Bug Squad

Migratory monarch alert! They're on their way. Camera ready? Check. Notebook ready? Check! Entomologist David James of Washington State University, Pullman, Wash., who studies the migration routes and overwintering sites of the Pacific Northwest monarch population, told us last Friday, Aug.

If you're a beekeeper and varroa mites are bugging you--to the point whether you wonder if you're keeping bees or the varroa mites are keeping you-- there's hope.

"Girls, where's your mother? It's August, 2007 and bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, University of California, Davis, is opening a hive in the apiary. "Girls, where's your mother? she asks again, pulling out another frame.

How do you keep your bees alive and growing? That will be the topic of honey bee guru Lawrence "Larry" Connor of Kalamazoo, Mich., when he presents a special short course during the Western Apicultural Society (WAS) conference, to take place Sept.

There are nearly 8 million insect specimens in the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis. As of Friday noon, Aug. 25, there's also one tree. It's a fir. And no, it has nothing to do with the pending holiday season.