Bug Squad

Think spring. Think ceanothus. Think salvia. Think pollinators. Despite the rain forecast, the open house and plant sale at the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the University of California, Davis, will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, April 7.

Yes, you do eat insects! Maybe not deliberately, as in those who engage in entomophagy, the technical term for eating insects. Think of chocolate chirp cookies! Think of cricket flour! Think of making a meal out of mealworms.

Several years ago you probably read about the Stanford researchers who discovered that mealworms--larvae of darkling beetles--eat Styrofoam. And if you attended the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on Dec.

Let's consider plant-insect interactions in agro-ecosystems. That's what Katja Poveda, assistant professor of entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., does.

Bee-hold, the eye of a honey bee! Have you ever looked into the eye of a honey bee? Really looked? If you read Norm Gary's popular book, Honey Bee Hobbyist: The Care and Keeping of Bees, you'll see just how marvelous they are.