- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The open house takes place from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. The theme: "Household Vampires." The event will zero in on mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, lice and bedbugs. Scientists will be there to answer questions. The event is free and family friendly and parking is also free.
Who's talking about mosquitoes?
- Educators from the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District. See https://www.fightthebite.net/
- Carla-Cristina "CC" Melo Edwards, a first-year doctoral student in the laboratory of medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, associate professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. She will share her expertise on mosquitoes and show specimens.
- Moriah Garrison, senior entomologist and research coordinator with Carroll-Loye Biological Research (CLBR). She is scheduled to show live ticks and mosquitoes and field questions.
- Nazzy Pakpour, UC Davis alumna, Novozymes scientist and author of Please Don't Bite Me
Professor Attardo, who maintains a lab website on Vector Biology and Reproductive Biology at http://attardo-lab.com, and chairs the Designated Emphasis in the Biology of Vector-Borne Diseases, will display some of his mosquito images, including a blood-fed Aedes aegypti, and a female and male Culex tarsalis. (A prior commitment prevents him from being at the open house the entire time.) One or more images by Alex Wild, a UC Davis doctoral alumnus and curator of entomology, University of Texas, Austin, also will be featured.
Breaking news? The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can transmit such diseases as Zika, yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya and others, was detected Sept. 11 in Dixon. "The mosquito may be active around dusk and dawn but bites most often during the day and often bites indoors," said Richard Snyder, Solano County Mosquito Abatement District manager, in a news release.
The Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito Vector Control District recently announced two fatalities in Sacramento and Yolo counties due to West Nile virus. "In addition to these deaths, currently there are 10 other human cases in Sacramento County and 8 in Yolo County. Since there won't be a significant decline in mosquito populations until mid-October, more human cases will likely be reported."
UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey will be among the presenters on other "household vampires."
Attendees can see the Bohart's butterfly collection, curated by entomologist Jeff Smith, and get acquainted with critters in the live insect petting zoo.
The family arts and crafts activity will feature collecting activities. Participants are asked to bring a recycled jar. "This should be a clean and dried glass jar with a wide, metal top--think jam, pickle, peanut butter jars. Four to 16-ounce jars work well," said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator. "We will have some on hand as well, but recycling is good! We will fill the bottom with plaster of paris and let it dry and teach people how to use it properly, using something like nail polisher remover containing ethyl acetate as the killing agent. A UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology video explains the procedure: https://youtu.be/s8yCzFGzbn8?si=71sNmA5l8NyP1zj0
For more information, email bmuseum@ucdavis.edu

- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The open house set from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 23 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis. It's free and family friendly and parking is also free. It's an opportunity for attendees to learn more about the "nuisance insects," and ask questions.
The line-up, as of today:
- Lynn and Bob Kimsey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty. Lynn, a hymenopterist, is a UC Davis distinguished professor who teaches general entomology and the biodiversity of California insects and serves as the director of the Bohart Museum, and Bob is a forensic entomologist, specializing in public health entomology; arthropods of medical importance; zoonotic disease; biology and ecology of tick-borne pathogens; tick feeding behavior and biochemistry.
- Carla-Cristina "CC" Melo Edwards, a first-year doctoral student in the laboratory of medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, associate professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. She will share her expertise on mosquitoes and show specimens.
- Moriah Garrison, senior entomologist and research coordinator with Carroll-Loye Biological Research (CLBR). She is scheduled to show live ticks and mosquitoes and field questions.
- Educators from the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District. They will discuss mosquitoes and their program
- Nazzy Pakpour, UC Davis alumna, Novozymes scientist and author of Please Don't Bite Me
- Jeff Smith, curator of the Bohart Museum's ;Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) collection. He will display butterfly specimens collected globally. Also on the "Lep crew" are Bohart volunteers Greg Kareofelas and Brittany Kohler.
Petting Zoo. A popular attraction is the live petting zoo; visitors are encouraged to hold or get acquainted with live Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects
Family Arts and Crafts Activity. The event will be held outside and will highlight two collecting techniques, said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.
