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Bug Squad

Bug Squad blog image depicts a honey bee sting in action.

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. 

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This radar scan of a July sunset in Oklahoma skies shows moths flying.

Learn About Moth Migration at Bohart Museum's Moth Night

July 17, 2026
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 UC Davis PhD student Peter Coggan will discuss moth migration at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on Saturday, July 18. The event, free and family friendly , takes place from 7 to 11 p.m. in the Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC…
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A dead honey bee in a showy milkweed on the UC Davis campus. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Bees, The Trap, The End

July 16, 2026
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 "It's a trap, a floral trap."That's what we wrote in a 2020 Bug Squad blog."If you've never seen this, this is how it works: milkweed produces pollinia, a sticky structure or packet of pollen grains originating from a single anther (male part). During the flower's complex pollination process, the mass…
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Honey bee with pollinia on its legs (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Honey Bees and the Milkweed Trap

July 15, 2026
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 Have you seen honey bees stuck and dying in the elaborate pollination system of milkweed? Have you ever wondered about the ecological consequences? Is the presence of dead bees a deterrent to future visitors, such as honey bees (Apis mellifera) and non-Apis visitors? Do the dead bees result in an…
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Monarch in flight

Welcome, Ms. Monarch!

July 14, 2026
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
  Western monarch butterfly populations are at critically low levels. The latest annual winter counts recorded some 12,260 monarchs along the California coast.This is the third-lowest tally in program history, representing a catastrophic decline from the millions of butterflies that historically…
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Art Shapiro walking up Gates Canyon, Vacaville.

Open Up The Gates!

July 13, 2026
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 "Open up The Gates!"So wrote UC Davis Distinguished Professor (emeritus) Art Shapiro, in an email today to his posse of scientists and friends.He was referring to Gates Canyon, Vacaville. Gates Canyon has been part of his butterfly-monitoring research that he launched in central California in 1972…
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