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.

IPM specialist Frank Zalom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

It's Off to Berlin

October 6, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It's off to Berlin for integrated pest management (IPM) specialist Frank Zalom, professor and former vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and soon-to-be-president of the 6000-member Entomological Society of America (ESA) Zalom is one of three Americans invited to speak at an internati...

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Honey bee, packing red pollen from a nearby rock purslane, nectaring lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Honey of an Event

October 5, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Did you know that honey bees visit more than two million flowers just to make a pound of honey? Two million visits for one pound? That's just one of the tidbits about honey that will be mentioned Friday, Oct. 21 at the all-day Honey! event at the UC Davis Conference Center, 550 Alumni Center.

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Honey bee foraging on a Mexican sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

In Between the Rains

October 4, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Mexican sunflowers. Gaillardia. The Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road at the University of California, Davis, is awash with autumn colors, despite the persistent rains.

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Pollen-laden honey bee foraging on a pink African daisy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

In the Pink: A Backyard Safari

October 3, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

You don't have to travel to Africa to go on safari. You can go on a "bug" safari in your own backyard. And you can stay as little or as long as you like without incurring such costs as air travel, hotel stays, and food expenses.

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This grasshopper, aka locust, is a banded-winged grasshopper, family Acrididae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Locusts Are Coming!

September 30, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The locusts are coming! The locusts are coming! No, not the one below, a banded-winged grasshopper (family Acrididae and subfamily Oedipodinae) that we spotted west of the UC Davis campus--and identified by Steve Heydon, senior museum scientist at the Bohart Museum of Entomology.

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