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.

Newly elected president Robert Dowell (right) talks with UC Davis Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen and UC Davis mosquito researcher Debbie Dritz. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Zeroing in on Pests

January 18, 2013

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

They'll be zeroing in on pests at the next meeting of the Northern California Entomology Society. Scientists from the Essig Museum of Entomology, UC Berkeley, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), Sacramento, will speak at the meeting on Wednesday, Feb.

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Nick Haddad in the field. (Photo by Melissa McGaw)

Landscape Conservation for Rare Insects

January 17, 2013

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

"Landscape Conservation for Rare Insects!" That's the title of a seminar to be hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology on Wednesday, Jan. 23. Nick Haddad, the William Neal Reynolds Professor of Biology at North Carolina State University (NCSU), Raleigh, N.C., will speak from 12:10 to 1 p.m.

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The blue orchard bee or BOB (Osmia) is being studied as an alternative pollinator. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Aspiring for Better Pollination

January 16, 2013

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

We can expect some exciting research to emerge from the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI). And UC Davis pollination ecologist Neal Williams, an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology, is a part it.

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Native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

So You Want to Learn About Native Bees...

January 16, 2013

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

So you want to learn about native bees... Be sure to attend Robbin Thorp's presentation on "Buzzed for Bees" on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 19 at the Rush Ranch Nature Center, Suisun.

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Michael Branstetter at Reserva Nacional Kahka Creek, Nicaragua. He is in the process of doing a transect of mini Winkler samples. (Photo by Laura Sáenz)

Why He Studies Ants

January 14, 2013

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Michael Branstetter, who will present a UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar on Wednesday, Jan. 16, is passionate about ants. "Ants are the most successful group of social insects on the Earth," says Branstetter, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

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