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.

Bee condo for leafcutting bees includes the offspring (left) of a solitary mason wasp. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Snug as a Bug in a...Bee Condo

January 19, 2012

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

When you try to attract leafcutting bees (Megachile spp.) to your bee condos, you may also attract something else. Wasps. Bee condos (wood blocks drilled with holes for native bee nests) are a favorite of gardeners and bee enthusiasts.

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Thomas Seeley will present two talks at UC Davis this week.

Swarm Intelligence in Honey Bees

January 18, 2012

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Have you ever observed how a honey bee swarm finds a new home? How a few of the worker bees turn into scouts, scour their surroundings, and then return to the swarm and dance to communicate their findings? Thomas Seeley has. Many times.

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Anurag Agrawal, professor of evolution and ecology at Cornell, returns to the UC Davis campus Jan. 18 to give a seminar.

Evolutionary Ecology of Plant Defenses

January 17, 2012

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It will be like "old-home week" when Anurag Agrawal returns to the University of California, Davis, tomorrow (Jan. 18) to deliver a seminar on "Evolutionary Ecology of Plant Defenses.

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Queen bee insemination at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The A, B(ee), Cs of Stock Improvement

January 16, 2012

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

There's a waiting list for Susan Cobey's specialized bee classes at the University of California,Davis. That says a lot about the demand for bee stock improvement and for Cobey's teachings. Cobey, bee breeder-geneticist at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

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Honey bee heading toward almond blossoms. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Zombie Bees

January 13, 2012

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Zombies! What do you think of when someone says "zombies?" Students sitting inattentively in class? A souless body? Or a honey bee infested with parasitic flies? A Zombie, according to Wikipedia, is a term used "to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means, such as witchcraft.

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