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Bug Squad

Bug Squad blog image depicts a honey bee sting in action.

Welcome to the Bug Squad blog! The Bug Squad blog was launched Aug. 6, 2008 and is a daily blog (Monday through Friday). It showcases entomologists and the work they do.  The blog focuses on scientists in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, the Bohart Museum of Entomology, Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, the UC Davis Bee Haven, and assorted campuswide events, including UC Davis Picnic Day, UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, and Bohart Museum open houses. The blog spotlights insects, including bees, butterflies, dragonflies, and praying mantises, as well as arachnids such as jumping spiders and crab spiders. Author and photographer is Kathy Keatley Garvey, communications specialist, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and a longtime journalist and community scientist with two degrees from Washington State University.  She is a member of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE). Her blog posts and images have won international awards from ACE and ESA and appeared on journal and magazine covers. She shoots primarily with a Nikon Z-8 mirrorless camera, a Nikon D500 and Nikon 800, with assorted macro lenses. Feedspot lists it as one of the top entomology blogs on the Internet. 

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Praying mantis and a bee in a patch of African blue basil.

Mantis vs. Bee

October 14, 2026
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
  If you want to attract honey bees, plant African blue basil and they will come.So will the predators.Today a praying mantis, Stagmomantis californicus, was lying in wait in the basil patch, waiting for a honey bee. The bees came, they nectared, they left. Ms. Mantis just stared at them.The…
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Bombus melanopygus on Gaillardia

The Great Native Bee Count

October 13, 2026
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 Have you heard about The Great Native Bee Count? Want to help make it happen?  The goal is $3000 by Oct. 31 "to build the community science tools to make it happen," according to the E. L. Niño Bee Lab at the University of California, Davis.In spring 2027, "The Great Native Bee Count will…
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UC Davis postdoctoral fellow Rachel Thayer will deliver the Oct. 14th UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar on "Evolutionary Genomics of the Drosophila Sperm Storage System" at 12:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. She will discuss previously unknown cell types in the female reproductive tract of Drosophila fruit flies. The knowledge could help in studies of fertility in general, and in managing beneficial and pest insects, she relates. (Photo by Rachel Thayer, UC Davis)

Targeting the Reproductive System of Female Fruit Fly

October 12, 2026
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
  "The insect female reproductive tract includes the uterus, oviduct, sperm storage organs, and glands, which are essential for fertility but understudied." So began evolutionary and developmental geneticist Rachel Thayer in her research paper, "Regional Specialization, Polyploidy, and Seminal…
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Bruce Hammock Memorial

All Systems Are 'Go' For Bruce Hammock Memorial

October 9, 2026
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 All systems are "go" for the "Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Bruce Hammock." It's scheduled for 1 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 10 in the California Hall, UC Davis campus.There will be tears, laughter, and a room filled with cherished memories of the legendary UC Davis Distinguished Professor Bruce…
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A monarch caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

'Life Is Full of Surprises'--Bruce Hammock

October 8, 2026
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 It all began when UC Davis Distinguished Professor  Bruce Hammock,  then a UC Berkeley graduate student,  wondered how a caterpillar could turn into a butterfly.His research led to the co-discovery of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH)--an enzyme in the human body that breaks down…
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