pathogens and human health, according to medical entomologist Thomas Scott, professor of entomology at UC Davis. Scott teaches courses on medical entomology. His next one: the 2009 winter quarter, Jan. 5 through March 16. Worldwide, Scott......
]]> Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:17:03 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=765&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=765 Good news. It’s official. University of California, Davis scientists who manage campus biological collections have just received a five-year, $4 million grant to research the biodiversity of fungi, bacteria, plants, insects and vertebrates on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, a southeast Asian island threatened by the loss of biodiversity in its tropical forests. The International Cooperative Biodiversity Group Program is funding the grant. This is a......
]]> Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:52:02 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=764&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=764 It's a sad photo. The antenna of a honey bee pokes out of an abandoned hive. Victim of colony collapse disorder (CCD)? Perhaps. Everytime I look at the bent antenna, I think of a plea for help. Help me! Help me! Please help me! This bee should have been nectaring flowers or gathering pollen. This hive once belonged to entomologists Robert and Lynn Kimsey of UC Davis. She's the director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and chairs the Department of Entomology. He's the sole forensic......
]]> Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:09:49 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=762&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=762 Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, said it best. "Headgear." The "headgear" was actually a Giant New Guinea Walking Stick crawling up the face of Eric San Gregorio, an undergraduate student majoring in entomology at UC Davis. The occasion: the Bohart Museum's "Happy Halloween" open house on Thursday, Oct. 23. See, the Bohart Musuem at 1124 Academic Surge, UC Davis, not only houses seven......
]]> Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:35:53 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=749&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=749 Hover flies do know how to hover. Like a helicopter with spinning blades, the hover fly lingers seemingly motionless in mid-air over a flower before zeroing down to feed on the nectar. Sometimes they’re called flower flies. Sometimes syprhids. They’re from the family Syrphidae and mimic the black-and-yellow coloring of wasps or bees. The coloring protects them from predators. Leave me alone! Let me bee! Last Sunday our rock purslane......
]]> Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:36:43 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=745&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=745 There they sat, a row of jack o'lanterns ready for a light. Undergraduate students at the University of California, Davis, created them for the "Happy Halloween" open house, held Oct. 23 at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, 1124 Academic Surge, UC Davis. All that the oranges globes needed: someone with a match. Outreach education program coordinator Brian Turner obliged, lighting the three jack o'lanterns: a butterfly, a dragonfly and a bee. (Me thinks the honey-bee jack o'lantern......
]]> Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:33:16 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=743&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=743 If you're interested in insects--the good, the bad and the ugly--don't miss the Northern California Entomology Society meeting on Thursday, Nov. 6 in Contra Costa County. You don't have to be a member. No one is going to ask you "What are you doing here?" or comment "I guess they let just about anybody in now, huh?" Fact is, this organization meets three times a year and the meetings are open to the public. You just have to express an interest in bugs--because they express......
]]> Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:29:30 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=739&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=739 If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. That inductive reasoning (known as "the duck test") doesn't hold true for yellow bugs with black spots. A yellow ladybug (ladybird beetle) and a cucumber beetle look a little alike--at first glance. They're both yellow. They both have black spots. But they're worlds apart. One is a beneficial insect. The other is a pest. We spotted a spotted cucumber beetle (family Cerambycidae) on our......
]]> Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:05:18 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=738&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=738 The red-pigmented white pitcher plant we purchased at the UC Davis Arboretum Plant Faire looks like a flamboyant coral reef. Like a hat askew, its ruffled “lid” hangs over the trumpet-shaped “pitcher.” The pitcher is actually a long, hollow tubular leaf. But looks are deceiving. Sarracenia leucophylla is a carnivorous plant. It draws insects and then devours them. In the few weeks we’ve had it, it’s......
]]> Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:48:06 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=735&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=735 Pull up a lawn chair and watch the honey bees. They're buzzing around the Russian sage, gathering nectar. So focused are they that they don't seeem to mind the photographer sharing their space. So dedicated. So committed. So industrious. Wait, a honey bee is wearing a new hat. Wait, another is playing peek-a-bee. It's a great time to be in the garden....
]]> Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:21:57 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=733&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=733 C’mon, you know you want one. Who wouldn’t want a horror skull stress ball to relieve the tension of today's world? Here's what you do. Take one stress ball. Place it in the palm of your hand and squeeze. From the eyeball socket pops out a membrane of assorted bugs. Or worms, frogs, rats or centipedes. It’s definitely a conversation piece, and it’s yours for only $7 in the Bohart Museum of Entomology gift shop at the......
]]> Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:54:06 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=728&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=728 Plumbers, especially a plumber named "Joe," are hogging the news a lot lately. But what about the carpenters? What about the carpenter bees? The carpenter bee, a black bee larger than a bumble bee, burrows into dead trees, logs and your unpainted or unvarnished fence posts or deck. You’ll see it nectaring flowers, too. Below, this female carpenter bee (Xylocopa) is robbing nectar from sage. Maybe she's Josie the Carpenter? You’ll hear the carpenter bee before......
