Bug Squad

If I were in charge of a praying mantis' daily diet, I would enforce one stringent rule: "Please don't eat the pollinators! Do not, I repeat, target the bees or butterflies.

Say the word wings to folks who attend fairs and festivals and they may think of something to eat--buffalo wings or chicken wings. But if you head over to McCormack Hall at the Solano County Fair, Vallejo, you'll be thinking of insect flight. Flight of butterflies and moths.

Bee scientists, beekeepers and bee photographers so love their bees that they can't get enough of them.

We're receiving lots of inquiries about sleepovers ever since we began posting images of male longhorned bees, Melissodes agilis, sleeping on our lavender. Boys' Night Out! While the females sleep in their underground nests, the males cluster on stems.

Bumble bees and spiders don't mix, you say? Well, they will at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, July 26. The family-centered event, free and open to the public, takes place in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge building on Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus.