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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. 

BEDBUG--"Bed bugs are small, flat insects that feed on the blood of sleeping people and animals," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "They are reddish-brown in color, wingless, and range from 1 to 7 millimeters in length. They can live several months without a blood meal." (CDC Photo)

Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite

December 6, 2010
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Forensic entomologist Bob Kimsey (right) of the Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, studies bedbugs--those little bloodsuckers that prey on you while you're sleeping.
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UC DAVIS entomology major Joel Hernandez, a student assistant at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, shows one of the insect collection kits available in the gift shop. Martha Stewart listed the Bohart Museum insect collection kit as one of the top three gifts to get young naturalists. Hernandez acquired one at age 7. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

How 'Eco-Cool' Is This?

December 2, 2010
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Bugs! Doesn't everybody love 'em? Martha Stewart apparently does. And the folks at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, couldn't be happier.
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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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