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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Medical entomologist Laura Norris (right side of table, second from top) works with a night's catch of mosquitoes in Mali.

Just a Matter of Time

January 12, 2015
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
It was just a matter of time. It was just a matter of time before the so-called "super mosquito" surfaced, resulting in the failure of insecticide-treated nets to provide meaningful control from malaria in some localities in Africa.
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Entomologist Bruce Hammock in his office in Briggs Hall. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Entomologist Helping Humankind

January 9, 2015
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
He is an EHH: Entomologist Helping Humankind. Bruce Hammock a distinguished entomology professor at the University of California, Davis, began his career trying to figure out how to control pests.
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A drone fly, Eristalis tenax (left), and a syrphid fly. They're from the same family, Syrphidae and are often mistaken for honey bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Umm, Where's the Bee?

January 8, 2015
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
If there's one thing that entomologists hate, it's journalists who mistake a fly for a bee.
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A wasp (family Aphidiinae) parasitizing an aphid. (Photo by Fran Keller, who received her doctorate in entomology this year from UC Davis.)

What's It Like to Be Parasitized?

January 7, 2015
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
What's it like to be parasitized? Say you're a caterpillar or an aphid and a wasp comes along and lays her eggs inside you. Her eggs will hatch and then her offspring will eat their way out. You, the host, are no more. Zero. Zip. Zilch.
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A pollen-covered honey bee heading toward Bacopa. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

C'mon In, the Pollen's Fine!

January 6, 2015
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's a cold spell. As temperatures dip throughout much of California, and honey bees snuggle inside their hives, it's "bees-ness" in southern California this week.
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