Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
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Pretty in Pink--And in Other Colors, Too!

August 18th, 2016
They're pretty in pink. Well, not just pink. All other colors, too. It's National Honey Bee Day on Saturday, Aug. 20. That's when we officially celebrate the honey bee, Apis mellifera, which the European colonists brought to the Jamestown colony in Virginia in 1622.
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Rachael Long: A Boy, a Bat, a Coyote and a Crow

August 17th, 2016
It doesn't get more real. Yolo County Farm Advisor and children's book author Rachael Freeman Long remembers telling her son stories about an adventuresome, kind-hearted, wildlife-loving boy named Jack and three of his friends--a bat named Pinta, a coyote named Sonny and a crow named Midas.
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Everybody Eats in the Pollinator Garden

August 16th, 2016
Everybody eats in the pollinator garden. That includes crab spiders that sprawl atop a flower, flatten themselves, and wait, oh, so patiently, for dinner. We've seen them nab green bottle flies, sweat bees and honey bees. They pounce, inject a killer venom, and dinner is served.
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Where's the Praying Mantis?

August 12th, 2016
It's one of the most recognizable of all insects--if you can find it. Ever had someone poke you and point toward a plant: "Look, there's a praying mantis?" "Where?" "Right there. See it?" "No. Where is it? "Right there. It's right there. Can't you see it?" "No.
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