There won't be any lions, tigers or bears, but the University of Georgia’s annual Insect Zoo will let visitors get up close and personal with roaches, crickets and other bugs.

This year’s exceptionally warm winter and the early spring temperatures mean Georgians may be dealing with warm weather pests, like ticks and mosquitos, earlier this year.

The 2012 Georgia Pest Management Handbook is now available. The thirty-third Commercial Edition, published by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, provides more than 800 pages of current information on selection, application and safe use of pest control chemicals around farms, homes, urban areas, recreational areas and other environments where pests may occur.

Temperatures are finally dropping in Georgia and people are staying inside to keep warm, and so are the famous kudzu bugs. University of Georgia experts offer tips on how to keep the tiny pests from invading your home.

More than 200 species of stink bugs call North America home. As many as 60 species live in Georgia. One more was recently discovered in southern South Carolina. The brown marmorated stink bug, or Halyomorpha halys, will likely soon invade Georgia, according to a University of Georgia entomologist.

Fire ants can ruin picnics and football games year-round. Treating fire ant colonies in the fall can help edge out future colonies, lessening the likelihood they’ll steal your chips or nip at your toes.

Almost two years ago, a tiny immigrant pest arrived in Georgia, and there’s nothing the state’s immigration office can do to make it leave. The bean plataspid, or kudzu bug, munches on kudzu and soybeans and has now set up residence in four Southern states.

It’s summer, and outdoor activities are on the menu. Make sure you don’t end up on the menu of a blood-sucking travel partner when you are out and about, say University of Georgia experts.

Soon after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake shocked Haiti, crumbling its capitol and killing an estimated 250,000 people, a team of experts from the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences traveled there to assess how the college could help foster sustainable agriculture.