- Clear Packing Tape Art. "Clear packing tape is a good way to collect small, hard-to-see insects," Yang said. "Glitter will mimic small insects like fleas or bed bugs. Putting the tape on white paper makes it easy to look at them under a microscope and for this craft it will make a pretty card."
- Making insect collecting or "kill" jars. Participants are asked to bring a recycled jar. "This should be a clean and dried glass jar with a wide, metal top--think jam, pickle, peanut butter jars. Four to 16-ounce jars work well. We will have some on hand as well, but recycling is good! We will fill the bottom with plaster of paris and let it dry and teach people how to use it properly, using something like nail polisher remover containing ethyl acetate as the killing agent. A UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology video explains the procedure: https://youtu.be/s8yCzFGzbn8?si=71sNmA5l8NyP1zj0


- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
When the Bohart Museum of Entomology hosts an open house on "Household Vampires" from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 23, activities will take place both inside and outside.
Inside? The presenters will talk about mosquitoes, bed bugs, fleas and ticks in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. They will show live insects and specimens and field questions.
Outside? The latest news is the family arts and crafts activity.
Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator, announced the the arts and crafts activity "will highlight two collecting techniques."
- Clear Packing Tape Art. "Clear packing tape is a good way to collect small, hard-to-see insects," Yang said. "Glitter will mimic small insects like fleas or bed bugs. Putting the tape on white paper makes it easy to look at them under a microscope and for this craft it will make a pretty card."
- Making insect collecting or "kill" jars. Participants are asked to bring a recycled jar. "This should be a clean and dried glass jar with a wide, metal top--think jam, pickle, peanut butter jars. Four to 16-ounce jars work well. We will have some on hand as well, but recycling is good! We will fill the bottom with plaster of paris and let it dry and teach people how to use it properly, using something like nail polisher remover containing ethyl acetate as the killing agent. A UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology video explains the procedure: https://youtu.be/s8yCzFGzbn8?si=71sNmA5l8NyP1zj0
Inside, the presenters will include:
- Lynn and Bob Kimsey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty. Lynn, a hymenopterist, is a UC Davis distinguished professor who teaches general entomology and the biodiversity of California insects and serves as the director of the Bohart Museum, and Bob is a forensic entomologist, specializing in public health entomology; arthropods of medical importance; zoonotic disease; biology and ecology of tick-borne pathogens; tick feeding behavior and biochemistry.
- Carla-Cristina "CC" Melo Edwards, a first-year doctoral student in the laboratory of medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, associate professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. She will share her expertise on mosquitoes and show specimens.
- Moriah Garrison, senior entomologist and research coordinator with Carroll-Loye Biological Research (CLBR). She is scheduled to show live ticks and mosquitoes and field questions.
- Educators from the Sacramento-Yo;o Mosquito and Vector Control District. They will discuss mosquitoes and their program
- Nazzy Pakpour (Novozymes scientist and author of Please Don't Bite Me)
- Jeff Smith, curator of the Bohart Museum's Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) collection. He will display butterfly specimens collected globally. Also on the "Lep crew" are Bohart volunteers Greg Kareofelas and Brittany Kohler.
Professor Attardo, who maintains a lab website on Vector Biology and Reproductive Biology at http://attardo-lab.com, and chairs the Designated Emphasis in the Biology of Vector-Borne Diseases, will display some of his mosquito images, including a blood-fed Aedes aegypti, and a female and male Culex tarsalis. Alex Wild, a UC Davis doctoral alumnus and curator of entomology, University of Texas, Austin, will display an image of mosquito larvae that currently hangs in Briggs Hall, home of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. Wild's insect images can be viewed on his website, https://www.alexanderwild.com.
The Bohart Museum houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens; a live petting zoo (including Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects); and an insect-themed gift shop stocked with books, posters, T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts and jewelry.
Resource:
Bohart Museum to Spotlight Household Vampires (UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, Sept. 14, 2023)

- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Fleas? Ticks? Bed bugs? Mosquitoes?
Yes!
The Bohart Museum of Entomology will host an open house, themed "Household Vampires," from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 23 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. It's free and family friendly. Parking is also free.
