Bug Squad

A daily (M-F) blog launched Aug. 6, 2008 and about the wonderful world of insects and those who study them. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A honey bee and a Western yellowjacket meet on a rose at a UC Davis bee garden. Both are pollinators. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Wasps: Fascinating Insects But Often Demonized

January 15, 2024

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

If you hate wasps, and brush them off as just "uninvited guests at my picnic," take another look. For one, they're pollinators. Two, they're great predators, contributing to the biocontrol of such lepidopteran pests as cabbageworms (larva of cabbage white butterflies).

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This is one of the images of monarchs that Davis resident Larry Snyder took at the North Davis Channel.

Larry Snyder Sharing Images of 'Insects at the Ditch'

January 12, 2024

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

They crawl, they fly, they flutter, they buzz. They look at us, and we look back. But if you're Larry Snyder of Davis, an insect photographer and a retired musician, you not only look back, but you take their images.

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A northern giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia, which the news media dubbed "Murder Hornet." (Photo courtesy of the Washington State Department of Agriculture)

Bohart Museum Open House: Get Acquainted with Social Wasps

January 11, 2024

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Let's be social! How much do you know about social wasps? Would you like to engage in a "meet-and-greet" with them and talk to a wasp expert?

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A cartoon from the William Ja lab. Ja, with the Herbert Wertheim Scripps UF Institute for Biomedical Innovation and Technology in Jupiter, Florida, will speak on "Eat, Excrete, & Die: Regulation of Homeostatic Behaviors and Aging in Drosophila" at 4:10 p.m., Monday, Jan. 22.

UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology Hosting Winter Seminars

January 10, 2024

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The winter seminars hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology are underway. All seminars are on Mondays at 4:10 p.m. in Room 122 of Briggs Hall and also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672. No seminar will take place on Monday, Jan.

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Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, shows butterfly specimens to guests. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Gearing Up for 13th Annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day

January 9, 2024

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Meet the scientists! Ask questions! Plans are underway for the 13th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, a free "Super Science Day" for the public to see science in action and learn about 10 UC Davis museums and collections. The event is set for Saturday, Feb.

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