]]> Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:30:21 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=718&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=718 "Go ahead, make my day." So said actor Clint Eastwood, as the character Harry Callahan, in the 1983 movie, Sudden Impact, after a robber grabbed a hostage. "Dirty Harry" was known for blowing away the bad guys. Clashes and confrontations often ended with blow flies on bad guys. Recently a green bottle fly that touched down on our daylily "made my day." The rich golden blossom and the red-eyed insect with its emerald-green metallic body seemed to go together......
]]> Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:33:45 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=716&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=716 Well, it's not really a Halloween butterfly, but it is orange. The Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) visits us more than the politicians do at Election Time. Last Sunday we spotted four Skippers in our backyard. Only two politicians skipped to our front door. The Fierry Skipper nectars our sage, adding a decidedly orange glow to the purple flowers. UC Davis butterfly expert Arthur Shapiro says this one (below) is a male. It's California's "most urban" butterfly, he says, adding......
]]> Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:57:24 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=715&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=715 Remember the 1998 U.S. vice presidential debate when Sen. Lloyd Bentsen told Sen Dan Quayle: "I knew Jack Kennedy, and you're no Jack Kennedy!" Well, in the insect world, there's a fly that looks a lot like a honey bee, but it's no honey bee. It's a drone fly (Eristallis tenax) from the family Syrphidae. It resembles a drone (male) honey bee. UC Davis entomologist and emeritus professor Robbin Thorp of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, who does research on......
]]> Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:53:03 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=712&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=712 Ladybugs love our Russian sage. Ladybugs, aka ladybird beetles, eat aphids, which are pests in the garden. The ladybugs are welcome. The aphids are not. Belonging to the family Coccinellidae, ladybugs look resplendent in their bright red or orange wing covers, dotted with spots. They'd surely be the center of attention at a Bug Ball. Luck be a lady. We see immature ladybugs going through metamorphosis. Last weekend, we witnessed a pupa sheddding its skin. Exvium is a biological marvel. If......
]]> Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:45:00 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=699&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=699 Pity the poor caterpillar. Here you are, minding your own business, and this tachinid fly comes along and lays eggs in your head. Good day for the tachinid fly. Bad day for the caterpillar. The tachinid fly, from the family Tachinidae, is frequently seen buzzing around flowers, like this one (below) in the Storer Gardens at the UC Davis Arboretum. The adults feed on nectar. "They're parasites," said Lynn Kimsey, chair of the Department of Entomology and director of the Bohart......
]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:42:20 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=705&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=705 If you’ve ever visited the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Aboretum, you’ve probably noticed the honey bees enjoying the cenizo (Leucophyllum frutescens), an evergreen shrub with silvery foliage and bell-shaped pinkish-lavender flowers. It attracts honey bees and other beneficial insects like kids to a carnival. It's sometimes called Texas sage, but it isn't a sage. It's in the plantago family and is native to the southwestern United States and Mexico.......
]]> Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:15:19 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=703&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=703 We often hear of "cream of the crop," but the honey bee is the "queen of the crops." Honey bees are crucial to California’s $32 billion agriculture industry. They pollinate more than 90 different fruit, nut and vegetables crops in the state, says Cooperative Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty. Can you name a fruit or nut crop that absolutely depends on honey-bee pollination? So much......
]]> Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:04:23 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=697&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=697 The praying mantis isn't at all concerned about culinary choices. It doesn't worry about who's coming to dinner, only that dinner will come. This aggressive, predatory insect will eat just about anything it can get its claws on, entomologists agree. That includes bees, butterflies, grasshoppers, crickets, moths and flies. It's even been known to catch and feast on small frogs, birds, lizards, mice and snakes--not to mention its own species. During or after mating, the female often bites......
]]> Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:48:12 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=691&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=691 The secret's out. Or, rather, the secret's in. Inside. A number of years ago, UC Davis entomologist Diane Ullman created a ceramic sign outside the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, located on Bee Biology Road, west of the UC Davis campus. The colorful sign features a bee hive, blossoms and bees. Some of the bees are ceramic. Some are real. Real bees? True. The ceramic hive serves as the opening to a real hive tucked in back of the sign. If you look closely at the front of......
]]> Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:25:32 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=688&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=688 UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey is a genius, to be sure. Show him a fly and he'll tell you exactly what it is and what it's all about. I shot this photo at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. The honey bee looked huge and the fly, tiny. There they were together. (Ah, if you let your imagination run wild, there's a children's book there! Once upon a time, a bee and a fly...) The fly is a minute black scavenger fly (Scatopsidae). You see these......
