One of these was a client of ours who used to own a boarding kennel. Out back were several hives full of bees  (which belonged to him — no, he didn’t board bees), and sometimes my husband would help him collect honey in return for a share of it. Though few people like bees, most people like honey.

PB Majalakare, whose rural home is also home to a million bees, shares some thoughts on life with them:

• “I feel connected to them, they are always busy.”
• “The best part of having them around is the musical humming sound they make.”
• You don’t have to feed bees — just let them keep some of the honey.They are low-maintenance animals in other ways,too.
• Getting stung is less of a risk than you might think — bees don’t sting unless they’re hurt.
• However, beekeeping is definitely for country dwellers who can provide a lot of space and plenty of flowering plants.

A look at the USDA’s statistics on beekeeping is eye-opening. Out of 250,000 beekeepers in the U.S., 230,000 are considered “hobbyists” rather than commercial beekeepers. (The cutoff is owning 300 hives or more.) That’s an awful lot of “pet” bees.

Of course, a hobby can grow into a business. The USDA says a beekeeper thinking of going commercial should probably aim for a market niche — high quality specialty honey, for example, or selling the bees themselves to other beekeepers. Some beekeepers use their experience to moonlight as pest control specialists.

So beekeeping, while not like owning a dog or cat, can be very satisfying. It has its own rewards.

Seriously.  The giant burrowing cockroach.  Putting the word ‘giant’ and ‘cockroach’ together in the same sentence would be enough to give my lovely wife a seizure, but in Australia they are paying money for the privilege of bringing the little beasties into their homes.

Sydney University unveiled the delightful Heathcliff the Giant Burrowing Cockroach to the world yesterday.  He’s more than nine centimeters long from the tip of his grotesque antenna to the end of his disgusting little hind legs.  Being American, I have no idea how long nine centimeters is, but it sounds like it’s a big bug.

Heathcliff (I can’t believe they name bugs in the land of the kangaroo) was a hit at the university’s annual open house day.  Visitors could see not only the slimy little varmint close up, but they also took turns trying to guess how much he weighs (35 grams, apparently).  Those Aussies sure know how to have a good time.  Maybe next year they can get together to look at a pile of dingo dung and try to guess what he had for dinner.

I kid, I kid.  I love Australians.  It’s the creepy, disease-carrying giant bugs that I’m not so crazy about.

This trail is the passage through which all food travels to the nest. The path is constantly maintained and cleared of any debris such as leaves and twigs that may make it less passable. About half the diet is mostly seeds from vegetables.

There are more than 15,000 ant species and they employ a variety of strategies to search and appropriate food. The ants of Indonesia hunt in groups but the workers of other species hunt alone. The Asian jumping ant can make startling leaps and travel as far as a hundred feet from its nest.

These ants of Indonesia when working together are able to capture prey thousands of times their own weight. Victims include spiders, cockroaches, crickets, and scorpions. To bring down an earthworm of four inches it may require as much as a hundred workers.