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.

The Ladybug and the Bee

June 9, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It's not often you see a ladybug and a honey bee sharing the same plant. The ladybug, a predator in disguise, devours aphids like a kid does M&Ms. The honey bee, all buzziness, works furiously to collect nectar or pollen for her hive. Sometimes a lavender patch can bring them together.

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Grand Celebration

June 8, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The garden is lookin' good. That would be the half-acre Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a bee friendly garden planted last fall next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis.

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Bee-ing There for the Bees

June 7, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Honey bee research at the University of California, Davis, recently received a $900 boost, thanks to artists with a honey of hearta honey of a heart for the plight of honey bees.

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The Buzz About Bees

June 4, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It's good to see so much interest in bees. When folks think of bees, they usually think "honey bees." However, our European or western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is one of a total of seven species of honey bees found throughout the world. Worldwide, there are some 20,000 described species of bees.

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Sorry, Spider

June 3, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

When you see a honey bee trapped in a spider web, it's usually dead and about to be consumed. Not this time. Today a foraging bee, minding her own "beesiness," was nectaring among the catmint blossoms in our garden when she ran smack dab into a sticky web placed there by a cunning spider.

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