Cleaning the Tongue: A, B, C

So here you are, a honey bee seeking nectar from an unopened citrus blossom.

And then your tongue (proboscis) becomes all sticky with pollen, nectar and other particles.

What to do: you, the worker bee, take a brief break and clean your tongue.

Problem solved.

This "B" gets an "A" for good grooming and multi-tasking on "C" (citrus).

The players:

• The non-native honey bee, Apis mellifera, which European colonists brought to the Jamestown colony (now Virginia) in 1622 
• The non-native Satsuma mandarin, Citrus unshiu, is of Chinese origin and named after Unsyu (Wenzhou), China, but introduced to the West via Japan.

What to do:

• Thank the honey bee for pollinating the citrus blossoms! Note that National Pollinator Week is June 21-27.