Bug Squad

The overwintering ladybugs tucked in the leaves of our tangerine tree are gone. Sunny temperatures hit 75 degrees, and off they went. Guess they thought it was spring. Anyhow, they made a glorious sight as emerged from the folds of a tangerine leaf.

It's Valentine's Day and it's a honey of a day. Valentine cards proclaim "Bee Mine" and "Bee My Valentine." Invariably, there's a happy honey bee buzzing around a flower on a Valentine's Day card.

It happened. Remember when Chicken Little ran around yelling "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" For almond growers, beekeepers, entomologists, researchers and artists, it's "The almonds are blooming! The almonds are blooming!" Finally, the almond trees at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

Didn't you just love that commercial for the Volkswagen Beetle during the Super Bowl? While the Green Bay Packers were beetle-ing up the Pittsburg Steelers, 31-25, Volkswagen brought out its delightful Super Bug commercial. It starred a black beetle with racing stripes.

"If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it's probably a duck," or so the saying goes. But if it looks like a honey bee, moves around on blossoms like a honey bee, and feeds on nectar and pollen like a honey bee, it may not be a honey bee.