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

PETER BILLINGSLEY, shown here working in Tanzania, will speak on "Development of a Mosquito-Derived, Attenuated Whole Parasite Vaccine against Malaria" on Friday, Dec. 3 at UC Davis. His talk is from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in the Genome Center Auditorium, 1005 Genome and Biological Sciences Facility, 451 Health Sciences Drive.

Targeting Malaria, Working Toward a.Vaccine

December 1, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It's exciting work, and he'll be at UC Davis to tell us about it. Peter F. Billingsley (right), senior director of Entomology and Quality Systems at Sanaria Inc., Rockville, Md., will speak on "Development of a Mosquito-Derived, Attenuated Whole Parasite Vaccine against Malaria" on Friday, Dec. 3.

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CHEMICAL ECOLOGIST Walter Leal, professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, working in his lab. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

'A Nose for Insects' Sense of Smell'

November 30, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

"He is slim and intense, with graying hair and clipped sentences jagged with inflections from his years in Brazil and Japan. And he does not, perhaps cannot, quit.

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BRICKS mark the spot where yellowjackets are nesting at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Hanging Out to Get In

November 29, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

They're here. They're there. The Western yellowjacket (Vespula pensylvanica) likes to hang around bee hives. If you're a beekeeper, you've probably seen them nesting in a rodent burrow or hollow log near your hives. At the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

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Yellowjackets!

November 26, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Yellowjackets is a word you never want to end with a period, but with an exclamation point! They probably annoy you when they invite themselves to your barbecue to partake of your hamburger and other protein-rich foods. They're persistent predators.

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HONEY BEE foraging on pomegranate blossom. Without bees, there would be no pomegranates. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bee-ing Thankful

November 25, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

President Obama just pardoned a couple of turkeys--Apple and Cider. They won't make it to the White House Thanksgiving dinner today. But what he could have done--when he was pardoning the turkeys--was to praise the honey bees.

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