]]> Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:39:32 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=686&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=686 What are insect pollinators worth to the global economy? Well, it's a lot less than the Wall Street bailout...er...rescue plan. Recent research published in the journal Ecological Economics reveals just how important insect pollinators are. A Eureka Alert press release issued by the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres says that a team of French and German scientists found that the "worldwide economic value of the pollination service provided by insect......
]]> Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:43:46 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=683&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=683 If you spot a ladybug, don't just start reciting "Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home." Aim, click and shoot. With a camera, that is. Agricultural Research Service scientists and entomologists at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., and South Dakota State University, Brookings, are surveying the country's ladybug species. They want you to photograph every ladybug you see and send the photos to them so they can inventory them. They are specificially seeking rare species, such as the......
]]> Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:19:12 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=680&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=680 They danced in it, rolled in it, and bathed in it. The honey bees just couldn’t get enough of the rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora). Last week when we visited Vacaville’s El Rancho Nursery and Landscaping. nursery, owned by Ray and Maria Lopez, it was like a free-for-all at the French Laundry. The bees clustered around the rock purslane flowers, waiting inpatiently for them to open. No sign read "Closed" but some of the magenta......
]]> Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:10:35 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=679&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=679 When first we practise to deceive!" These oft-quoted lines, written by Scottish author Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), have a great deal of relevance when applied to the latest food system crisis. The current crisis, which involves the adulteration of dairy products originating in China, is having worldwide repercussions. The adulterating substance is melamine, which should ring a few bells for pet owners, who will certainly remember the wide recall of numerous brands of pet food in the...... Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:10:25 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=676&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=676 If you love pomegranates, you can thank a honey bee. If you love capturing images of pomegranates, you can thank a honey bee. And, if you love juicing them and making pomegranate jelly—as I do—you can thank a honey bee. The honey bee makes it all possible. In mid-May, our 81-year old pomegranate tree blossomed. The silky red blossoms drew dozens of bees. On May 26, armed with a macro lens, I photographed them gathering nectar and pollen. The blossoms, like the bees,......
]]> Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:04:26 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=675&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=675 So, you want to become an entomologist... Entomologists, future entomologists and others interested in science are looking forward to the fall seminars sponsored Oct. 1 through Dec. 3 by the Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis. All seminars are held on Wednesdays from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. Individual faculty members will host the seminars. You'll learn about fungus-farming ambrosia beetles, the invasive brown marmorated sting bug, argentine ants, thrips,......
]]> Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:18:56 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=671&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=671 It's all about the bees. When A. G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and the newly selected State Apiary Board meet from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 3 at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis, they'll talk about the troubled bee business, tour the facility, elect new officers, and listen to research presentations. Members of the apiary board are all beekeepers. The five members represent the state's major geographical......
]]> Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:40:12 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=668&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=668 Quick! How long have insects inhabited this earth? If you're taking a biology or an entomology course, you'll be asked that question on an exam. If you're attending the Entomological Society of America conference Nov. 16-20 in Reno, you probably already know that. A good answer: 400 million years. The world's oldest known insect fossil is 400 million years old. according to findings published Feb. 12, 2004 in the journal Nature. The evidence: jaw fragments measuring less than one......
]]> Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:25:32 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=664&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=664 It's tough being a drone honey bee this time of year. The drones, or male bees, don't survive the winter. Bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis admits to having a soft spot for drones. Once the honey-gathering season is over, the worker bees (sterile females) evict the drones from the hive, as the only function of the males is to mate. “They’re cold and hungry, sitting there on the doorstep and wanting to go back......
]]> Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:34:09 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=663&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=663 Last week, while the market experienced a kind of volatility that had nearly everyone drawing parallels with the Great Depression, I had the privilege of participating in the Western Regional Assembly on Farm-to-School, which was sponsored by Ecotrust. A large group gathered in Portland to share information, develop strategies and network around the issues of good food for schools, institutions and communities. To many people, farm-to-school, school gardens and attempts to create local food...... Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:52:44 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=661&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=661 Ever wonder why the stink bug stinks? The stink bug, from the family Pentamodae, is a shield-shaped insect that tomato growers would love to ban from the face of this earth. Some 50 species exist in California. The adults are either brown or green. Most stink bugs are plant feeders. However, the species of one subfamily prey on other insects, according to the excellent guidebook, California Insects, written by Jerry A. Powell and Charles L. Hogue and published by the University of California......
]]> Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:34:50 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=660&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=660 Okay, everybody in the pool! That means bees, too? It does. Sweat bees. You may have noticed the tiny bees--common name “sweat bees” from the family Halictidae--in your swimming pool or pollinating your flowers. They’re attracted to perspiring skin (thus the name “sweat bees”). Sometimes when you’re splashing around in the pool, you’ll feel a sharp but harmless sting. UC Davis......
]]> Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:29:56 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=654&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=654 Some folks wear their heart on their sleeve. Others wear a dragonfly on their chest. As part of its public outreach education program and to showcase the world of insects, the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, has created t-shirts featuring a California dragonfly. The t-shirt, designed by entomology doctoral candidate Fran Keller, features the white-belted ringtail,......
