Posts Tagged: Christmas
It's Bee-ginning to Look a Lot Like...
It's bee-ginning to look a lot like Christmas... All hail our littlest agricultural worker. European colonists brought the honey bee (Apis mellifera) to what is now the United States in 1622. Specifically, the bees arrived at the Jamestown colony (Virginia). Native Americans nicknamed...
A feral honey bee colony (now gone) from a backyard in Vacavile, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Inside a managed hive at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A bee-utiful Christmas wreath, designed and crafted by Ellen Keatley Rose of Castle Rock, Wash. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Revisiting 'The 13 Bugs of Christmas'
Back in 2010, UC Cooperative Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (1944-2022) of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and yours truly, department communications specialist, wondered why no insects appear in "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Zero. Zilch....
A golden honey bee, a Cordovan, nectaring in a Vacaville, Calif., garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A varroa mite attached to a foraging bee in a Vacaville, Calif. garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
There's a Bed Bug in My Christmas Stocking!
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.--Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863), 'The Night Before Christmas' What will...
UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, holds some of the stocking stuffers available in the Bohart git shop. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
These ticks, plush toy stuffed animals, are plentiful in the Bohart Museum of Entomology gift shop. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Revisiting 'The 13 Bugs of Christmas'
This Christmas season isn't the same without University of California Cooperative Extension apiculturist emeritis Eric Mussen, who died June 3 of liver cancer at his home in Davis. Mussen (1944-2022) was an institution. He was a global authority of honey bees. He was family to everyone....
The five gold rings became five golden bees. Here's one of the golden bees, a Cordovan, a subspecies of the Italian. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A queen bee and worker bees. On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 12 deathwatch beetles drumming, 11 queen bees piping, 10 locusts leaping, 9 mayflies dancing, 8 ants a'milking aphids, 7 boatmen swimming, 6 lice a'laying, 5 golden bees, 4 calling cicadas, 3 French flies, 2 tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Christmas tree weed control – developing new herbicides
Oregon leads the United States in the production of Christmas trees, with almost 8.5 million trees sold in 2015. Weed control is essential in Christmas trees to reduce competition for moisture and nutrients, allow fast and robust tree growth, and ensure growers top prices for high-quality trees....