Bug Squad

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.

A honey bee with a huge pollen load heads for more mustard pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Cutting the Mustard

February 16, 2015

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

"Spring is the busiest time of year for honey bees, and their keepers, whether the operation is in the desert uplands of southern Arizona, the citrus groves of Florida, or the apple orchards of Washington state," writes entomologist/bee expert Stephen "Steve" Buchmann in his book, Honey Bees: Letter...

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Honey bee foraging on a pansy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bee Mine

February 13, 2015

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

How to celebrate Valentine's Day? Well, without pollinators, we wouldn't be celebrating Valentine's Day as we know it. That box of chocolates? Give thanks to the midges that pollinated the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao.

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A honey bee queen on a finger. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Give Her Some Space

February 12, 2015

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

If you see a news story about "honey bees" in a newspaper or magazine, odds are you'll see it spelled as one word, "honeybees." That's because the Associated Press Stylebook, the journalists' "bible," spells it that way. So do dictionaries. However, in the entomological world, that's incorrect.

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Honey bee pollinating an almond blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

From A (Almond) to B (Bee)

February 11, 2015

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

This is a story about honey bees, almonds and a Harvard gradate student who is passionate about pollinators. Stephanie Hsia, a master of landscape architecture candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), has just created a marvelous 46-page digital story, http://almondandbee.

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The queen and her court. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Honey Bee Scientist Amro Zayed at UC Davis Feb. 11

February 10, 2015

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

There's a lot of interest building in this seminar. Amro Zayed of the Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Canada, will speak on "Honey Bee Behavioral Genomics: Worker Behavior and Adaptation" from 12:10 to 1 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 11 in Room 122 of Briggs Hall, UC Davis campus.

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