Bug Squad

A daily (M-F) blog launched Aug. 6, 2008 and about the wonderful world of insects and those who study them. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Primary Image
Cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, in flight. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Net a Butterfly, Photograph a Bee

January 1, 2026
 New Year's Day is not only the beginning of a year, but it's also the beginning of two UC Davis insect contests: one involving a cabbage white butterfly, and the other, a bumble bee.Chances are no one won either one today, as it's been raining almost non-stop, and the 10-day forecast predicts an 80…
View Article
Primary Image
Exotic cockroaches, from Bohart Museum of Entomology

A New Cockroach in Town?

December 30, 2025
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 A new cockroach in town?That's what a UC Davis retired professor thought on Tuesday, Dec. 23 when he spotted an unusual cockroach emerging from his shower drain at his Davis home.He said he "recognized  it as unusual and caught it. It was a male Turkestan cockroach, Blatta lateralis, a species…
View Article
Primary Image
Cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

On the Hunt for the First Cabbage White Butterfly...Suds for a Bug!

December 29, 2025
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 Suds for a bug. A butterfly for a beer...If you find and collect the first cabbage white butterfly in the three-county area of Sacramento, Yolo and Solano, and you are judged the winner of the annual "Beer for a Butterfly" Contest, you will receive a pitcher of beer or its equivalent.And bragging…
View Article
Primary Image
Bombus melanopygus on a pansy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bohart Museum Contest: Let's Bumble!

December 26, 2025
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 Don't tumble, fumble or crumble when you see a "bumble."Hold your camera steady. Starting Jan. 1, if you photograph or video a bumble bee in the two-county area of Solano and Yolo, and if you're judged the winner, you will win the sixth annual Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble Bee-of-the-Year…
View Article