Bug Squad

2020 was a troubling year for the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus. The severe population decline led the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation to seek endangered species status from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). USFWS announced Dec.

No suds for a bug in 2021.

Did you celebrate Happy Solstice Day on Dec. 21? That's the astronomical moment, according to the Farmer's Almanac, "when the Sun reaches the Tropic of Capricorn" and "we have our shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere in terms of daylight.

Christmas morning and the sights are bright. Santa came in his sleigh last night. He came with a whoosh and a ho-ho-ho. He came with a monarch and a no-no-no. "Don't let them get extinct," he said with a shout. And that's what endangered species are all about.

In the year 2020, COVID chased us out of our work places and out of our fun places. So we dutifully covered our faces to cover all the bases, washed our hands to meet all the demands, and kept our distance to continue our existence. But wait...we did NOT socially distance from the insects.