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)

A monarch chrysalis that didn't make it. This image was taken Sept. 15. Said Art Shapiro of UC Davis: "The intersegmental membranes are showing. Whatever caused that, it opens the door to severe water loss, so the pupa will probably die." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Monarchs: You Can't Save Them All

November 19, 2018

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Monarchs: you can't save them all. It was a dismal year in Vacaville (and other parts of California) for monarch-rearing. Of the 10 caterpillars we collected from milkweed in our pollinator garden in early September and tried to rear, only eight made it.

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Karey Windbiel-Rojas of the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM), plans to wear this cockroach costume to the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on Sunday, Nov. 18, when she will greet visitors and answer questions. An urban entomologist expert, she's the associate director for Urban and Community IPM who serves as the area urban IPM advisor for Yolo, Sacramento and Solano counties.

Bohart Museum Open House: Bed Bugs and Cochroaches and Pantry Pests

November 16, 2018

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Entomology, or the scientific study of insects, is not just rural--it's urban, too. Think bed bugs, cockroaches, carpet beetles and pantry pests, among others.

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What's going on in the hive? World-renowned honey bee geneticist Robert Eugene “Rob” Page Jr., the 2018 recipient of the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Award, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will speak on "In Search of the Spirit of the Hive: a 30-Year Quest"--at 4 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 29 in the International House, 10 College Park, Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Rob Page: Searching for 'The Spirit of the Hive'

November 15, 2018

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

For the last three decades, he's been searching for the "The Spirit of the Hive." That would be world-renowned honey bee geneticist Robert Eugene (Rob) Page Jr., the 2018 recipient of the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Award, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

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Gamemaster Deane Jorgensen (far left), research scientist at Sygenta, and ESA president Michael Parrella (far right), dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Idaho, flank the national Linnaean Games Team champions. In the center (from left) are Emily Bick, Brendon Boudinot, captain Ralph Washington Jr., Zachary Griebenow and Jill Oberski. Parrella is a former professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. (Joe Rominiecki Photo)

Congrats! UC Linnaean Games Team Wins the National Championship

November 14, 2018

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

They did it! Again! The incredible University of California Linnaean Games Team, comprised of graduate students from UC Davis and UC Berkeley, won the national championship at the popular and highly competitive Linnaean Games hosted this week at the Entomological Society of America's meeting in Vanc...

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Entomologist Brennen Dyer, shown here at work at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis, lost it all in the Paradise inferno known as Camp Fire. His supervisor, Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and UC Davis professor of entomology, encouraged him to set up a gofundme account.

They Lost It All in the Raging Inferno in Paradise

November 13, 2018

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Paradise isn't. It was, though. And it will be again when it's rebuilt. #ParadiseStrong. The raging inferno known as "Camp Fire" that started Nov. 8 on Camp Creek Road, near Pulga, Butte County, California, ranks as the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state's history.

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