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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Colony collapse disorder--the bee antenna tells it all. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Blossom Buddies

June 19, 2013
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Honey bees are in trouble. They are dying in record numbers. That's why you should watch "Blossom Buddies," a two-part video segment in the Growing California series, produced by the California Department of Food and Agriculture in partnership with California Grown.
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Newly emerged green bottle fly nectaring on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Newly Emerged Green Bottle Fly

June 18, 2013
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Flies are pollinators, too. It's appropriate during National Pollinator Week to remember that. We spotted this newly emerged green bottle fly (below) nectaring on lavender last week in our yard. It seemed out of place among the honey bees, leafcutter bees and carpenter bees working the blossoms.
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Male long-horned bee, genus Melissodes, probably Melissodes communis, as identified by Robbin Thorp. It is on salvia (sage). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Long-Horned Bee

June 17, 2013
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
We have long-horned cattle and long-horned grasshoppers.
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A katydid, or "long-horned grasshopper," from family Tettigonliidae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Hop to It!

June 14, 2013
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
What's that hopping on our patio? At first we thought it was a grasshopper.
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Honey bee heads toward a flowering artichoke. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Purple Forest

June 13, 2013
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Flowering artichokes indicate one of two things (1) someone never bothered to harvest them or (2) someone loves bees. We let our artichokes flower. So does the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden on Bee Biology Road next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.
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