Insects

Earth Angels

M&M-Colored Honey Makes French Beekeepers See Red

We all know that bees are attracted to colorful flowers -- but colorful candy shells that melt in your mouth, not in your hand? Bees are irritating normally sanguine French beekeepers because the insects are gathering sugar from a nearby M&M waste plant and coloring their honey in rainbow shades o ... More >>

Rene Redzepi and Lars Williams at UCLA: Seaweed Ice Cream Cricket Sauce

The crowd that gathered last night at UCLA's Moore Hall to hear chefs Rene Redzepi and Lars Williams and Professor Amy Rowat give a lecture on food and science had more fun than is customary at most academic gatherings. Redzepi, the chef and founder of Noma in Copenhagen, and Williams, the head of ... More >>

The Ultimate Locavore: Backyard Chickens and Beekeeping in L.A.

Imagine a Sunday morning breakfast of a simple omelette with goat cheese and herbs, and a hunk of toasted bread drizzled with honey. How great would it be if you could ensure the freshness of those eggs and the quality of that honey by harvesting them yourself? If only you lived in a place where you ... More >>

Don Bugito: Nouveau Bug Cuisine

If your image of bugs as food remains comfortably plated in the novelty realm -- grub worm lollipops, chocolate-covered ants, Anthony Bourdain popping a few grasshopper snacks here and there -- you need to meet Monica Martinez of Don Bugito (get her fantastic video after the jump). Martinez is not ... More >>

How to Keep Kids From Swatting the Butterflies at the Natural History Museum

I've never been the kind of girl who was into butterflies. Somewhere between Mariah Carey's insipid song, those ugly-ass hair clips and the proliferation of tramp stamps, I got the message that butterflies represent a certain precious, feminine flightiness that I'm loath to be associated with. But ... More >>

Ovo

Cirque du Soleil's Ovo: How to make costumes that look like bugs

Q & A With Beekeeper Brent Edelen: Where Honey Went Wrong, What "Wildflower" Often Really Means Industry Changes

Beekeeper Brent Edelengrampashoney.com​Brent Edelen, a sixth generation raw honey producer in Alamosa, Colorado, makes some of the best honeys we've ever tasted. Like grass-fed beef, you can literally taste the terroir in the honey that Edelen makes under the Grampa's Gourmet label. In part, ... More >>

The Year In Honey: The Must-Have "Bee" Book, Local Beehive Legislation, The Pollen Debate Our Favorite Honeys

backwardsbeekeepers.comBackyard Bee Supporters ​It's great DYI canning and preserving is back in full force, but this year we've been more focused on the original preservers: honeybees. And so in honor of the humble bees and beekeepers who have served us so dutifully -- in countless cups of te ... More >>

Save Bats Bees by Showing Your (Ingestible) Support

backwardsbeekeepers.comThe Yellow Carpet​Nothing against birds, but bats and bees -- key cogs in our food pollination wheel, among other things -- have had it rough the past few years with white nose syndrome and Colony Collapse Disorder. On the positive side, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servic ... More >>

La Monarca: Best Bakery That Might Have Been Named by Nabokov

State Library and Archives of FloridaA monarch butterfly on a Pentas flower.​Were he alive and living in Los Angeles today, writer, poet, synesthete and -- lest we forget -- lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov might have been found at La Monarca. Named for the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), ... More >>

The Spazmatics - The Dragonfly - 9-4-11

Lina Lecaro Spazzing out ​The Spazmatics The Dragonfly 9-4-11 Better than... getting the high score on Ms. Pac-Man. Recently, nerdcore '80s band The Spazmatics have been bringing their cover song chaos to L.A. clubs including Playhouse, The Key Club, and Rolling Stone's Hollywood & Highland v ... More >>

What to Read Now: Eating Bugs in The New Yorker

Anne FishbeinDonaji​If you have not yet picked up the latest issue of The New Yorker, you may want to. Turn to page 38, dear reader, and you will find a Dept. of Gastronomy piece by Dana Goodyear on bugs. You will also find happy mention of John Sedlar (Rivera, Playa), Bricia Lopez (Guelaguetz ... More >>

Backwards Beekeepers, L.A.'s Bee Rescue Service

​ Modern talk of bees tends to dwell on their deficiencies more than their benefits. Colony Collapse Disorder. Fatal bee-sting allergies. Killer bees both Africanized and Saturday Night Live. But honey is a food that keeps indefinitely, much like the Metro trains that buzz incessantly on this ... More >>

Hellboy Goes to Hell? Mike Mignola Reveals What's Next for His Beloved Character

Dianne Garcia​See more of Dianne Garcia's photos in "Mike Mignola Signs Hellboy: The Fury #3 at The Comic Bug." On August 10, comic book fans headed to The Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach for a signing from Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. The event held significance for more than just the fact tha ... More >>

Love to Bug Ya, or My Fair Ladybug

Book Review: The Beekeeper's Bible Deserves Its Divine Title A Monday Hangover Cure Recipe

​It's a good time of year to be a bee. Or at least, according to Richard A. Jones and Sharon Sweeney-Lynch, authors of the just-released The Beekeeper's Bible: Bees, Honey Recipes & Other Home Uses, if you are the sort of bee who favors the sweet pollinating life more than longevity. The busie ... More >>

Ask Mr. Gold: Where to Eat Bugs in L.A.

