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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. 

Honey bee nectaring on tower of jewels, Echium wilpretii. This is a non-native, but isn't it pretty? The California Master Beekeeper Program is offering a class on "Planning Year-Round Native Plant Pollinator Garden" on Nov. 17. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

CAMBP Classes on Pollinator Gardens and Apiary Technology

November 12, 2024
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Like to learn about planning a year-round native pollinator garden or about technology in the apiary? The California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP) has announced its last two classes of 2024. One is a three-hour course, Planning Year-Round Native Plant Pollinator Garden from 9 a.m.
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Samuel Davidson Laughlin, shown here at his home in Castle Rock, Wash., contracted malaria when he was a color bearer for the Union Army during the Siege of Vicksburg.

Mosquitoes, Malaria and the Civil War

November 11, 2024
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Not many Americans think about mosquitoes and malaria on Nov. 11, Veterans' Day. But they should. The mosquito played a major adversarial role in our nation's Civil War. Some 30,000 soldiers died of malaria, and more than half of the 2.
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The UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA) will be selling its member-designed t-shirts at the ESA meeting in Phoenix. Iris Quayle (left) of the Jason Bond lab, and Mia Lippey of the Meineke lab, will be giving presentations and also staffing the EGSA table. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Why Phoenix Is the Place to Be Nov. 10-13

November 8, 2024
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Phoenix is the place to be Nov. 10-13. That's the site of the Entomological Society of America's annual meeting, with thousands of entomologists descending upon the city and the Phoenix Convention Center (PCC). And UC Davis entomologists will be an important part of it.
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Postdoctoral research scientist James Starrett, of the arachnology lab of Professor Jason Bond, director of the Bohart Museum, gets ready to eat a crickette. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Pass the Crickets, Please!

November 7, 2024
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
"Crickets, anyone? Free sample!" Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology, sits at a table at a Bohart open house and points to a line of small paper cups, each containing three "Crickettes.
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