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.

Praying mantis waits and waits. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Let Us Prey

August 9, 2013

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

So patient, so passionate. The praying mantis looked hungry last Thursday when it perched on a coneflower in the half-acre Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis. Where's breakfast? Where's lunch? Where's dinner? Nowhere to be found.

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The sign in front of the Laidlaw facility includes bees, a skep, almond blossoms and DNA. It is the work of artist Donna Billick of Davis, a co-founder and co-director of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Häagen-Dazs Boosting Honey Bee Research at UC Davis: There's a Concerto for That!

August 8, 2013

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Just before you open your carton of premier ice cream, you may want to enjoy the sound of violins and cellos. There's an app for that. More specifically, there's a concerto for that. And it all deals with the Hagen-Dazs premier ice cream brand supporting bee research at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

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A beewolf, or crabronid wasp, on buckwheat. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Wolf at Your Door

August 7, 2013

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

So there you are, a little sweat bee, foraging in the buckwheat. You sip some nectar, and suddenly, a flash of yellow. A wolf is at your door.

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Mediterranean Fruit Fly. (Photo by Jack Kelly Clark)

Medflies: Permanent Residents

August 6, 2013

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Breaking news shook the agricultural world today. The Mediterranean fruit fly, considered the world's worst agricultural pest, is one of at least five fruit flies established in California. It cannot be eradicated.

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A Gulf Fritillary caterpillar ready to eat the leaves of a passionflower vine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Being Watched

August 5, 2013

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

So you're sitting there watching the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars chowing down on the passionflower vines. It's sort of like watching the grass grow, or the paint dry, but there's much more drama.

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