- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP) has announced its last two classes of 2024. One is a three-hour course, “Planning Year-Round Native Plant Pollinator Garden” from 9 a.m. to noon on Sunday, Nov. 17, and other is a two-hour course,“Technology in the Apiary” from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Dec. 7. Both are remote.
"These are great classes for anyone who is interested in supporting honey bee health, habitat and apiculture technology, said Wendy Mather, who serves as co-program director of CAMBP with Kian Nikzad.
They will be taught by the CAMBP Orange County Bee Team. Art Ando will teach the pollinator garden class, and Benoit Pouliquen, the “Technology in the Apiary.” The classes are open to both non-members and members. The fee is $30.
Pollinators and plants both have cycles in which they interact, Ando says. “Planting the right plants for your community of pollinators is the first step in doing the best you can to help your plants and pollinators flourish alike through the seasons. In this class you will learn how to select plants for year-round support of pollinators in your garden.”
Information on registering for the two classes is at https://cambp.ucdavis.edu/classes/class-schedule.
"My commitment to community engagement shines through my volunteer roles," says Ando on LinkedIn. A lifelong educator who holds a doctorate from Temple University Graduate School, Philadelphia, he seeks to advance urban beekeeping and community farming. "As a UCCE (UC Cooperative Extension) Master Gardener of Orange County, I mentor food literacy initiatives and delivered educational classes and serve as expert on horticultural topics. My UCANR (UC Agriculture and Natural Resources) and UC Davis California Master Beekeeper role saw me authoring and presenting new lectures, supervising education booths at the Orange County Fair and creating safety manuals."
Students in the "Technology in the Apiary" class will learn how to use sensors to aid in the management of bees. They will explore how to set up and use Broodminder and other beehive monitoring tools and analyze data to inform decision-making.
Benoit Pouliquen of Newport Beach, is a retired Global Head of AdhesiveElectronics at Henkel. He holds a master's degree in metallurgical engineering from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec.
CAMBP, founded and directed by bee scientist Elina Lastro Niño, associate professor of Cooperative Extension, Apiculture and based in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. CAMBP uses science-based information to educate stewards and ambassadors for honey bees and beekeeping.
CAMBP is a self-described "continuous train-the-trainer effort. Its vision is to certify Honey Bee Ambassador, Apprentice, Journey, and Master level beekeepers so they can effectively communicate the importance of honey bees and other pollinators within their communities, serve as mentors for other beekeepers, and become the informational conduit between the beekeeping communities throughout the state and UC Cooperative Extension staff. Explore the Certifications Page for more information."
The 2025 classes will be announced soon. Classes are à la carte and open to the public, CAMBP relates. "There are remote, in-person, and hybrid options available year-round. Most classes are under 3 hours but some in-person ones can be longer. See the Class Catalog for more detail on each class. The certification program also provides class passes.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
But they should.
The mosquito played a major adversarial role in our nation's Civil War. Some 30,000 soldiers died of malaria, and more than half of the 2.75 million soldiers who served contracted the disease, statistics show.
And that occurred when physicians had not yet linked the Anopheles mosquito with malaria.
One of the soldiers who contracted malaria during the 47-day Siege of Vicksburg, launched May 18, 1863, was my great-grandfather, Samuel Davidson Laughlin (1843-1910), a Union color bearer.
An 18-year-old farm boy from Linn, Mo., he was selected a color bearer for his height (6' 3"), his strength (hoisting the flag and keeping it high) and his courage (front lines).
Young Samuel carried the flag through three of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War: the Battle of Lookout Mountain, and the battles of Chicamauga and Chattanooga. A musket tore a hole in his flag but he emerged from the Civil War physically unscathed.
However, at the Siege of Vicksburg, "he caught malaria in the Yazoo swamps of the Yazoo River," his youngest daughter Esther recounted to me. "He said they'd spread their blankets and they'd be lying in the water in the morning. The only way they could keep out of the water was to throw fence rails down and put their blankets on top of that. That's where he picked up malaria. There was no sanitation whatsoever, and of course, they had to use the water there for drinking."
Ironically, after surviving the Civil War, he died from blood poisoning when a splinter lodged in his hand as he was carrying firewood to his family home in Castle Rock, Wash. He is buried on a knoll overlooking the round barn that he built in 1883 (the barn is now in the National Register of Historic Places). Noah Coughlan paid tribute to Laughlin in a video in his run across America last year.
Malaria during the Civil War? Physicians had not yet connected malaria to Anopheles mosquitoes. They believed "humidity" or “swamp effluvia" caused what they called "intermittent fever." It wasn't until 1880 that a French Army surgeon, Alphonse Laveran, discovered that malaria is caused by protozoa of the genus Plasmodium.
"Nineteenth-century physicians diagnosed malaria as a recurrent, intermittent, or 'periodic' fever and categorized it according to how often fever spikes or 'paroxysms' occurred," according to Lloyd Klein and Eric Wittenberg of San Francisco, in Hektoen International, a Journal of Medical Humanities. "A 'quotidian' fever occurs once every twenty-four hours, a 'tertian' every forty-eight, and a 'quartan' every seventy-two." The authors related that of the 30,000 malaria deaths during the Civil War, 10,000 were Union soldiers.
