Bug Squad

You've heard folks call insects "big 'ol bugs" (often in astonishment or terror), right? But have you ever seen a "bigeyed bug on a monarch butterfly?" Bigeyed bugs, Geocoris spp.

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).

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.

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?

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.