Bug Squad

The English lavender drew her in. And there she was, a yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, foraging in our family's pollinator garden in Vacaville. She buzzed from blossom to blossom, ignoring the honey bees, syrphid flies and...the photographer. Ms.

Remember back in 2013 when scientists verified the reintroduction of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, in California? Infected mosquitoes can transmit such viruses as yellow fever, dengue and Zika. Alarm bells went off.

Picture this. Jill Oberski is in the third grade, stretched out on the classroom floor reading her "Audubon Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America." Another insect publication is within reach. Fast forward to today: she's Dr. Jill Oberski.

He's a wealth of information about forensic entomology, and he'll share that with you. Don't miss the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on "Insects and Forensics," featuring UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert Bob Kimsey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

A colony of red ants recently roamed the Bohart Museum of Entomology. They really weren't red ants, but children wearing ant headgear, created during the family arts-and-crafts activity at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house on ants.