Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
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Boone Vale, a volunteer with the Bodega Bay Fire Department, took this heartbreaking image of a fire reaching the Pope Valley hives of Caroline Yelle, owner of Pope Valley Queens. Yelle credits him for saving some of her hives. (Photo by Boone Vale, used with permission)
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The Bee People, The Bees, and The Fires

September 4th, 2020
The wildfires that raged through California, crippling and/or destroying beekeepers' homes and their livelihoods are heartbreaking. One victim, Caroline Yelle, owner of Pope Canyon Queens (PCQ), located on 8307 Quail Canyon Road, Vacaville, lost 500 hives.
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A cuckoo bee, Xeromelecta californica, rests on a leaf in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Ever Seen a Cuckoo Bee?

September 3rd, 2020
Ever seen a cuckoo bee? They're also called parasitic bees or "kleptoparasites" or "cleptoparasitises." They cannot carry pollen (no apparatus) and do not construct their nests. They lay their eggs in the nests of their hosts and then eat the food meant for the hosts.
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This monarch caterpillar was reared from an egg collected on a tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Welcome to the World of Monarchs, Greta!

September 1st, 2020
Welcome to the world of monarchs, Greta! We don't normally name the monarch butterflies we rear, but we decided that the first one reared from an egg "The Greg Way" would be named for Greg--naturalist Greg Kareofelas, associate at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis.
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Caroline Yelle, owner of Pope Canyon Queens, lost some 500 hives during the Aug. 19 Vacaville fire. (Photo by Caroline Yelle)
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What Do Honey Bee Colonies Do During a Raging Wildfire?

August 31st, 2020
What do honey bee colonies do when a raging wildfire heads straight toward their hives (bee boxes)? No, the bees do not abscond with their queen and relocate, says Norman Gary, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis.
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