Bug Squad

It happened on Friday the 13th. It was the first swarm of the season at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis. The bees swirled, darkening the sky, and then swarmed from one of bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey's hives around 2 p.

They're there. If you walk slowly into your garden or backyard, and observe your surroundings, you'll find them. A jumping spider perched on a rose leaf. A soldier beetle climbing out of a tulip. A syrphid fly, aka flower fly or hover fly, foraging on a poppy blossom.

You've heard of "Got milk?" With honey bees, it's "Got pollen?" We spotted a lone honey bee on an African daisy last weekend. It was clear she'd been foraging for pollen. Pollen covered her legs and antennae and rimmed her head. And it was clear where it came from.

Maggots and termites and cockroaches, oh my! And ants, honey bees, bumble bees, beetles, and skeeters, oh yes! Don't see "Ewww!" Say "Wow!" Those are just a few of the bugs that will be part of the UC Davis Department of Entomology's activities during the 98th annual campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day o...

Spring has definitely sprung. The carpenter bees (Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex) of the Central Valley have emerged and are creating their own little Lovers' Lane on the salvia. More males than females. More buzzing than foraging. More chasing than capturing.