Bug Squad

You can't drive by a sunflower field without smiling. Their golden heads turned toward the sun, their fringed petals aglow, sunflowers set an amicable scene in a world sometimes darkened by strife and sorrow. Take, for example, the sunflower fields along Pedrick Road in Dixon, Calif.

There are many reasons why honey bees don't come home at night. One of them: a stealthy praying mantis. If you like to photograph flowers, odds are that some day you'll see more than one insect on a blossom.

When youngsters meet Alyssa Fine, the first thing they ask is Do you ever get stung? They also ask if the bee population is still declining and if shes a beekeeper. Yes, yes, and yes. Alyssa Fine, 23, of Monongahela, Penn., is accustomed to answering questions.

Eye-catching zinnias grace the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, the half-acre bee friendly garden planted in the fall of 2009 next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis.

They can fool you. Just like replica designer bags, shoes and sunglasses meant to look like the real thing (think Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo and Prada), those digger bees on Bodega Head, overlooking Bodega Bay, look like bumble bees. Especially the females.