Bug Squad

The saga of the defensive honey bees--or what journalists labeled "aggressive" honey bees--in Concord continues. Although Extension apicuturist emeritus Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, retired in 2014 after 38 years of service, he continues his Extension work.

Africanized honey bees arrived in southern California in 1994 and are expanding north.

Remember the massive "buzz kill" in Wilsonville, Oregon back in June 2013 when more than 50,000 bumble bees died in a Target parking lot after coming into contact with pesticide-treated flowering linden trees? Ironically, it occurred the first day of National Pollinator Week.

Think back to the first time you spotted a Red Admiral butterfly. You probably admired it and said something like "Ooh, look at that!" That may be how its name originated; someone corrupted "admirable" to "admiral." And mistook "orange" for "red.

The Zika virus is "scarier than we initially thought." So screamed a recent USA Today headline in a quote attributed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).