Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
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Flakes of wax on a wax builder. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Not Waxing Poetic

May 12th, 2011
Ever seen a wax builder? A "real" wax builder? Bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey and beekeeper-research associate Elizabeth Frost of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis, showed us a wax builder last week. No, two wax builders.
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Brian Fishback at the Harry H.Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Bee-Lieving in the Bees

May 11th, 2011
Beekeeping comes naturally for Brian Fishback of Wilton, a past president of the Sacramento Area Beekeepers Association and a volunteer at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis.
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Redshouldered stink bug on a lavender stem. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Behind the Shield

May 10th, 2011
If you've ever been shoulder to shoulder with a redshouldered stink bug--or nose to antennae--you know this is a bug to boot out of your garden. It's a pest. Behind that shield-shaped body is a pest.
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Italian honey bee foraging on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Mother's Day Delight

May 9th, 2011
Mother's Day, insect-style, dawned like any other day. In our back yard, golden honey bees foraged in the lavender and those ever-so-tiny sweat bees visited the rock purslane. The honey bees? Those gorgeous Italians.
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Honey bee foraging on strawberry plant in Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Berry Fine!

May 6th, 2011
First the buds, then the blossoms, then the bees. The Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a 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, UC Davis, is, in one wordspectacular.
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