Bug Squad

There's "Beatlemania" and then there's "Beetle Mania." One involved the fanaticism directed at the English rock band, The Beatles. The other? It's taking place Sunday, Jan. 22 at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis.

If you've ever been bitten by a pesky mosquito--who hasn't?--you're hoping researchers will some day be able to control them better and reduce the spread of the deadly diseases they transmit.

Congratulations to UC Davis alumna and pollinator enthusiast Ria de Grassi of Davis, who spotted and photographed the first bumble bee of the year in the two-county area of Yolo and Solano to win the third annual Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble-Bee-of-the-Year Contest.

No cabbage white butterfly, no bumble bee. As of 4 p.m. today (Jan.

Do monarch butterflies know what they want/need? Apparently so, from personal observation. Over the years, we've grown multiple species of milkweed in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif. We give them a choice.