Bug Squad

When this insect flashes by you in your garden, at first glance you think: "Yellow jacket? Paper wasp? What's that?" Then it lands and you realize it's neither. It's a bee.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked; If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

When temperatures soar, look for honey bees to head for water resources. On the grounds of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis, something as simple as a freshly watered potted plant will do.

Gardeners pinch them. Photographers shoot them. Hikers wonder what they are. The spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica) is a major agricultural pest. You'll see it on cucumbers, squash, corn, beans, watermelons, musk melons, cotton, tomatoes and other crops.

If the praying mantis were six feet tall, what an incredible space alien it would make. It's a well-equipped predator, with keen eyesight, a rotating head, and two spiked forelegs that grab and grasp unsuspecting prey. It's not about "who's coming to dinner"; it's "what's coming to dinner.