Bug Squad

If you've ever watched honey bees work the blossoms, you'll probably see them packing pollen in their pollen baskets and cleaning their tongue as they buzz from flower to flower. Pollen is protein, and nectar, carbohydrates.

Not everybody loves honey bees. Indeed, about one percent of the population will go into anaphylactic shock if they're stung by a bee. That's a very small percentage--one percent--but it's huge if you're allergic to bees. Other folks just don't want to be around them.

It was a golden moment. The honey bees that collected pollen from our nectarine trees today looked as if they were lugging gold nuggets left over from the California Gold Rush. Struggling with the heavy pollen loads, some of the bees crashed to the ground.

The tender shoots of fava bean blossoms are attracting scores of aphids, which suits the ladybugs just fine. Nothing like an all-you-can-eat aphid buffet. The site: the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."--John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra Ecologist Louie Yang of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, tags that quote at the end of each email. So true. On that note, did you catch the Feb.