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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. 

A syrphid fly, a female Scaeva pyrastri, hovers over an Asian lady beetle (Harmonia axyridis). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

It's Friday Fly Day!

January 21, 2022
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's Friday Fly Day--and time to post images of a syrphid fly. Syrphid flies, often mistaken for honey bees, are pollinators, too. Also known as flower flies and hover flies, syrphids hover over a flower before touching down.
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This earwig was beneath a garden sculpture in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Ode to an Earwig

January 18, 2022
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
A winter pollinator garden does not buzz with bees; it crawls with earwigs, ants, roly-polys, and other insects. Turn over a rock, a pot, or a garden sculpture and there they are. Well, there one was. An earwig looked up as we lifted a garden sculpture.
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Gwen Erdosh's Instagram account; more than 22,000 fans follower her.

Gwen Erdosh: Entomology Ambassador Extraordinaire

January 17, 2022
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you're not big on bugs, you will be--or should be--after seeing UC Davis entomologist Gwen Erdosh's recent interview with reporter Ashley Williams on Good Day Sacramento. Erdosh, 21, an undergraduate entomology major and president of the UC Davis Entomology Club, is passionate about bugs.
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