]]> Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:06:51 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=651&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=651 To bee or not to bee. Not to bee. The flying insect hovering over the Ruth Risdon Storer Garden, UC Davis Arboretum, looked like a honey bee or wasp at first glance. It wasn't. It was a hover fly or syphrid fly from the order Diptera (Greek for "two wings") and family Syrphidae. It's commonly known as a hover fly, drone fly, flower fly, syrphid fly or "syrphid," says Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis who......
]]> Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:38:32 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=645&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=645 It’s like going to the circus. A bee circus. When you see honey bees gather pollen from a gaura (Gaura linheimeri), it’s as if  they ran off and joined the circus. You'll see hire-wire (er...high-stem) acts, somersaults, pirouettes, cartwheels and cliffhangers. They teeter on the edge of a petal and then petal-push to the other side. They buzz upside down and then right themselves.  They're under the Big Top and then varoom, they've over it. The gaura, a leggy perennial, is a......
]]> Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:12:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=643&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=643 Yet another example of why we need to seriously reconsider our nation's food policy has emerged. Recently, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation commissioned an analysis of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Child Nutrition Commodity Program (CNCP), and how that program impacts the nutritional quality of school breakfasts and lunches. The policy analysis, produced by California Food Policy Advocates and Samuels and Associates, focuses mostly on California, but its authors argue that it...... Sun, 14 Sep 2008 13:50:32 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=640&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=640 A bee on a ball. When it flowers, the button-willow (Cephalanthus occidentalis), also known as willow buttonbush, honey ball, and button ball (oh, that’s so close to butter ball!) attracts honey bees and butterflies like you wouldn’t believe. The ball-like flowers look like pincussions and it's fascinating to watch the honey bees buzz in and out of "the spikes." UC Davis apiculturist Eric Mussen says it's a favorite of honey bees. The......
]]> Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:19:09 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=639&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=639 If you were a queen bee, you'd be laying about 1500 to 2000 eggs today. It's your busy season. "She's an egg-laying machine," said bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. "And she's the mother of all the bees in the hive." During the peak season, that amounts to about 50,000 to 80,000 workers (sterile females) and 1000 to 2000 drones (males). Worker bees take care of her every need. They feed her, groom her......
]]> Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:29:21 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=636&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=636 "Omigosh, what's that? A gray hairstreak?" If it's in your hair, you consult a mirror, your favorite salon, or just ignore it. If you're an entomologist or a lepidopterist, a gray hairstreak is delightful. "Omigosh, check that out! A gray hairstreak!" A gray hairsteak is a butterfly (Strymon melinus). It’s basically gray with a large orange spot near its tail. It probably derives its name from the fine gray hairlike markings that cross the undersurface......
]]> Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:29:02 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=634&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=634 Build it and they will come. Baseball’s “Field of Dreams?” No, a bee nesting block. Think "bee condo." It’s an artificial nesting site made of wood and drilled with different-sized holes and depths to accommodate the diversity of native pollinators. Often the bee block is nailed to a fence post. Native bees, such as leafminer bees and blue orchard bees, build their nests inside the holes.......
]]> Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:45:16 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=633&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=633 We've all heard of the cuckoo clock. And most of us have heard of the cuckoo bird (Cuculus canorus), which lays its eggs in the nest of birds of other species. But the cuckoo bee? Yes, there is a cuckoo bee. The female lays her eggs in the nests of other solitary nesting bees. They resemble wasps. You can see these slender-waisted bees hovering low to the ground, sneakily searching for burrows of other solitary nesting bees. Like an identity thief, they try to avoid detection. They slip......
]]> Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:21:43 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=629&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=629 Robber at work. No, this isn't a bank heist or a gas station hold-up or a home invasion. A carpenter bee is slitting the sides of salvia (sage) to steal the nectar. Floral larceny! Book 'em, Danno! Carpenter bees are nectar robbers. Nectar robbers pierce or bite into the corolla of a flower to remove the nectar. They can be birds, insects or other flower visitors. But wait, nectar robbers aren't all that bad. They pave the way for our beloved honey bee to gather nectar. The carpenter......
]]> Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:13:38 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=626&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=626 The internet enables us to satisfy our need for knowledge. It enables us to find people who share our interests and passions. And it has recently enabled a group of Victory Garden fan(atics?) to find each other. We've formed a Victory Garden Alliance Blog (VGA) that will enable us to share information with a broader readership to grow the Victory Garden movement/revival. The VGA blog will also enable those who read our individual blogs to hear new voices, and experience different takes on...... Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:23:44 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=571&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=571 It's a mighty mite and it's causing beekeepers fits. The varroa mite (see photo below) is an external parasite that attacks honey bees. It sucks blood from the adults (apparently preferring drones, the male bees) and from the brood (immature bees). "It's commonly found in most hives," says UC Davis apiculturist Eric Mussen. Untreated infestations of varroa mites can weaken and kill honeybee colonies Initially from Asia, the eight-legged reddish brown parasite was first detected......
