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.

NEWS REPORTER Dea Diamont (right) of KCRA TV, Channel 3, Sacramento interviews Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (center) of UC Davis Department of Entomology at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. At left is KCRA news photographer Brian Fong. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

It Happens

August 26, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It may not be talked about in polite society. And most folks dont know what it is.

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Miss Bee Haven

August 25, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Undergraduate degree in genetics? Check. Masters degree in fine arts? Check. Scientist and artist? Check. Such is the case with scientist-artist Donna Billick, who created the Miss Bee Haven six-foot bee sculpture in the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the University of California, Davis.

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NATIVE BEE, a Svastra obliqua expurgata, forages on top of a Mexican hat flower at the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis. The bee is commonly known as "the sunflower bee." The flower is sometimes called a "prairie coneflower." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Feel Like Dancing?

August 24, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Collecting pollen and nectar is serious business. But when a native wild bee such as the Svastra obliqua expurgata, also called "the sunflower bee," forages on a Mexican hat flower, it adds a little gaiety to the scene.

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Chasing Carder Bees

August 23, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

When this insect flashes by you in your garden, at first glance you think: "Yellow jacket? Paper wasp? What's that?" Then it lands and you realize it's neither. It's a bee.

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About Those Pickled Peppers

August 20, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked; If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

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