Bug Squad

Did you catch the "The Burns and the Bees" episode on The Simpsons Sunday night? Dead honey bees take over the otherwise animated TV show. Bart, on a dare from schoolyard bullies, knocks a bee's nest from a tree and it lands kerplop on the playground.

"To bee or not to bee." That is the question. What is the solution? The plight of the honey bees has not escaped the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Students' Association (EGSA).

There's been trouble in paradise far too long. Now, thanks to a generous donation from Hagen-Dazs, there will be a pollinator paradise--in the way of a bee friendly garden--at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis.

Call them plant lice. Call them plant suckers. Call them aphids. The tiny, soft-bodied insects with pear-shaped bodies form denses colonies on plants. They suck. Literally. Their destructive feeding habits do not endear them to gardeners and farmers. No love lost. No lost love.

They did it.