No mere encyclopedia of bugs, <span class="italic">Sex on Six Legs</span> (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) delivers exactly what its subtitle promises: lessons on life, love and language from the insect world. In this page-turner, entomologist and first-rate raconteur Marlene Zuk draws swarms of six-legged subjects under the microscope and enlightens all along the way.

L.A. Clipper <span class="bold">Chris Paul</span> may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.

Winter won’t be over for a couple more months, but already the sun is climbing a little higher in the sky, and feeling a little warmer.

Today’s homes are filled with parts and materials — limestone countertops, stainless steel appliances, multihead showers — that weren’t so common years ago. They make your home more efficient and require less maintenance. You can’t ignore them entirely, though. So, as you plan your chores and projects for the coming year, here are some to keep in mind.

It’s going to take at least one or two years before you see an improvement with your palms. You need to continue with the corrective measures for at least another year or two as well as use a “palm special” type fertilizer (8-2-12 + 4% Mg). To learn how to correct palm deficiencies and other information, please visit this UF site: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu and search for “palm nutrition.”

Alexandra Errington thought her toddler was in bed. Then she heard a crash and a scream “like I’ve never heard him scream before.”

Ever play that flashlight game where you point the beam upward from your chin to create a ghoulish and sinister-looking face? If so, you’ve witnessed the power of light to transform a physical object, for better or for worse. George Clooney or Charlize Theron might look gorgeous during a magazine photo shoot, but light them wrong and those fab faces can turn suddenly scary. Alfred Hitchcock knew this and used lighting effects deliberately to create frightening images in his films.

Barbara LaPradd chooses roses for her Pinecrest garden for their age and fragrance.

I could easily recommend three or four vets in your area, but since I don’t know you or your pets, I’m not sure which kind would best suit you. I can, however, offer a primer on identifying a quality veterinary facility:

A photo gallery

Brazilian designers bring the sea and the sun into the interior of a Sunny Isles Beach vacation home

Singer <span class="bold">Melanie Brown</span> — Scary Spice from her days with the Spice Girls — and her husband, producer <span class="bold">Stephen Belafonte</span>, have put their Tarzana compound on the market at $3.45 million.

What look like scale insects on your fern are actually fern spores. Insects would not be found in neat rows but would have a more haphazard distribution on the leaf.

The sample you sent in is ixora. This plant prefers an acidic soil and frequently shows nutritional deficiencies in our alkaline soils. Yellow leaves with green veins indicate iron deficiency.

Unfortunately, you have a Brazilian pepper <span class="italic">(Schinus terebinthifolius)</span>, also known as Florida holly, Christmas berry and pepper tree. This is a very invasive plant, which is displacing native plants in natural areas. And it’s a landscape weed. Brazilian pepper is on the Florida invasive plant list.

Unless your plants were recently planted and still establishing their root system or your plants are in containers, additional water isn’t needed in most cases. Due to our high water table, most trees and shrubs are able to get enough water year round. Annuals and a few perennials such as gingers and bananas may require irrigation if the weather is hot and dry.

Your ‘Nam Doc Mai’ mango has either anthracnose or powdery mildew or both (they are fungal diseases). These won’t kill the tree and it’s too late in the season to try to control them now. Anthracnose may cause stem dieback, so monitor your tree. Next winter/spring when the tree starts flowering, use a copper based fungicide spray and continue to spray weekly until fruit set.

Your eggplants and tomatoes aren't setting fruit right now because it's still too warm at night. As soon as the nighttime temperatures start going down to 70 or below, these plants will start to set fruit. Believe it or not but both eggplants and tomatoes are related. They belong to the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Other members include these crops: potatoes, tomatillo, peppers, tobacco, and others. Be careful not to use too much nitrogen when fertilizing your plants. Too much fertilizer can inhibit or reduce flowering because the plant is putting its resources into producing a lot of new growth.

Q: I have a live oak in South Dade that only grows half the leaves. The leaves at the end of the branches are disappearing rapidly, have small brown spots and are eaten around the edges.

I could easily recommend three or four vets in your area, but since I don’t know you or your pets, I’m not sure which kind would best suit you. I can, however, offer a primer on identifying a quality veterinary facility:

Have you ever seen your cat stop, cough, extend his neck and recruit his abdominal muscles to help spew forth the contents of his stomach? With a violent heave, a cat easily proves his mettle as an expert vomiter.

People seem to have a basic need to connect with animals.