Anne Fishbeinthe invisible restaurant critic​ Dear Mr. Gold: From what I read, raising insects is far easier on the planet than raising livestock. If I were in the mood to kill two bugs with one stone, where would I go to eat bugs in L.A.? --Betsy, Montrose

David Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly Comes to L.A.

Censored by the Smithsonian, now at the Hammer

New York Bees OD On Nasty Maraschino Juice, Poop Out Red No. 40 Instead Of Honey

Gray & CompanyGood for chick drinks, not honey bees​Beautiful, sweet-smelling nature as we know it is all but lost on New York City. We accepted long ago that the only animals who can survive NYC's hateful human nesting grounds are bedbugs and rodents -- well, and the occasional brave-hearted ... More >>

Pavilion of Wings

County Dogs Sniff for Illicit Produce

Courtesy: Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's Web site​Because practically nobody covers the county anymore, the job of writing light feature stories about the nation's largest local government has fallen to... Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's press staff.Today they turn in a nice piece on Ebony and Tahoe (p ... More >>

First Fridays

The Next Iron Chef: The First Chef Off The Kitchen Island

It's a safe bet that grasshoppers will not be on the menu at The Foundry at Melrose, now or ever. Eric Greenspan, the only Los Angeles chef on this season's The Next Iron Chef, which is set in LA, was eliminated in the first round yesterday. The 10 chefs were each given a difficult ingredient (sea ... More >>

Next Iron Chef Eric Greenspan: Will The Foundry's Cuisine Reign Supreme?

After stints in the kitchens of Alain Ducasse, Rocco Despirito, David Bouley and Ferran Adria, the jocular Eric Greenspan made a quick leap from sous chef to executive chef at Joachim Splichal's Patina, then opened a place of his own, The Foundry on Melrose, two years ago at age 32. Now the culinar ... More >>

BEST PLACE TO REIGNITE YOUR ARACHNOPHOBIA

Citrus Greening Disease Making Its Way North to Los Angeles?

The LA Times has reported that four Asian citrus psyllids, small insects often known to carry a nasty citrus greening disease, have been discovered in Santa Ana. The disease is called Huanglongbing, and while it may sound like the name of something delicious that Jonathan Gold might discover deep in ... More >>

THE THINKING DOUCHEBAG'S ARTIST

Chocolate Toasted Ants, Worm Crisps, Weasel Coffee & Reindeer Pate

Welcome back from the weekend. Sick of turkey? Have some chocolate covered ants. The British company Edible makes unusual treats. BBQ worm crisps, chocolate covered giant ants, chocolate covered scorpions, toasted leafcutter ants (they taste like bacon), mopani worms. Even an oven-baked tarantula:B ... More >>

Bees, Bees, Llamas & Squirrel Dioramas

Artist Kyle Ng's exhibit "We Hear It All" is ongoing at FLUX in Venice until July 18. He's done up the space into a "pop-up natural history museum" with taxidermy dioramas, animal sculptures, bee artifacts, fake snow, a baby llama, honeycombs, a telescope, a mouse fetus and squirrels. This is a cl ... More >>

Anniversary Bash, Then Long Nap for Miss Kitty

Tyranny of the Natural: David P. Barash's Natural Selections

"Dangerous David" on the wonderful complexities and conundrums of our evolutionary selves

The Insect-Human Duet: A Field Guide

Bug-eyed home companion

A Good Spore

Everything Counts in Large Amounts

11 secrets of swarm success

Everything Counts in Large Amounts

11 secrets of swarm success

Beyond the Fold

Computers and the origami renaissance

From California to Colorado to Kathmandu

The Exterminators

Rats and roaches and the men (and women) who kill them for us

Beetles and Boys

Hi Hi, Birdies

Body and Soul: White Noise Afternoon

Bugged

Them

California takes on the Fire Ant

See How They March

Deborah Gordon's radical new theories of ant behavior -- and why we should care

Ladybug Man

Small bugs, big plans

Dances With Ants

City of Angels beats the scientific method

The El

Nicole Eisenman at Shoshana Wayne