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)
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A syrphid fly heads for a Gaura in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

It's Friday Fly Day!

November 15, 2024
It's Friday Fly Day and what an appropriate day to honor a syrphid fly. This syrphid, caught in flight, was seeking nectar from a Gaura, a genus of flowering plants in the family Onagraceae, native to North America.
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Honey bee nectaring on tower of jewels, Echium wilpretii. This is a non-native, but isn't it pretty? The California Master Beekeeper Program is offering a class on "Planning Year-Round Native Plant Pollinator Garden" on Nov. 17. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

CAMBP Classes on Pollinator Gardens and Apiary Technology

November 12, 2024
Like to learn about planning a year-round native pollinator garden or about technology in the apiary? The California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP) has announced its last two classes of 2024. One is a three-hour course, Planning Year-Round Native Plant Pollinator Garden from 9 a.m.
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Samuel Davidson Laughlin, shown here at his home in Castle Rock, Wash., contracted malaria when he was a color bearer for the Union Army during the Siege of Vicksburg.
Bug Squad: Article

Mosquitoes, Malaria and the Civil War

November 11, 2024
Not many Americans think about mosquitoes and malaria on Nov. 11, Veterans' Day. But they should. The mosquito played a major adversarial role in our nation's Civil War. Some 30,000 soldiers died of malaria, and more than half of the 2.
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