Bug Squad Logo

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. Feedspot lists it as one of the top entomology blogs on the Internet. 

Street art usually focuses on such insects as bees, butterflies and dragonflies, but at Vacaville's Ulatis Creek Park, someone affixed this carpenter ant. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Art of the Ant

July 2, 2021
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
We're used to admiring street art that showcases such iconic insects as lady beetles, dragonflies and butterflies, but carpenter ants? Carpenter ants? If you walk over the Ulatis Creek Bridge, Vacaville, to enter Andrews Park for the Fourth of July celebration on Sunday, you may be surprised.
View Article
A female sunflower bee, Svastra obliqua expurgata, forages on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Life Is Not Always Sunny for the Sunflower Bee

July 1, 2021
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Life is not always sunny for the sunflower bee, Svastra obliqua, a native longhorned bee. The gals have trouble foraging when a male longhorned bee, Melissodes agilis, targets them. The male M. agilis are very territorial--and their kamikaze-like maneuvers are spectacular.
View Article
Boys' Night Out--Five male longhorned bees, Melissodes agilis, sleeping on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Boys' Night Out: Let's Have a Slumber Party!

June 30, 2021
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Let's have a slumber party! Don't bring a pillow, a night-cap or an attitudeit's Boys' Night Out and we're sleeping outside on the flowers. That's what the male longhorned bees, Melissodes agilis, do while the females return to their underground nests at night.
View Article
It's early morning, and a newly eclosed Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, perches on lavender in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Just a Day in the Life of a Butterfly

June 29, 2021
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's early morning. A newly eclosed Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, perches alone in the center of a lavender bed in Vacaville, Calif. It's too early for the honey bees.
View Article
Subscribe