Bug Squad

It's tough being a bee--especially when you have work to do and the rain won't let you out of your hive. But when there's a sun break, it's gangbusters. To put it in alliteration, we spotted a bevy of boisterous bees networking in the nectarine blossoms in between the springlike rains this week.

Bumble bees stole the show during the Graduate Student Poster Research Competition at the fourth annual UC Davis Bee Symposium, themed "Keeping Bees Healthy.

Consider the tsetse fly. The tsetse fly (Glossina genus), found in sub-Saharan Africa, transmits Trypanosomiasis, a parasitic disease that we commonly refer to as "sleeping sickness.

When you hear those three little words, "Integrated Pest Management," you immediately think of two words, "Frank Zalom." They go together like superman (Clark Kent) and supervillian (Lex Luthor). Or like Coccinellidae (lady beetles) and Aphididae (aphids).

They have weird, long, skinny hinged necks, long skinny legs, and the wing bases are covered by a structure that looks like a large hub cap.