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.

A honey bee forages on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, as a female praying mantis, Mantis religiosa, perches below. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Bee and the Mantis

September 3, 2024

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

So here's this praying mantis, a female Mantis religiosa, tucked beneath a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville garden. She's as still as a stone, and you know how still stones are. Along comes a honey bee, Apis mellifera. She's packing a load of orange pollen.

View Article

A honey bee packing a huge load of orange pollen from zinnias as it heads for another blossom in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

No Labor Day Holiday for the Honey Bees

September 2, 2024

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Holiday? What holiday? It's Labor Day, but honey bees aren't relaxing. They're out in force collecting nectar, pollen, water and propolis.

View Article

Nematologist Howard Ferris traveled to Culiacan. Mexico in December 2015 to present a short course on nematode ecology

Congrats, Professor Howard Ferris, Nematologist Extraordinaire

August 30, 2024

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

There aren't that many nematologists who can say their career spans 64 years. UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emeritus Howard Ferris can.

View Article

RJ Millena, a doctoral candidate of comparative biology in the lab of Professor Jessica Ware, American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) holds a copy of the journal "Environmental Entomology." Her research is the cover story. (Photo by UC Davis alumnus Lohit Garikipati, now a doctoral student at AMNH)

RJ Millena: from Entomology-Focused Kindergartener to Scoring Cover of Journal With Her Research

August 29, 2024

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Remember Rebecca Jean "RJ" Millena? She's the little Concord, Calif., kindergarten student who declared--on the very first day of class-- "When I grow up, I want to be an entomologist!" And she did.

View Article

Entomologist Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, with a drawer of monarch specimens. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Know Your ABC's: Arthropods, Bohart and Collecting

August 28, 2024

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Folks are looking forward to the next open house at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis. It's set Saturday, Sept. 28 from 1 to 4 p.m. and the theme is "Museum ABC's: Arthopods, Bohart and Collecting." It's free and family friendly. Parking is also free.

View Article