Bug Squad

If you've been around honey bee hives much, you know what a smoker is. It's a tool that beekeepers use to inspect, manipulate or handle a hive. They smoke a hive to check the health of the colony, to add a little food, and to take a little honey.

Know your ants. If you want to identify red imported fire ants and other invasive ants found in the Pacific Island region, a newly launched Web site by an entomology graduate student at the University of California, Davis, will help you do just that.

Heres another good reason to be kind to ladybugs. But we are, arent we? EurekAlert! alerted us Jan. 6 to a study relating that an abundance of ladybugs in olive orchards is an indicator of health and sustainability.

Catherine Chalmers hates cockroaches. She said so at her presentation Wednesday night, Jan. 7, at UC Davis. The occasion: The Consilience of Art and Science centennial colloquium, sponsored by the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion experimental learning program. We have an adversarial relationship.

Walnuts are packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, right? Right. And sometimes a little protein. Protein, as in larvae. That's not a welcome sight. Sometimes you'll find two or three navel orangeworm (NOW) larvae inside a single walnut, along with copious amounts of webbing and frass.