One of the presenters ready to answer your questions about mosquitoes is Carla-Cristina "CC" Melo Edwards, a first-year doctoral student in the laboratory of medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, associate professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who also specializes in reproductive physiology and molecular biology.
In the Attardo lab, Edwards focuses her research "on investigating the physiological mechanisms underlying pyrethroid resistance in Aedes aegypti (the yellow fever mosquito)."
She was a McNair scholar at Baylor University, where she completed her undergraduate degree in cell and molecular biology in May 2021. "I got interested in the mosquito field through my undergraduate research of studying the sensory and oviposition responses of Aedes aegypti in relation to the compound geosmin," Edwards related.
"When I am not in the lab, I enjoy getting involved with my local community by helping out and doing outreach," Edwards said. This past summer she helped the city of Lubbock, Amarillo, and the Texas Public Health Department by identifying mosquitoes for West Nile surveillance. She also served as the outreach chair for the Texas Tech Association of Biologists during her masters' degree pursuit and enjoyed being a mentor for first-generation students.
"In my free time, I like getting coffee with my friends, running (currently training for the California International Marathon), and trying new crafts and recipes."
Attardo will be displaying images of mosquitoes. An image of mosquito larvae by UC Davis doctoral alumnus and macro photographer Alex Wild, curator of entomology at the University of Texas, also will be displayed.
Open house attendees can view the butterfly specimen collection, curated by entomologist Jeff Smith, and get acquainted with live Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects, part of the Bohart Museum's insect petting zoo. A family arts-and-crafts activity is also planned.
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also maintains an insect-themed gift shop. UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, a UC Davis alumna, directs the museum.

- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The open house, held from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 27, drew guests of all ages.
Tabatha Yang, the Bohart Museum's education and outreach coordinator, wore a green mantis costume to greet guests and show them the Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects in the live petting zoo.
UC Davis alumnus Kevin Murakoshi of Davis arrived to gift the museum with intricate origami mantises that he crafted from "mantis-green" paper--one sheet per mantis. Murakoshi, a former UC Davis employee (computer research specialist) is the principal solutions architect at Amazon Web Services.
Photographer Ian Alexander Levin of Sacramento displayed his enlarged images of mantises, including one of a mantis eating a bee that drew "oohs" and "aahs." He owns a child day care center in Sacramento and likes to share his finds in the "Critter Corner" of the center. Levin is the administrator of the Facebook page, SacraMantis.
Skylar Primavera, who studied praying mantises while attending UC San Barbara (bachelor's degree in biology, 2020) displayed a live mantis as well as life-cycle models (ootheca to the adult), and answered questions about the predatory insect.
Melody Ruiz, a third-year entomology student, coordinated and staffed the family arts-and-crafts table, featuring "Mantis on a Stick." Using a green paper cutout of a mantis head attached to a popsicle stick, the budding artists colored the compound eyes and added pipe cleaners and other decorations as finishing touches.
Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum, and Brennen Dyer, collections manager, welcomed the crowd and answered questions. The Lepidoptera crew of Jeff Smith (curator of the Lepidoptera collection), Greg Kareofelas and Brittany Kohler showed guests assorted butterfly specimens collected world-wide.
A computer screen showcased the work of UC Davis doctoral alumnus Alex Wild, curator of entomology at the University of Texas, Austin, and Kathy Keatley Garvey, communications specialist, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Guests viewed display drawers of both native and non-native mantises. At least 9 species of mantises in California, according to one display.
Five are native:
- The Arizona or bordered mantid (Stagmomantis limbata)
- Bistanta mexicana
- California mantid (Stagmomantis wheeleri=S. californica)
- Litaneutria ocularis=Litaneutria obscura
- Small gray mantid (Litaneutria pacfica)
Four are introduced:
- Chinese mantid (Tenodera sinensis)
- European mantid (Mantis religiosa)
- Mediterranean mantid (Iris oratoria)
- South African mantid (Miomantis caffra)
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus a live petting zoo and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, posters, jewelry, collecting equipment and more.
Professor and renowned entomologist Richard Bohart (1913-2007), a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology) faculty for more than 50 years, founded the museum in 1946.







