Test PB Collection: FTE

You're sitting around discussing the importance of honey bees. The points include: they give us honey, they pollinate agricultural crops, and they serve as an example of a well-organized society. But wait, there's more. They scare off plant predators.

Seen any cabbage whites lately? If you capture one before UC Davis professor Arthur Shapiro does, he'll trade you a beer for your butterfly. Actually, a pitcher of beer or its cash equivalent. Yes, it's time for Shapiro's 38th annual Butterfly-for-Beer contest.

You CAN have your cake and eat it, too. You can also "have your BUG and eat it, too." Even if you're not into entomophagy.

Who put the killer in killer bees? Someone named B. Melon asked that question on the Strange but True segment of the Web site, readthehook.com. To answer the bee question, Bill Sones and Rich Sones did what many do.

American humorist-entertainer Will Rogers said "I never met a man I didn't like." I wonder if he would have said the same thing about insects. Oh, sure, he probably liked--and appreciated--the butterflies, the honey bees and the ladybugs. But cockroaches? I bet not.

What has five eyes, six legs, two pairs of wings and can fly about 20 miles per hour? Got to be an insect, right? Right. But which one? More hints: Its been around for 30 million years. Its primary form of communication is a chemical called a pheromone. Well, that could be Okay, now it gets easier.

Were outnumbered. Plain as day. And theyre not going away. The estimated ratio of insects to humans is 200 million to one, say Iowa State University entomologists Larry Pedigo and Marlin Rice in their newly published (sixth edition) textbook, Entomology and Pest Management.

We're in a recession, but the mosquitoes aren't. The mortgage meltdown and the resulting green swimming pools are perfect breeding sites for mosquitoes, which can transmit the deadly West Nile virus (WNV). So far this year WNV has sickened 411 Californians, killing 13.

It's a high-flying butterfly--rarely seen and rarely recognized. Ironically, it's now down-to-earth, frequently seen, and frequently recognized, thanks to the Internet.

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.