Bug Squad

When UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal, recipient of a UC Davis Academic Senate's 2024 Faculty Distinguished Research Award, delivered his seminar at a recent luncheon in the UC Davis Conference Center, honey bees showed up, too. In images, text, and analogies.

During the initial throes of the Mediterranean fruit fly invasion in California, protesters disagreeing with the California Department of Food and Agriculture's eradication procedures and policies used to sing the catchy tune, "There Ain't No Bugs on Me," the work of Jerry Garcia and David Grisman.

The katydid nymph did. It did appear in May. The UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) tells us that katydid nymphs appear in our gardens in April or May. This little nymph was right on time, barely, as it surfaced in our Vacaville garden on May 28.

A noted authority on California's tropical fruit fly invasion says the state is in "crisis mode." "It's really serious," says UC Davis distinguished professor James R. Carey, a noted authority on the invasion of tropical fruit flies.

Six communicators with the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) won major awards from the international Association for Communication Excellence (ACE), a professional organization that supports and showcases science communication in agriculture, natural resources, and life and human science...