LivingWithBugs e-Newsletter - December, 2005

Garden Pest & Home Maintenance Calendar

featured book, website & Ken Gray image

Cinara aphid on true fir

Past Newsletters

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

As the first full year of 'Bugs comes to an end I'd like to thank everyone who has supported us in one form or another. The site has nearly doubled in size in terms of content pages. Next year we'll add another 20-30 new topics. Be sure to let us know if there's something in particular you'd like to see addressed. Our user base has grown from miniscule to nearly 5000 new visitors per month. Our goal is 30K per month (tell your friends!) next year. So, thanks again and see you in the New Year.

Garden Pest & Home Maintenance Calendar
Gardening Reminders	Home Maintenance Reminders
Consider covering small planting beds with plastic if you expect a lot of winter rain, like we do in the Pacific Northwest. This will cut down on the leaching of the soil that might otherwise occur. Obviously if you have planted a cover crop you don't want to do this! Leaching from heavy rains is one reason why these soils become so acidic and need lime in spring.	Exterior Inspections. This is the time to do your exterior inspections for water infiltration and water damage. When the soil is wet any water problems will be easier to find. Remember also that water, not insects, is the biggest threat to your home's structural integrity. Download these forms to guide you.
	Be sure that gutters are flowing freely (see above). Overflowing gutters may eventually rot the siding and other wood below.

News & Interesting Sites

2005 West Nile Virus Activity in the United States (reported to CDC as of December 6, 2005)

Fake Head Lice Lotion Disclosed. A expensive treatment for head lice has been disclosed as a common OTC skin cleanser. Proper nit-combing and medicated shampoos are still the best head lice treatments.

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Featured Website & Book

This month the featured web site focus is on ants. Ants belong to the order Hymenoptera along with wasps and bees. Ants are essentially wingless wasps. In fact, if you look closely at winged ants, called reproductives, you'll see that they look a lot like certain wasps.

I'd like to suggest two sites. The first is devoted to insect photography. Alex Wild presents some spectacular images of ants, and other insects, sorted taxonomically and ecologically. I frequently direct people to this site to identify unknown specimens. Check out myrmecos.net.

Ant Web (www.antweb.org) is a site by the California Academy of Sciences. Its focus is on taxonomy of world species. There are great, detailed photos of ant morphology and distribution maps linked to Google Earth. The site is intended mainly for ant researchers.

The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo by Clea Koff.

I've just started reading this book -- so far so good. It is very readable, not choked with jargon, and a fascinating true detective story.

I have a very small connection to this book. Bill Haglund, one of the lead UN investigators, once participated in a forensic entomology workshop we held at OSU. Bill is also well known for his work on the Green River murder case around Seattle, WA.

Ken Gray Images
	Worm-like flea larva (left) lives in the host animal's "nest" or bedding. Flea larvae feed on organic debris including fecal material from adult fleas. They don't bite. Insect growth regulators like methoprene prevent larval fleas from developing into adult fleas. Photographed 1/14/1968 (5.5x). Adjust your monitor

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