Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay

Looking for a specific Blog post?

UC ANR is renovating its website. The Bug Squad blogs are archived at https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/archive.cfm

Meanwhile, here are the latest blogs. They can also be found on the Bug Squad blog, Facebook, at https://www.facebook.com/TheBugSquad

March 28, 2025: Congrats to Douglas Walsh, PBESA's Woodworth Award Recipient

March 27, 2025: In Support of Honey Bees

March 26, 2025: Remembering Professor Harry Lange and Helping the Bohart Museum of Entomology

March 25, 2025: Hammock, Morisseau to Give TEDX Talk at School of Medicine Research Celebration

March 24, 2025: A UC Davis Living Lab: Which Plants Are Best for Your Garden?

March 21, 2025: 'Fantastic' and Much Needed Workshop: Fruit Fly ID

March 19, 2025: Thinking Pink on the First Day of Spring

March 18, 2025: Dad's Bees

March 17, 2025: Don't Pinch Me! I'm Green

March 14, 2025: CC Edwards Elected Chair of Youth Professionals, American Mosquito Control Association

March 13, 2025: Bohart Scientists Explain Venomous vs. Poisonous

March 12 2025: A Beautiful Bombus at Bodega

March 11 2025: Learn How Two UC Davis Entomologists-Artists Fuse Art with Science

March 10, 2025: How to Color a Frog: the Boh-Art Way

March 7, 2025: Bohart Museum Open House: Hopping with Poison Dart Frogs

Heads of Rhadinoscelidia malaysiae species. "One of the most unusual things about these wasps is the weird head deformities," says Lynn Kimsey. "I’ve never seen it in any other wasps or bees that I’ve studied."

Article

Hmm, What's That Critter with the Long, Skinny Necks and Legs?

March 8th, 2018

They have weird, long, skinny hinged necks, long skinny legs, and the wing bases are covered by a structure that looks like a large hub cap.

A pollen-covered honey bee forages on a Gallardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Article

UC Davis Arboretum Plant Sale on March 10; Why Not Think Gaillardia?

March 7th, 2018

If you've been thinking about blanketing your garden with blanketflower (Gaillardia), you're in luck. The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden is hosting a spring plant sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Female sweat bees, Halictus ligatus, on goldenrod at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Article

Unforeseen Trophic Interactions in Ag Systems: What-Eats-What in the Food Chain

March 6th, 2018

Trophic interactions--or what-eats-what in the food chain or food web of a given ecosystem--will come to life Wednesday, March 7 when associate professor of entomology/Extension specialist John Tooker of Pennsylvania State University discusses "Unforeseen Trophic Interactions in Agricultural and Nat...

"Honey bees are superb beekeepers; they know what they're doing," keynote speaker Tom Seeley tells the fourth annual UC Davis Bee Symposium. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Article

Tom Seeley: 'Bees Are Superb Beekeepers'

March 5th, 2018

"Honey bees are superb beekeepers; they know what they're doing." So said bee scientist and author Tom Seeley of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., when he keynoted the fourth annual UC Davis Bee Symposium, held March 3 in the UC Davis Conference Center.

Can you see an ant and a spider in this photo of an almond tree? It's a winter ant, Prenolepis imparis and a jumping spider, Salticidae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Article

And Along Came a Spider

March 2nd, 2018

If you've been checking out the honey bees foraging on the almonds lately--in between the rains--you might see other critters as well. Like a winter ant. Or a jumping spider. This winter ant, Prenolepis imparis (as identified by ant specialist Brendon Boudinot, a Ph.D.