Bug Squad

It's good to see so many people looking for the critically imperiled Franklin's bumble bee, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may soon list as endangered and provide protective status.

It's a Good News Day. The Entomological Society of America (ESA) just announced that among the 2011 award recipients are two UC Davis faculty: Michael Parrella and Walter Leal.

Do you want to be a billionaire? Or an entomologist?

If you don't know what it is, don't kill it. That insect in your garden could very well be a beneficial insect. If you operate on the "shoot-first-ask-questions later" or "the only good bug is a dead bug," no telling how many insects--and generations--you'll be destroying.

It wasn't much of a fight. The assassin bug scored a TKO. Here's what happened: an assassin bug ambushed a spotted cucumber beetle in the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Faciility on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis. It was "good guy vs. bad guy.