Bug Squad

Is coconut oil effective in treating varroa mites, those nasty little mites that plague our honey bees? The facts aren't in, and research is ongoing.

Yarrow, yarrow, yarrow. Drone fly, drone fly, drone fly. This little insect is often mistaken for a honey bee. In the adult stage, both the drone fly and honey bee nectar flowers. However, the drone fly is a syrphid fly (family Syrphidae, subfamily Eristalinae, tribe Eristalini, genus, Eristalis).

It's an amazing migratory feat. "One generation of monarch butterflies flutters some 2000 miles between southern Canada and central Mexico," writes LiveScience senior writer Wynne Parry in her piece, "Life's Little Mysteries" posted Nov. 4 on the LiveScience website.

If youre into bugs, the Bohart Museum of Entomology on the UC Davis campus has plenty of them. Butterflies? Check. Dragonflies? Check. Native bees? Check.

Medical entomologist Thomas Scott (right), professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, and a newly elected fellow of the Entomological Society of America, knows his foe well. His foe? The day-biting, tiger-striped mosquito, Aedes aegypti.