Renewing Memories of the UC Davis Bee Haven

It's like “Old Home Week” or “Old Home Day” when Michelle Monheit visits the UC Davis Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road.

“I visit the garden whenever I'm in the area,” she said, as she headed over to the six-foot-long ceramic-mosaic bee sculpture, “Miss Bee Haven,” that anchors the half-acre bee garden.

“Miss Bee Haven” is the work of self-described “rock artist” Donna Billick, director of Billick Rock Art, Davis, and Todos Artes, located in Baja, Mexico. 

Billick sculpted the worker bee in 2010, a year after the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (ENT) installed the garden. Shaded by an almond tree, "Miss Bee Haven" stands on a pedestal/bench tiled with ceramic art, the intricate work of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, co-founded and co-directed by entomologist-artist Diane Ullman (now UC Davis distinguished professor emerita) and Billick.

Michelle had just pedaled her bike from Woodland to the UC Davis campus, a round-trip of some 26 miles. 

“My mother used to do research here,” Michelle said. As a child, Michelle sometimes accompanied her mother, environmental scientist Susan Monheit to the adjacent Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility when she did bee research with Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (1944-2022).

The Haven, then known as the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven—named for its primary donor—was in its beginning stages. 

Let's take a walk down memory lane.

Susan Monheit was among the scientists featured on a 2010 Laidlaw poster, “Laidlaw Honey Bee Research Facility, Who We Are." The text: “The Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility is a nexus for diverse bee research and scientists from around the world. We provide cutting-edge research on basic bee biology, genetics, pollination and conservation. We address international concerns about bee health, and meet the needs of California's multibillion dollar agricultural industry. Our program combines research on honey bees and native species to promote sustainability of pollinators and pollination.”

Among others listed on the poster:

• Bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, then manager of the Laidlaw facility
• Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (1947-2022) of the Department of Entomology and Nematology  (ENT)
• Pollination ecologist Neal Williams of the ENT faculty, now a professor in the department 
• Robbin Thorp (1933-1999), then emeritus professor of entomology and later UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor
• Kim Fondk, manager of the Honey Bee Pollen Hoarding Selection Program under the direction of honey bee geneticist Robert E. Page Jr., UC Davis doctoral alumnus and emeritus professor and chair of the UC Davis entomology department who advanced to provost at Arizona State University,  
• Michelle Flenniken, UC Davis Häagen-Dazs postdoctoral scholar
• Claire Kremen a conservation biologist at UC Berkeley and a UC Davis research associate 
• Alexandria Kleink University of Goettingen, Germany

“I worked with Eric Mussen from 2004 to 2006," Susan Monheit recalled. "We did a study for the California Department of Agriculture (CDFA) on toxicity exposure to a biochemical pheromone test reproduction disruptor for the light brown apple moth."

They explained their project on the poster:  "Susan Monheit and Eric Mussen investigated the effects of contact (spray) and oral exposure of microencapsulated and nonencapsulated light brown moth (LBAM) pheromones to newly emergent honey bees (Apis mellifera), and determined that these substances are non-toxic to honey bees, even at 10 times the prescribed application rate to disrupt mating of the invasive target moth species.”  

Monheit and Mussen  (with co-authors Elizabeth Frost, research associate at the Laidlaw facility, and Michael Johnson of the John Muir Institute of the Environment) published their research in the Journal of Human and Ecological Risk Assessment. The title: "Effects of Contact and Ingestion Exposure to Formulated CheckMate® LBAM-F and Unformulated LBAM Mating Pheromones on Adult Worker Honeybees, Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae)."

Monheit, who now lives in Woodland, retired from the State of California on March 16, 2020, “the day of the COVID shutdown." 

 “I created the collaboration between the CDFA integrated pest control group, the honey bee research center at UC Davis, and Mike Johnson at the John Muir Institute of the Environment to do the project," she said, adding "Elizabeth Frost helped with daily monitoring of the toxicity tests." 

Monheit's last position with the state was as Senior Environmental Scientist (Supervising), for the State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Water Rights, Water Quality Certification Unit for hydropower re-licensing projects.  “I worked on many of the big hydropower projects in the mountains across  the state. A large part of that job was mandating flows in streams below the dams for the benefit of water quality for drinking water, agricultural irrigation, fish and wildlife, recreation, boating, fishing, and habitat restoration for endangered species including salmon.”

However, her bee project, teaming with Mussen, "was the most fun work I did in my 30-year career working for the state of California." 

Like her mother, Michelle Monheit loves bees and pollinator gardens, and she takes every opportunity to visit The Haven.

The Haven is open to the public from dawn to dusk. Admission is free, as is parking. Elina L. Niño, associate professor of Cooperative Extension, a member of the ENT faculty, and founder and director of the California Master Beekeeper Program, serves as the director of The Haven. She collaborates with Samantha Murray, the newly selected garden coordinator, and facilities manager Joe Tauzer.