Q. My question is about those stickers that the Department of Agriculture inspectors apply to our luggage when we're departing on a trip to the Mainland. The inspectors wrap it around the luggage handles and I find it's difficult to remove it when I get home from the trip. Have government officials thought about a more friendly sticker?

A. Carol Russell, operations officer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said that sticker is designed to be very sticky so it stays on the luggage. Russell said the bags go through many hands: the owner of the luggage, the airline crews, baggage handlers, security officials and sometimes more.

She said inspectors place the sticker on the luggage handles because it sticks better there. Officials tried placing the stickers on the sides of the bags but found they wouldn't stick on all of the various surfaces.

If travelers make a request, Russell said inspectors will place the stickers somewhere other than the handle as long as they can be secured.

Other tips for dealing with the stickers: Once you reach your destination, take them off.

"They're only good one way. If you remove it quickly, shortly after you get to your destination, it comes off easier," she said.

And you can't use the same sticker for different trips, so there's no point in keeping it on, she said. "I have heard that putting WD-40 on there helps to remove it," she said.

Q. I am confused by some of the airport signs on the ground level by the baggage claim that steer you back to the airport. If you go interisland and then circle back, the "return to terminal" sign is on the bottom and you could miss it. When you approach the airport and interisland is to the right and departure is up the ramp, the sign doesn't say departure.

A. State Transportation Department spokesman Scott Ishikawa said crews took a look at the signs after you called. "We did find one directional sign above the only 'up ramp' sign that did not have 'to departures' on it and initiated an order to add the word 'departures' to that sign," he said. The sign should be corrected within a month, he said.

If a driver is looking for the departure level, but ends up taking the arrival down ramp, the driver must follow the "return to terminal" signs and go up a ramp to get back to the departure level.

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