]]> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:00:08 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=624&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=624 Okay, be honest. If you were attending class at 7:30 a.m., could you get excited about flies? No? How about the gender differences? Still no? You would if Mary Frances “Fran” Keller were there teaching you. You won’t find anyone more enthusiastic about entomology than Fran Keller. A doctoral candidate in entomology, she recently received an outstanding teaching award at UC Davis. She's amazing. Take it from pre-med student Shawn Purnell, one of Keller’s students.......
]]> Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:11:24 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=620&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=620 He didn't bring her flowers. They were already sharing a sunflower leaf. He didn't bring her candy. They'd already dined on nectar. It was Labor Day and the two crane flies looked quite friendly in our bee friendly garden. More than friendly. I think they were in love. Crane flies, also known as mosquito hawks, look like Texas-sized mosquitoes. "Big 'uns," as my Texas-born grandmother used to say. But these insects won't bite you or suck your blood. They're long-legged,......
]]> Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:18:35 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=617&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=617 Bam! LBAM is back in the news. The California Department of Food and Agriculture announced Aug. 29 that it has established a 19-square-mile quarantine straddling portions of two counties after the light brown apple moth (LBAM) was found July 23 in Napa County and Aug. 10 in Sonoma County. That's bad news all around. As a leafrolling caterpillar, the light brown apple moth loves grapes. And just about everything else from A to Z: apple, apricot, beans, caneberries (blackberry, blueberry,......
]]> Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:40:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=615&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=615 Our cat is an entomologist. She has no formal training in the science of insects, but she can catch insects with the best of 'em. Plus, her credentials include a butterfly mark on her leg. Xena the Warrior Princess is a rescue cat. We first spotted her outside a Costco store in the winter of 2000, the same year our son headed off to college to study computer science and mathematics. A sign proclaimed "Free kitten!" Not wanting a kitten, free or not (we already owned an......
]]> Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:19:13 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=612&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=612 Robert Bugg saw it first. That’s entomologist Robert L. Bugg. Bugg, who received his doctorate in entomology at UC Davis, does research on the biological control of insect pests; cover crops; and restoration ecology. And he saw it first. “Look,” he said. “That praying mantis just bit the head off a pipevine swallowtail butterfly.” We were part of a field tour, “Yolo County Field Tour of Native Bee Habitat on Working......
]]> Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:20:55 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=610&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=610 We netted the floundering California lady beetle (Coccinella californica) aka "lady bug," from our swimming pool. She didn't look like the familiar lady beetle, reddish orange with black spots. One spot was all she had. And little life left. Then, slowly, miraculously, she opened her wings to dry out, looking somewhat like a drenched DeLorean with its doors flung open. She reminded us of the nursery rhyme: Ladybug! Ladybug! Fly away home. Your house is on fire. And your......
]]> Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:52:25 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=605&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=605 Whew, that stinks! If you've ever smelled a mosquito gravid trap, you know it's not heaven-scent. This isn’t about the aroma of summer roses or the whiff of freshly baked cinnamon rolls or the fragrance of vanilla-laced skin cream. No. This is something that stinks to high heaven. Probably low heaven, too. It’s s-o-o bad (how b-a-d is it?) that you just want to distance yourself from the stench: you hold your nose, mutter “P.U.” and make......
]]> Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:08:09 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=604&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=604 As a child, Dennis Price loved to watch the honey bees. “I could sit and watch them all day,” he said. He still does. Love the honey bees, that is. And he never tires of watching them. If you attended the California State Fair on Sunday, Aug. 17 or Saturday, Aug. 23, you probably saw the enthusiastic Davis resident, now a beekeeper, in the honeybee booth in the California Foodstyle building. He and his......
]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:34:34 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=601&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=601 Like thousands of other schools across the nation, Cabrillo Middle School opened its doors last week. The return to school presents challenges, including busier schedules. But it also provides an opportunity to rethink food choices and particularly, school lunches. Here in Ventura, we live in the best of worlds. Our school district has farm-fresh salad bars in each of its seventeen schools. In addition, we live in an area that produces fruits and vegetables year round. Simply drive a...... Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:21:54 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=568&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=568 Friday lite. That’s what it was. But it was more than that, too. Every year, Bruce Hammock, distinguished professor of entomology at UC Davis, wages a water balloon battle for faculty, researchers, graduate students, staff, family and friends. It takes place on the lawn, north side of Briggs Hall, near his basement lab and offices. We like to kid around that he’s located on the “garden level” of Briggs. When Hammock hosts Bruce’s Big......
