April 17, 2013
The UC Davis Department of Entomology is planning lots of "bug" activities as its part of the 99th annual campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day celebration. Entomological events will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, April 20 at Briggs Hall, off Kleiber Hall Drive, and the Bohart Museum of Entomology, located in Room 1124 of Academic Surge on Crocker Lane.
Forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey is the coordinator of the department’s Picnic Day activities. Students (graduate or undergraduate) working with him are Danny Kilddich, Ivana Li, Nic McMurray, Danielle Wishon and Scott McCluen.
The Bohart Museum, home of nearly eight million insect specimens, will feature wasp nests in its new display case. These are nests once occupied by European paper wasps, yellow jackets, carpenter bees and bumble bees.
The Bohart also will include a live “petting zoo” where visitors can hold Madagascar hissing cockroaches, a rose-haired tarantula, and walking sticks.
At Briggs, the popular events will include Maggot Art, termite trails, cockroach races and honey tasting, as well as displays featuring forensic, medical, aquatic, apiculture and forest entomology. Exhibits also will include such topics as fly fishing/fly-tying, insect pests of ornamentals, and pollinators of California.
Mussen, who has been coordinating the honey tasting for more than 30 years, said that this year the honeys are fairly similar in color but not in flavor. “Many people have asked what almond blossom honey tastes like—now they can find out. It leaves a fairly strong after-taste."
Visitors to Briggs can cheer for their favorite cockroach at the American cockroach races; watch a termite follow a line drawn with a Bic ink pen (they follow the line because the ink acts as a pheromone or attractant) and create a maggot art painting suitable for framing. And they can also purchase "bug" T-shirts and get their face painted.
The UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) will provide a display in front of Briggs Hall. Visitors can learn about managing pests in their homes and garden, according to Mary Louise Flint, the UC IPM's associate director of urban and community IPM and an Extension entomologist with the UC Davis Department of Entomology. In addition, live lady beetles (aka ladybugs) will be distributed to children.
Plans also call for a “Bug Doctor” to answer insect-related questions from the public. Last year’s “Bug Doctors” included Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
Room 158 of Briggs will be transformed into fly-tying/fly fishing displays and aquatic entomology exhibits. Visitors will see approximately 10 insect drawers of mounted insects with fly-tying counterparts.
Room 122 of Briggs will include:
Honey Bees: The Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility will display a bee observation hive, and beekeeping equipment such as bee boxes, frames, veils and smokers.
Ants: The Phil Ward lab will put together displays on the incredible diversity of ants.
Forensic Entomology: "Dr. Death" (forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey) will offer a show-and-tell of methods used in forensic entomology.
Aquatic Entomology: Professor Sharon Lawler will display aquatic insects and she and her lab will answer questions about them.
Forest Insects: Graduate student Stacy Hishinuma and forest entomologist Steve Seybold, a chemical ecologist with the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Davis, and an affiliate of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, are scheduled to show forest insects.
Mosquitoes: Medical entomology graduate students will set up displays about diseases vectored by mosquitoes and other insects. The Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District will provide an educational exhibit about mosquito abatement.
(Editor's Note: The Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science will host Picnic Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free honey tastings, arts and crafts for kids, and more. Download flier.)
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894