Bug Squad

A neighborly project by entomologist Jeff Smith, the volunteer curator of the worldwide Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California Davis, has ended on a sweet note that will benefit the museum.

"A count of the Western monarch butterfly population last winter saw a staggering drop in numbers, but there are hopeful signs the beautiful pollinators are adapting to a changing climate and ecology.

"Native bees, including bumble bees are important pollinators but face threats from multiple sources, including agrochemical application," writes UC Davis doctoral student Danielle Rutkowski.

You may associate tasting room with wine in the Napa Valley, or olive oil in Fairfield, but now there's a tasting room in Woodland to sample honey and mead (honey wine). That's Z Specialty Food's newly constructed The HIVE, located at 1221 Harter Ave. Woodland.

You may have never seen a tadpole shrimp, but you ought to be concerned about it, especially if you like rice. It's neither a tadpole nor a shrimp, but a crustacean pest that feasts on rice seedlings in flooded rice fields.