- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It was a day to learn and have fun when the Bohart Museum of Entomology and the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven participated in the annual campuswide "Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work" Day on Thursday, April 28.
The UC Davis event, nicknamed TODS Day, coincided with the national workplace celebration, a day when employers spring open their doors to the offspring of their employees.
Insects helped fill the bill as the UC Davis employees and their offspring trooped over to the Bohart Museum, home of nearly eight million insect specimens, plus a live "petting zoo," inclluding walking sticks, Madagascar hissing cockroaches and tarantulas. The museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane.
The half-acre bee garden, located on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus, next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, drew parents and their offspring as they learned how to safely catch and observe bees, learned about bee diversity.
Among those visiting the haven was Professor Valerie Fournier of Laval University, Quebec City. She was there with her daughter, Lalibella Eaves, 6, and Phoenix Eaves, 9. Fournier received her doctorate at UC Davis in 2003, studying with Professor Jay Evans. She is now on a year's sabbatical (July 2015 to August 2016) based in the lab of pollination ecologist Neal Williams, associate professor of entomology at UC Davis.
Among those visiting the Bohart Museum were the Fuerte family. Siblings Camilla, 4; Kailee, 6, and Joel, 8, checked out the insects and the activities. Their mother, Gabby Sanchez-Fuerte, works at the School of Education.