Bug Squad

A daily (M-F) blog launched Aug. 6, 2008 and about the wonderful world of insects and those who study them. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Petal Pushers

May 13, 2011
Honey bees and daisies are made for each other. The white petals and the golden centers seem incomplete without the presence of buzzing bees. Today we watched a pollen-packin' honey bee, with a pollen load the color of autumn pumpkins, work a daisy.
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Flakes of wax on a wax builder. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Not Waxing Poetic

May 12, 2011
Ever seen a wax builder? A "real" wax builder? Bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey and beekeeper-research associate Elizabeth Frost of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis, showed us a wax builder last week. No, two wax builders.
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Brian Fishback at the Harry H.Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bee-Lieving in the Bees

May 11, 2011
Beekeeping comes naturally for Brian Fishback of Wilton, a past president of the Sacramento Area Beekeepers Association and a volunteer at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis.
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Redshouldered stink bug on a lavender stem. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Behind the Shield

May 10, 2011
If you've ever been shoulder to shoulder with a redshouldered stink bug--or nose to antennae--you know this is a bug to boot out of your garden. It's a pest. Behind that shield-shaped body is a pest.
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Italian honey bee foraging on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Mother's Day Delight

May 9, 2011
Mother's Day, insect-style, dawned like any other day. In our back yard, golden honey bees foraged in the lavender and those ever-so-tiny sweat bees visited the rock purslane. The honey bees? Those gorgeous Italians.
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