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 cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, in flight, heading toward lantana. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

No Cabbage White Butterfly, No Bumble Bee

January 6, 2023

No cabbage white butterfly, no bumble bee. As of 4 p.m. today (Jan.

View Article

A monarch caterpillar feeding on tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Year 2023: What Does the Year Hold for Monarchs and Tropical Milkweed?

January 5, 2023

Do monarch butterflies know what they want/need? Apparently so, from personal observation. Over the years, we've grown multiple species of milkweed in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif. We give them a choice.

View Article

This is a gallery of bark beetles. A seminar on forest beetles will be among the seminars hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

UC Davis ENT Seminars: From Bark Beetles to Meat-Eating Bees

January 4, 2023

From bark beetles to meat-eating bees! And from UC Davis to France... Seminar coordinator Emily Meineke, urban landscape entomologist and assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, has announced the list of the department's 10 winter seminars, which begin Jan.

View Article

A gloved hand holds a male monarch found cold and still in the middle of a residential street in west Vacaville on Jan. 3, 2022. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

First Monarch of the Year and First Summit of the Year

January 3, 2023

So there it was...a monarch lying on its side, one wing down and one wing up, in the middle of a residential neighborhood in west Vacaville, California, on a 42-degree morning on Tuesday, Jan. 3. It looked newly emerged but it wasn't moving. In fact, it looked quite dead.

View Article

This is the tick buried in the skin of Winters' resident Joe Nazarius. It's black-legged nymph tick, Ixodes pacificus, as identified by Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. (Photo by Debra LoGuercio DeAngelo)

It Started Out as a Quiet, End-of-the-Year Hike Near Lake Berryessa...

January 2, 2023

It was a good day for a hike. So Joe Nazarius of Winters embarked on a Dec. 30th hike in the Knoxville Road area, west of Lake Berryessa, when the unexpected happened. "What is this bug buried in Joe's skin?" That's what his wife, Debra LoGuercio DeAngelo, messaged me. She attached a photo.

View Article