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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. 

A Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, clings to a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Blanket Flower: the Picture of Autumn

October 3, 2023
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you've been ignoring your calendar, you may have not realized that autumn began Sept. 23. We know it as the season between summer and winter, when days grow shorter, when liquidambar leaves turn red, and when the blanket flower lives up to its name.
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CC Edwards (left), a doctoral student and mosquito research in the lab of UC Davis medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, answers questions about mosquitoes. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

An 'Invasion' of Household Vampires at the Bohart Museum of Entomology

September 28, 2023
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
They saw mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, lice and bed bugs at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on "Household Vampires." They learned that "medical entomologist is the study of arthropods (such as insects and ticks) that spread pathogens that cause human disease.
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