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Bug Squad

Bug Squad blog image depicts a honey bee sting in action.

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. Feedspot lists it as one of the top entomology blogs on the Internet. 

Close-up of aphids and ants at the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis.This is a Formica moki, a native ant. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The School of Ants

December 9, 2011
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
You like ants, right? Of course you do. But probably not as much as Andrea Lucky, the "Queen of Ants." (Or as much as Phil Ward, her major professor at UC Davis or Alex Wild, the Illinois-based biologist and insect photographer who also studied with Ward.
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Italian honey bee on Senecio from the Asteraceae or daisy family. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Just Chillin'

December 8, 2011
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
The temperature on the UC Davis campus stood solidly at 56 degrees this afternoon. The less-than-ideal weather didn't seem to deter several Italian honey bees from foraging in a flower bed behind the Laboratory Sciences Building on the central campus.
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Future beekeeper Emily Fishback with her beekeeper-father Brian Fishback of Wilton, who provided the bee observation hives. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Honey of an Event!

December 7, 2011
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you missed the Honey! event sponsored by the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science and held recently in the UC Davis Conference Center, not to worry. James R.
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