Backyard Orchard News
Bohart Museum Open House: 'Bark Beetle Forest Central'
If you attend the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 27,...
Bohart Museum of Entomology volunteer Riley Gilmartin of Davis shows a chunk of wood with beetle galleries. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of beetle galleries. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
How Do Insects, Spiders React to a Partial Solar Eclipse?
The sky darkens. The temperature drops several degrees. A breeze rustles the leaves of the African...
A honey bee nectaring on African blue basil during the partial solar eclipse in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A praying mantis, a female Stagmomantis limbata (as identified by Andrew Pfeifer) lurks beneath a milkweed leaf during the partial eclipse in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A pollen-coated honey bee ignores the eclipse and forages on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Two stink bugs on a bluebeard,Caryopteris x clandonensis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
An assassin bug looking for prey. It's on a tropical milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee trapped in a web (and freed by the photographer). It was the spider's second catch of the day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Honey of a Day--And It Gets Better!
Saturday, Aug. 19 promises to be a honey of a day--in more ways than one! And it gets better! It's...
Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño shows a frame to her class at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Students take notes as Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño shows opens a hive at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
August 19th is National Honey Bee Day: Dr. Elina Niño reminds us to help honey bees cope with pests.
National Honey Bee Day is celebrated on the third Saturday of every August. This year it falls on Saturday the 19th. If you use integrated pest management, or IPM, you are probably aware that it can solve pest problems and reduce the use of pesticides that harm beneficial insects, including honey bees. But did you know that it is also used to manage pests that live inside honey bee colonies? In this timely podcast below, Dr. Elina Niño, UCCE apiculture extension specialist, discusses the most serious pests of honey bees, how beekeepers manage them to keep their colonies alive, and what you can do to help bees survive these challenges.
To hear the audio recording, click here.
To read the full transcript of the audio, click here.
Successful IPM in honey bee colonies involves understanding honey bee pest biology, regularly monitoring for pests, and using a combination of different methods to control their damage. Visit these resources for more information:
For Beekeepers:
The California Master Beekeeper Program
For All Bee Lovers:
Haagen Dazs Honey Bee Haven plant list
UC IPM Bee Precaution Pesticide Ratings and video tutorial
Sources for the Value of Honey Bees:
Flottum K. 2017. U.S. Honey Industry Report, 2016.
Top-Bar Beekeeping Advocate Les Crowder to Speak at WAS Conference at UC Davis
Are top-bar beekeeping hives for you? What are their advantages and disadvantages as compared to...
Les Crowder examines a frame from his top-bar hive. A resident of Austin, Texas, he will speak Sept. 7 at the Western Apicultural Society conference at UC Davis.
A honey bee heads over the top of a tropical milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)