Backyard Orchard News
Wait! Take Me With You!
The honey bee struggled, but couldn't free herself from a broadleaf milkweed blossom in our...
A honey bee carrying milkweed pollinia. It resembles a wishbone. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
IIt's easy to get trapped in the sticky reproductive structure of a milkweed. This one was stuck for two hours.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee gathering nectar on a broadleaf milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee's early morning visit to a milkweed. Note the trapped leg. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee, with milkweed pollinia attached, resting on broadleaf milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Got Milkweed?
If you grow milkweed in your yard, you probably have some very special tenants, monarch butterflies...
A monarch butterfly sipping nectar from a broadleaf milkweed, Asclepias speciosa. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The milkweed is so named for its milky juice, consisting of a latex containing alkaloids and other complex compounds. Carl Linnaeus named the genus for the Greek god of healing, Asciepius. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The glow of a monarch butterfly is like a stained glass window.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Stalking the Red Flameskimmer
Who doesn't love the red flameskimmer dragonfly, Libellula saturata? If the Fourth of July had its...
Red flameskimmer dragonfly perching on a bamboo stake. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Red flameskimmer dragonfly against a solid background: a fence covered with a shade cloth. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Red flameskimmer blends in a background filled with Jupiter's beard. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Takeoff! All systems are go. Or green. Red flameskimmer adjusts its wings. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bee Friendly, Bee Happy and Bee Healthy
Sometimes when you walk through a bee garden, you feel Mother Nature tugging at your arm, pulling...
A bumble bee and a honey bee sharing teasel in the Kate and Ben Frey Garden, Hopland, Mendocino County. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The lovely garden at the home of Kate and Ben Frey in Hopland.
Rounding a corner in the Kate and Ben Frey garden at their home in Hopland, Calif. Ben installed the drip irrigation system in the one-acre garden.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Kate Frey serves as a consultant for the pollinator gardens (shown) at the Lynmar Estate Winery, Sebastopol.
Another view of the pollinator gardens at Lynmar Estate Winery, Sebastopol. Kate Frey serves as the consultant.
Mosquitoes: Out for Blood
It's good to see UC Davis mosquito researchers featured in the KQED's science program, "Deep...
Culex quinquefasciatus, also known as the southern house mosquito, with a gut full of blood. Infected Culex mosquitoes can transmit the West Nile virus. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)