Bug Squad

How's your front yard looking? A little bit brown due to the drought? Thinking of replacing some of your plants with drought-tolerant ones? And hoping to attract some bees, butterflies and other wildlife? You're in luck.

It's something you don't see every day. I'm used to seeing Gulf Fritillary chrysalids hanging from our passionflower vine (Passiflora) but this thing hanging from our African blue basil was not a chrysalid.

For years, uninformed folks have declared that honey is "bee vomit." It's not. These things are inequitably false. 1. The world is flat. 2. Einstein said that "if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left." 3. Honey is bee vomit.

How do you pin and spread a butterfly? Entomologist Jeff Smith, an associate at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, showed everyone from pre-schoolers to adults how to do just that at the Bohart's recent open house. It was all hands-on.

"Why do honey bees die when they sting?" That's the question PBS Newshour asked Extension apiculturist (retired) Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology for its "Just Ask" feature.