If you appreciate honey bees--particularly their pollination services--then you should thank them. Not just on National Honey Bee Day, which is Saturday, Aug. 16, but every day. This year's theme is Sustainable Gardening Begins with Honey Bees.

View Article

Jar of lavender honey rests next to the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center's Honey Flavor Wheel. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Article

A Taste of Honey

August 14th, 2014

Honey connoisseur Amina Harris, director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, opens the jar of lavender honey from France and sniffs the aroma. She breathes in deeply. The "miel de lavande" produced by "apiculteur Marc Agnel" is creamed, as most lavender honeys are, she says.

View Article

European paper wasp targets a crippled Gulf Fritillary. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Article

Wasp Attack

August 13th, 2014

When you're trying to rear Gulf Fritillary butterflies (Agraulis vanillae), expect the expected: predators. It doesn't take long for European paper wasps (Polistes dominula) to find the butterfly's host plant, the passionflower vine (Passsiflora) and prey.

View Article

Red-shouldered stink bugs mating. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Article

Stink Bugs Do It, Too!

August 12th, 2014

"Birds do it," sang Ella Fitzgerald. "Bees do it..." "Even educated" (insert "stink bugs") "do it." But she didn't sing that; that wasn't part of Cole Porter's lyrics. But it's true. Stink bugs do it. Unfortunately. We'd rather they NOT.

View Article

A syrphid fly, aka flower fly or hover fly, nectaring on a tower of jewels. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Article

The Good Guys--and Girls!

August 11th, 2014

Think of them as "the good guys" and "the good girls." Insects such as lacewings, lady beetles and flower flies. We're delighted to see that the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has just published a 250-page book on "Farming with Native Beneficial Insects.

View Article