Bug Squad

Think of them as "the good guys" and "the good girls." Insects such as lacewings, lady beetles and flower flies. We're delighted to see that the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has just published a 250-page book on "Farming with Native Beneficial Insects.

When an egret swooped down and ate all the goldfish in our fish pond--quite a smorgasbord of goldies--we left the pond bare for a couple of months. The result was a good one: more damselflies.

There I was, walking across the University of California, Davis, campus to the Environmental Sciences Building for an agricultural communicators' meeting: a notebook in my hand, cell phone in my pocket, and my trusty pocket camera strapped around my neck.

You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get."--Michael Phelps. It's true. You can't put a limit on anything.

The Western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) is the kind of butterfly that combines steel with silk. It's a tough critter. Often you'll see it with its wings clipped by a predator--maybe a bird or a praying mantis.