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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. 

CABBAGE is among the crops planted at the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. The bee friendly garden includes other vegetables, fruit trees and almond trees, all pollinated by bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Plant It and They Will Come

February 2, 2010
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Plant it and they will come. The Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, planted last fall, is already attracting a few honey bees. The half-acre bee friendly garden, located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.
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UC DAVIS graduate students Emily Bzdyk (left) and Fran Keller show different reactions to the cockroaches at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Keller admits to liking other insects better; she's working on beetles for her doctorate. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Hissers in the Bohart

January 29, 2010
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Its a comfortable life. Eat, sleep and mate. And then eat, sleep and mate again. Madagascar hissing cockroaches are a popular attraction at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis.
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HONEY BEE and an Argentine ant share a red-hot poker in the Storer Garden, UC Davis Arboretum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

What's Up, Cuz?

January 28, 2010
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Country cousins. Honey bees and ants belong to the same order, Hymenoptera, and occasionally you see them together. Such was the case today in the Storer Garden, UC Davis Aboretum, as the closely related honey bees and ants foraged in the red-hot poker (Kniphofia galpinii or "Christmas cheer").
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VERN BURTON, 85, relaxes at his home in Davis. He worked in the University of California system for 38 years. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Thirty Eight Years in the UC System

January 27, 2010
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Vern Burton didnt set out to become an entomologist. Home from the World War II battlefields, he enrolled in Compton Community College and then the University of California, Berkeley. A family friend promised him a job in his termite control business once he finished his studies.
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