Bug Squad

 If you missed it, World Honey Bee Day was Aug. 16.But, frankly, it's a day that should be observed every day, not just the third Saturday in August.The celebrated day appears on the National Day Calender as "The day (that) recognizes both the honey bee and the beekeepers who tend the hives. It also…

 The Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, seems like two different butterflies rolled into one. When it spreads its wings, it's as orange as a pumpkin. When it's resting, it's silver spangled, drawing the same kind of attention as a colorful flag flying in the wind.Its host plant is the passionflower…

 The UC Davis Bee Haven is the place to "bee."If you love bees and other pollinators, love plants, love nature, and love to volunteer, you'll want to head over to The Haven--a pollinator paradise--on Saturday, Aug. 30. It's the last Volunteer Day of the summer, and will take place from 8 to 11:30 a.m…

     Yesterday we introduced you to Ms. Mantis, a young Stagmomantis limbata perched on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundiola. She was seeking a “fast food” meal of a bee or a butterfly, but they were much too fast for her.Today we observed her on a different blossom, ready to try…

  Bee and butterflies love the patch of Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifola) in our Vacaville garden.For several months now, they've been buzzing and fluttering around the six-to-eight-foot-high plants, sipping nectar and returning for more.  It's a serene place for pollinators except for…