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

Good Planning: A lady beetle laid her eggs (right) next to oleander aphids (left) on a tropical milkweed plant. The lady beetle larvae will eat the aphids. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Lady Beetles Know Where to Lay Their Eggs

September 30, 2020
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Ladybugs--actually "lady beetles" as these insects are beetles--know exactly where to lay their cluster of eggs--where the aphids and other prey are. Thoughtful of the moms, isn't it? Moms are like that. Look on or under your rosebush leaves. Look under your milkweed leaves.
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This is the female of the species,Cryptocteniza kawtak. (Image by Jason Bond)

UC Davis Spider-Naming Contest: We Have a Winner!

September 28, 2020
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Remember when UC Davis Professor Jason Bond discovered a new genus of trapdoor spider on a sandy beach at Moss Landing State Park, Monterey County, and launched a naming contest for the species?
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Artist Lisa Rico painted this photo of lavender and bees for the Vacaville Fire Art Project she founded. It's titled "Making Honey" and was purchased by Andrea Hofmann-Miller. Among fire victims were beekeepers and Girl on the Hill Boutique Vineyard and Lavender.

Beekeepers Among Those Benefiting from Vacaville Fire Art Project

September 25, 2020
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Some lost everything: Their homes, their barns, their farm animals, their bees, their livelihoods. The recent wildfire that roared through rural Vacaville, reaching the outer edges of the city, seared the souls of the victims but what's happening now is warming their hearts.
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Monarch eggs are usually one to a leaf, but sometimes Mama Monarch deposits multiple eggs on a single leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Of Monarch Eggs, Ladybug Eggs and Oleander Aphids

September 24, 2020
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
So you're growing milkweed for the first time--or found some milkweed--and you're trying to figure out how to identify a monarch egg. Monarchs lay their eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves--generally--but we've seen them on stems and on the leaf edges.
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