]]> Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:06:23 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=594&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=594 Beauty isn't skin deep. It's wing deep. The Anise Swallowtail butterfly dazzles you with its yellow stripes and blue dots. If it were a painting, it would be a Michelangelo. If it were music, it would be Vivaldi's "Spring." If it were a car, it would be a sleek Lamborghini. But there it was, a bit of beauty in the otherwise-drab Berkeley marina parking lot. So, I did what all insect lovers do--I photographed it. (See photo below) Arthur Shapiro,......
]]> Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:15:59 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=593&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=593 Hillary Thomas' biological control research on a leaf-eating beetle that targets saltcedar has scored a bullseye. Thomas, a doctoral candidate in entomology at UC Davis, has received a $15,000 Robert and Peggy van den Bosch Memorial Scholarship to support her research. Saltcedar or tamarix (Tamarix spp.) is a major pest that threatens waterways. In the western United States alone, the plant impacts several million acres of prime riparian land. Thomas researches......
]]> Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:29:33 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=590&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=590 If she were boarding an airline, she’d be charged double for baggage. But she didn’t and she wasn’t. She's a pollen-packed sunflower bee enjoying our sunflower. Not a honey bee but a sunflower bee. A native bee. A Svastra obliqua expurgata (Cockerell), as UC Davis native pollinator researcher Robbin Thorp said. “ I have seen them nesting in gardens in Davis--including at one of the dorms on campus--and nesting in a dirt roadway......
]]> Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:10:57 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=584&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=584 We know it works, but how? Just how does DEET work? Does it jam the senses of a mosquito? Does it mask the smell of the host? You spray the chemical repellent on your arm and thankfully, those darn skeeters leave you alone. They need a blood meal to develop their eggs, so off they buzz to find another host, one that’s not so inhospitable. But why do mosquitoes avoid DEET? Well, they avoid it because it smells bad to them. Yes, they can smell......
]]> Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:13:08 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=580&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=580 “The war is over—again,” wrote reporter Pat Brennan of the Orange County Register in a news article published Aug. 14. Brennan was referring to the war against the Mediterranean fruit fly, a tiny pest that targets some 260 crops. The pest, first detected in California in 1975, prefers such hosts as peach, nectarine, apricot, avocado, grapefruit, orange and cherry. It is considered the world's worst agricultural pest. California State Department of......
]]> Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:12:04 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=576&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=576 “I’ve got black bumblebees buzzing around our backyard like crazy,” the caller said. “They’re loud. Very loud. They’re dive-bombing and scaring the cat and dog. I’ve never seen anything like this before.” The unwelcome visitors were not bumblebees. They were carpenter bees. Carpenter bees? No, they don’t know how to read blueprints or frame floors and walls. They nest in weathered wood, like your......
]]> Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:36:40 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=574&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=574 Ouch! So, you’ve been stung by a bee. If you’re a beekeeper, an occasional sting is a natural part of beekeeping. UC Davis apiculturist Eric Mussen says that the average beekeeper may be stung approximately 3000 times a year. Mussen describes the sting as a “modified egg-laying apparatus, so only females can sting.” The queen bee can sting multiple times, while the female worker bee dies after stinging. Drones, or male bees, cannot sting. (Interesting that Jerry......
]]> Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:20:17 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=572&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=572 I've always loved the wit and wisdom of insect-inspired poets. God in His wisdom made the fly And then forgot to tell us why. - - Ogden Nash "The Fly" We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics. - - Richard Vaughan If you look at the world through a viewfinder--as I have a habit of doing--it’s a wonderful, exquisite place, especially if you capture critters in their natural habitat. They......
]]> Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:55:01 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=565&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=565 When the California State Fair, Sacramento, opens Friday, Aug. 15 for an 18-day run, don't miss "California's Gold" and "Nature's Gallery" in the UC Davis Centennial Pavilion (Building 3). The 6,000-square-foot pavilion will showcase what the university is all about, from its toddler stages to its teenage years to today. It's the university on parade, with one million visitors vying for curbside seats. What are "California's Gold" and "Nature's......
]]> Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:55:37 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=552&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=552 For food policy and public health wonks, the summer of 2008 will go down in the books, and California is leading the way. On July 27th, I blogged about the state's newly passed legislation requiring restaurants to cook without artery-clogging trans fats. http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=532In On July 29th, the Los Angeles City Council approved a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in South Los Angeles, a move that was not without controversy. And just yesterday,...... Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:30:58 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=562&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=562 I'm standing in line at the photo center, waiting to pay for the dozen 8x10 photos of noted entomologist Richard Bohart that I’d ordered for his UC Davis memorial. “Doc,” as he was called, died Feb. 1, 2007 in Berkeley at age 93 after a career spanning 70 years--33 at UC Davis. He was a giant of a man. He towered over his fellow linebackers on the UC Berkeley football team in the mid-1930s, and he towered over his entomology colleagues. During his career, Doc identified......
