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)
Primary Image
A European wool carder bee, Anthidium manicatum, heads for a snapdragon. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Wonderful World of Insects

January 1, 2021
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Learning more about insects ought to be one of your New Year's resolutions. Here's a good place to start: read the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology's Insect Information Sheets.
View Article
Primary Image
Oops! A Gulf Fritillary, Araulis vanillae, lands near a praying mantis, a female Mantis religiosa, in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Year 2020 Felt Like a Close Encounter of the Worst Kind

December 31, 2020
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
The year 2020 felt like a close encounter of the worst kind. The raging COVID-19 pandemic, the California wildfires, the political scene, the poverty, the racial uprisings, the stay-at-home mandates, the strife...
View Article
Primary Image
This "floral bouquet" of milkweed contains four monarch eggs. Image taken in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Floral Bouquet Graced with Four Monarch Eggs

December 30, 2020
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
2020 was a troubling year for the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus. The severe population decline led the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation to seek endangered species status from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). USFWS announced Dec.
View Article
Primary Image
A lady beetle, aka ladybug, covered with rain droplets on Artemisia in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Did You Celebrate Happy Solstice Day?

December 28, 2020
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Did you celebrate Happy Solstice Day on Dec. 21? That's the astronomical moment, according to the Farmer's Almanac, "when the Sun reaches the Tropic of Capricorn" and "we have our shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere in terms of daylight.
View Article