Bug Squad

The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's series of 11 seminars for the fall season will begin Wednesday, Sept. 21 with a presentation on Diabrotica (cornroot worms).

To be a fly on Friday, what a day! Entomologists who came up with "Friday Fly Day" are having a lot of fun posting images on social media of flies on Friday. If you access WikiHow, "What to Do on a Friday Night," you'll find all kinds of suggestions.

All year long, we've been waiting for those majestic monarchs to visit our pollinator garden in Vacaville, as they have in the past 10 years or so. One year (2020), they deposited more than 300 eggs on our milkweed. But this year? Zero. Zilch. Nada. Where are you? Dawn. Noon. Dusk.

It's almost the end of the season for the European wool carder bee, Anthidium manicatum. A few still hang around the foxgloves, the catmint and the African blue basil in our pollinator garden.

UC Davis entomology alumnus Brennen Thomas Dyer, a Bohart Museum of Entomology laboratory assistant 3, is fond of wearing insect-themed t-shirts created and designed by Bohart associates.