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Monitoring mites with a sticky board

A lot is written about how to monitor mite loads with a sticky board. A sticky board is just a piece of thin wood or corrugated plastic that is covered with a sticky substance—usually pan spray—and placed below a screened bottom board. A certain number of mites drop off and stick to the board. The […] Read more

Varroa mites feed on honey bee hemolymph

Note: This post is due for an update. The mite known as Varroa destructor lives by attaching to an immature or adult bee and sucking on the hemolymph or “bee blood.” Not only does this weaken the bee but it allows for the spread of viral diseases. Anything with the last name of “destructor” has […] Read more

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My Favorite Books & Bee Supplies
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Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees
The Bees in Your Backyard
A Field Guide to the Common Bees of California
California Bees & Blooms
The Bee-Friendly Garden
Pollination Power
Simple, Smart Beekeeping
The Beekeeper’s Handbook
The Valkyrie Long Hive
The Valkyrie Long Hive is perfect for those who don't like to lift heavy bee boxes.
Bee Wise
Go to the bee, thou poet: consider her ways and be wise.

—George Bernard Shaw
Bee-yond Bees
Bees are more than a hobby; they are a life study, in many respects a mirror of our own society.

—William Longgood
Why Honey Bee is Two Words

Regardless of dictionaries, we have in entomology a rule for insect common names that can be followed. It says: If the insect is what the name implies, write the two words separately; otherwise run them together. Thus we have such names as house fly, blow fly, and robber fly contrasted with dragonfly, caddicefly, and butterfly, because the latter are not flies, just as an aphislion is not a lion and a silverfish is not a fish. The honey bee is an insect and is preeminently a bee; “honeybee” is equivalent to “Johnsmith.”

—From Anatomy of the Honey Bee by Robert E. Snodgrass
State Insects
The non-native European Honey Bee is the state insect of:
- Arkansas
- Georgia
- Kansas
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- New Jersey
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Utah
- Vermont
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
Not one native bee is a state insect. The closest relative of a North American native bee to make the list is the Tarantula Hawk Wasp, the state insect of New Mexico.

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