]]> Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:01:59 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=554&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=554 Meet Michelle Flenniken. She’s an insect virus researcher in professor Raul Andino's lab, UC San Francisco Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and she's the newly selected Häagen-Dazs Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Davis. You know those nasty viruses that target our honey bees? With names like Kashmir bee virus, deformed wing virus, sacbrood virus, acute bee paralysis virus, chronic bee paralysis virus, black queen cell virus, and Israeli acute paralysis......
]]> Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:30:24 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=550&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=550 A funny thing happened on the way from El Cerrito to UC Davis on Friday, Aug. 1. And it wasn't even Friday the 13th. At 7 a.m., a group of UC Davis employees approached their commuter van in an El Cerrito parking lot. But, after glancing at the passenger side, they weren't at all sure they wanted to board. A huge swarm of bees bearded the entire passenger side of the vehicle and part of the windshield. Thousands of bees. Did I say thousands of bees? Thousands of bees. What to......
]]> Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:04:42 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=546&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=546 Some weeks are harder than others. This week, I found myself continuously distracted and saddened by the closure of my favorite independent bookstore, Adventures for Kids (AFK). Located in midtown Ventura, AFK simply became unable to compete against megabooksellers (online and retail), and a lackluster economy. Even before I became a parent, I was a loyal customer. AFK is a two block walk from my house, just down the street and through the alley, and into their back door. I knew many of...... Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:36:37 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=543&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=543 If we're going to make real inroads into childhood obesity, and if we're really going to engage a new generation of gardeners, we need youth on board. The best way to influence youth is through the voices of other youth. They have shared experiences and often, similar perspectives. This quick post encourages you to visit two youth-authored blogs about healthy lifestyle, written by members of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. One is written by a twelve year old; the other is written by...... Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:11:39 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=533&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=533 California may be stuck in a budget impasse, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was able to move the state's public policy vis-a-vis nutrition and public health a big step forward on Friday, by signing Assembly Bill 97 into law. This landmark legislatation makes California the first state to prohibit restaurants from using artery-clogging trans fats in preparing food. The legislation, which takes effect in 2010, bans restaurants and other retail food establishments from using oil, margarine...... Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:53:39 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=532&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=532 Reaching youth with a healthy lifestyle message is vital. A healthy lifestyle incorporates proper eating, physical activity AND gardening. Educating youth about a healthy lifestyle is especially critical today: nearly one in three U.S. youth are obese. Using youth to reach youth with the healthy lifestyle message is essential to its success. Thankfully, there is an organization that is trying to do this in a big way. Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Kansas City, Missouri with...... Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:48:08 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=526&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=526 Remember that song??? I remember it well. Its lyrics inspired thousands of people to come to San Francisco. Written by the Mamas and Papas John Phillips, and recorded by Scott McKenzie, the song quickly became a cultural icon. At age 7, I was too young to travel to San Francisco during the summer of 1967. I won't miss my opportunity this time, though, and will be joining thousands of other like-minded people over Labor Day Weekend 2008 for what promises to be an amazing series of events...... Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:21:55 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=490&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=490 The Verde Partnership Garden is located on the campus of Verde Elementary School in North Richmond. It is a true partnership: both a school and community garden project. It's one of the loveliest gardens I've ever seen. The project's coordinator is Cassie Scott. A gentle and wise woman, she shared some of the garden's history with me. The Verde Partnership Garden project serves an extremely low income North Richmond neighborhood that despite its poverty, is rich in diversity and a sense of...... Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:38:36 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=465&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=465 I have not blogged much the last two weeks, perhaps because I've been caught up in thought and possibility. Two weeks ago, I had an opportunity to travel to Richmond, California to visit a number of school and community gardens. I met with residents, and learned about the remarkable work of organizations such as the National Park Service, Urban Tilth, and the 5% Local Coalition in this city in west Contra Costa County, east of San Francisco. My hosts, Park Guthrie of Urban Tilth, and Carla...... Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:58:22 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=449&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=449 I've written a bit about gardening as an important part of civic engagement in American life. Not only in the past, as reflected in Victory Garden programs, but in contemporary American society. Programs such as The Food Project in Boston engage youth through gardening/urban agriculture, providing not only practical skills, but valuable life skills, as well. These kinds of efforts engage youth in creating a food future that is sustainable, healthy and just. I call this "coming back out...... Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:04:29 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=427&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=427 Today I read a New Yorker Magazine article, "The Last Bite: Is the World's Food System Collapsing?", written by Bee Wilson. It's a provacative piece, mixing things those of us in sustainable food systems often talk about (agriculture, population growth, demographics) and stating the obvious, but mixing it up with some new (and old) ideas, theories, and commentary. Such as,Thomas Malthus (historic theory); the fact that food crises are currently occuring in thirty-three countries...... Wed, 21 May 2008 21:54:45 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=425&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=425 My work as an historian of wartime gardening efforts is a small piece of my larger work as an historian of the American homefront during wartime. Without understanding the battlefront, one cannot truly understand the homefront. (And one cannot understand the American homefront without comparing it to other homefronts, so I find myself studying other nations, as well). I am in the odd position of being a person adamantly opposed to war, but also its constant student. When talking about the...... Sun, 18 May 2008 20:47:22 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=415&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=415 My family continues to enjoy an abundance of riches on the fresh, local, good food front. This week's CSA box: 1 head Romaine lettuce; 1 elephant garlic; 1 lb broccoli; 1 head cauliflower; 1 lb yellow crookneck squash; 1.5 lbs Red Lasuta potatoes; 1 bunch rosemary; 1 pint strawberries; 1 lb pixie tangerines; 2 lbs Red Ruby grapefruit; and rosemary focaccia. The potatoes didn't last long: they were roasted the first night with olive oil, rosemary, and garlic. They provided a side dish for...... Fri, 16 May 2008 13:07:02 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=413&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=413 Agriculture impacts every California resident; everyone who lives in the state is a stakeholder in the industry that in so many ways, defines our state's character, and what our future holds. Now there is an opportunity for every resident to share their vision of California agriculture. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) invites every Californian to join CDFA Secretary A.G. Kawamura and members of the CDFA board at public listening sessions to "develop a more...... Wed, 14 May 2008 17:53:02 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=408&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=408 In an effort to increase readership, the VictoryGrower blog will now be included on Technocrati. If you are able to subscribe to VictoryGrower via RSS, please do so, or use our UC blog administration to sign up and receive notification of new postings. And tell your friends about this blog, and the linked website. http://technorati.com/claim/8iv2jmy98 Thank you! "A Garden for Everyone. Everyone in a Garden." http://ucanr.org/blogs/VictoryGrower_Blog/... Wed, 14 May 2008 11:59:47 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=409&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=409 Our family recently began subscribing to a CSA (community supported agriculture) venture. We live in Ventura, and have ready (and enviable!) access to an amazing array of farm-fresh fruits and vegetables. We buy strawberries from a local farmer who operates across the street from my husband's office, or at our local farmer's market. We buy oranges from a farm stand near Santa Paula. We have our regular go-to people. But we wanted more, and we wanted to be more intentional in our...... Mon, 12 May 2008 17:48:53 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=404&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=404 UC Advisor Emeritus Dan Desmond (he was also a Food and Society Policy Fellow, Class IV) and I co-authored an op-ed that appeared last Sunday (May 4th) in the Ventura County Star. Since then, it's been referenced in a few blogs. Here's the link, and I hope you'll read it. Gardening and the food system are big news these days, and there is certainly a political aspect to that. http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/may/04/food-will-win-the-war/ I recently returned from the Kellogg Food...... Sun, 11 May 2008 18:39:28 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=402&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=402 Crank back to Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, when Democratic strategist James Carville hung a sign in the campaign headquarters in Little Rock detailing the three key messages of Clinton's campaign. Point two read, "The economy, stupid." The phrase - meant to be an internal campaign slogan - caught on, and entered popular culture. That phrase might now read "It's the Food System, Stupid." Tonight I read a breaking CNN story on the worsening international...... Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:17:12 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=343&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=343 Recently, I had the privilege to work with two sixth grade classes taught by a gifted educator in Ventura Unified School District, Anne Morningstar. Ms. Morningstar is the best kind of teacher: one who teaches superbly by inspiring her students to develop a love of learning, to think outside the box, and to apply what they learn. In the words of more than one sixth-grader, "she rocks!" I agree. I spent some time discussing the concept of sustainable food systems with each class....... Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:24:20 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=318&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=318 This week's recall of 143 million pounds of beef (much of it destined for the nation's school lunch program) inspired today's blog. Originally, I was going to plug school gardens and farm-to-school as a way to improve the school food system. I began writing about Ventura Unified School District's Healthy Schools Program, but decided that topic deserves several blog entries in and of itself. (It's a marvelous program - a real national model. Because I live here in Ventura and see...... Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:44:20 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=280&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=280 The American Public Health Assocation (APHA) recently issued "Toward a Healthy, Sustainable Food System" (Policy Number: 200712). It provides an excellent summary of the state of America's food system and the public health implications of how we're currently operating. The APHA's report explicitly links issues relating to the food system with public health, which of course makes sense. The APHA also has some interesting recommendations. Among its many and sound recommendations, the...... Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:44:10 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=273&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=273 In 1994 or so, a wise 4-H Advisor named Dan Desmond started talking to me about using gardening as a youth and community development strategy. He provided research that supported some pretty awesome claims: that gardening could improve academic performance, positively affect nutrition, improve communities, increase civic engagement, etc., etc. I listened carefully and made some notes, because if you've met Dan, you know he's a brilliant, emminently sensible and persuasive guy. Crank forward...... Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:03:35 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=272&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucdavis.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=272