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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. 

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The worker bee (sterile female) is at left, and the drone (male) is at right. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Learn About Honey Bees at the California Honey Festival

May 6, 2022
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you haven't been around honey bees much, and can't distinguish the queen from a worker bee (sterile female) or drone (male bee), head over the California Master Beekeeper Program displays at the California Honey Festival on Saturday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. in downtown Woodland.
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The California Master Beekeeper Program will provide a bee observation hive at the California Honey Festival. Here a queen and her retinue can be seen through the glass. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

What's That Buzz? California Honey Festival

May 5, 2022
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Hear that buzz? See those bees? Taste that honey? When the California Honey Festival takes place Saturday, May 7 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in downtown Woodland, you'll hear the buzz, see the buzz, and sample honey.
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Postdoctoral researcher Severyn Korneyev, a Ukranian dipterist, created this fly diversity display as a traveling exhibit for the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Fly Diversity Explained With Ukrainian Colors

May 3, 2022
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
When officials at the Bohart Museum of Entomology asked UC Davis students, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows if they would like to create a scientific traveling display case of insect specimens, one of those answering the call was postdoctoral researcher Severyn Korneyev, a Ukrainian entomo...
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