Not a joke! Everyone--at least in California--notices the little yellow-gold dots on their cars. People complain they are very hard to get rid of, and wonder what they are. An intrepid Los Angeles Times columnist, Ralph Vartabedian, has done a bit of investigative reporting, and here's what he found.

Auto body shops contacted by Vartabedian confirmed the epidemic of yellow spots on cars, but had no idea what caused them, other than the the fact that they seemed to fall on cars from the sky.

Sky means air, so Vartabedian contacted the Air Quality Management District(AQMD). (Did you know Californians actually have an agency that manages their air quality? Obviously, it's not too effective. The AQMD's main task seems to be to fine companies that do not force their employees to car pool. Some call them the "smog nazis.") The AQMD scientists determined that the spots were bee pollen.

Vartabedian contacted bee experts at the University of California at Davis (near Sacramento), who proclaimed the substance, according the article, "not pollen but bee poop -- or more politely, digested pollen."

Bees have been dropping their poop for the same reason horses and goldfish do, but it seems to be more prevalent in spring. Bees also follow the same route, or flight path, over and over when traveling to and from their hives, so some streets are getting splunked more than others. They're sitting under the tracks, as it were.

Other articles agree. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin reports: "When a bee gotta go, he gotta go," explained George Holeso, president of the Hawaii Beekeepers Association. "Sometimes a bee sees a better pollen sources and dumps what's he's carrying in mid-air to make room for the good stuff. Or they hit turbulence and jettison their load."

Several blogs & websites proclaim that that "Honey is bee poop!" but according to the experts, that's just not true. Bees poop away from their nests, so areas within 200 feet are most at risk. If you consider that a risk.