Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
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Monarch Butterflies: Eight Is Not Nearly Enough

December 27th, 2016
Back in March of 1977, ABC launched a TV comedy-drama series titled "Eight Is Enough." It was about a Sacramento, Calif., family with eight children. The journalist/father, Tom Bradford, wrote a column for the fictitious Sacramento Register. "Eight Is Enough!" the father declared. He was wrong.
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Aren't You Supposed to Be Hibernating?

December 26th, 2016
Dec. 22 marked the winter solstice, the first day of winter. But don't tell that to the western yellowjacket, Vespula pensylvanica. It's supposed to be hibernating, not flying. But there it is flying around--and sipping nectar--from flowering Algerian ivy climbing a fence in Vacaville, Calif.
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It's Chrysalis Time in the City

December 22nd, 2016
Our unseasonably warm temperatures in November yielded 12 unexpected surprises: 12 monarch caterpillars munching away on the tropical milkweed in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif.
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