"Malaria has halted many military campaigns in the past, with prominent examples ranging from antiquity through the medieval period and into the modern era. The parasitosis still continues to play an important role in the outcome of warfare and follow-up events today and is of special public health importance in areas of the Global South, where most of its endemicity and some of the most brutal conflicts of our time are located. Vice versa, wars and ensuing population movements increase malaria transmission and morbidity as well as impede control efforts. Awareness of this and the development of strategies to overcome both malaria and wars will massively improve the well-being of the population affected."
Wrote Gary Miller in his 1997 piece published in Historical Natural History:
"Malaria was termed 'simple intermittent fever' by the medical professionals, but the soldiers referred to the malady as ague or "the shakes." Malaria was so prevalent in some camps that a standard greeting was "Have you had the shakes?" (Wiley 1992). There were over 1.3 million cases and 10,000 deaths from malaria in the Union Army (Steiner 1968). Fully one quarter of all illness reported in the Union Army was malarial in character (Wiley 1992). Confederate soldiers also suffered, although fatalities from the disease were comparatively lower. In 1861 and 1862, one seventh of all cases of sickness reported by Rebel armies east of the Mississippi was malarial (Wiley 1994). Malaria greatly affected at least one campaign. The prevalence of the disease among Union troops contributed in thwarting the first Federal attempt to capture Vicksburg, MS, in 1862 (Steiner 1968); the city did not fall until the following year."
Fast forward to today. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relates:
"Malaria was common in the United States into the 20th century. Most of the continental United States has Anopheles mosquitoes (particularly An. freeborni and An. quadrimaculatus), which can spread malaria.
- Local U.S. mosquito-borne spread has resulted in more than 150 locally acquired cases and more than 60 limited outbreaks in the United States over the past 50 years.
- In addition, more than 2,000 cases of malaria are reported annually in the United States, with most cases occurring in returned travelers."
Recognize the name An. freeborni, commonly known as the western malaria mosquito? It memorializes Stanley Barron Freeborn (1891-1960), an entomologist who served as the first UC Davis chancellor (between 1958 and June 1959). He studied mosquitoes and malaria with UC Berkeley professor William Herms (1876-1949) and gained worldwide recognition as an authority on malariology, the scientific study of malaria.
And freeborni? It's an overwintering mosquito described as "a fairly large, brown mosquito with long legs and dark spots on each wing. It is a vicious biter and enters houses readily. This mosquito is found throughout most of California and is a severe pest in rice growing areas. Anopheles freeborni was involved in the malaria epidemics during the late 1800s and early 1900s in northern California." (Published by the Shasta Mosquito and Vector Control District, see source).
Meanwhile, the research continues, not just on Veterans' Day but every day.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
That's the site of the Entomological Society of America's annual meeting, with thousands of entomologists descending upon the city and the Phoenix Convention Center (PCC).
And UC Davis entomologists will be an important part of it.
Eleven members of the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA), UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (ENT), will present their research:
- Lexie Martin: "Microbial Acquisition and Interactions in the Blue Orchard Bee (Osmia lignaria)," Sunday, Nov. 10, 2:25 p.m., PCC 122A.
- Ziv Lieberman: "Evolution and Classification of the Ant Subfamily Dolichoderinae from the Phylogenomic Perspective," Monday, Nov. 11, 8:12 a.m., PCC 224B.
- Briley Mullin: "Evaluating the Use of Predatory Plant Bugs (Hemiptera: Miridae) as Biological Control Against the Invasive South American Tomato Leaf Miner (Tuta absoluta) in California Tomato Fields," Monday, Nov. 11, 8:12 a.m., PCC 121C.
- Madi Hendrick: "Fish are Friends, Shrimp are food: Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) as a Potential Biological Control Agent for Tadpole Shrimp (Triops longicaudatus)," Monday, Nov. 11 8:36 a.m.,PCC 131C.
- Mia Lippey: "A Big Data Approach to Characterizing Impacts of Climate Warming on Agricultural Arthropod Populations," Monday, Nov. 11, 10:30 a.m., PCC 127A.
- Marielle Hansel Friedman: "Herbarium Specimens Faithfully Capture Changing Plant-Insect Interactions Over Years," Monday, Nov. 11, 10:54 a.m., PCC 122B.
- Abigail Lehner: "Do Blue Orchard Bees (Osmia lignaria)< Exhibit Plastic Behavior in Response to Parasitism by the Non-Native Houdini fly (Cacoxenus indagator)?" Monday, Nov. 11, 11:06 a.m.,PCC 130,
- Addie Abrams: "Operation Bug Drop: In-Field Drone Releases of Natural Enemies to Control Lettuce Aphid(Nasonovia ribisnigri) and Western Flower Thrips (Frankliniella occidentallis) in California Lettuce," Monday, Nov. 11, 12:06 p.m., PCC 127B.
- Iris Quayle: "A (Finally) Complete Phylogeny for the Charismatic Genus Onymacris Using Ultraconserved Elements," Tuesday, Nov. 12, 9:35 a.m., PCC 127A.
- CC Edwards: "Resisting Resistance: Identifying Biochemical Biomarkers for Pyrethroid Resistance in Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes," Tuesday, Nov. 12, 11:36 a.m., PCC 223.
- Grace Horne: "Environmental Entomology's People's Choice Runner-Up: Specialist Herbivore Performance on Introduced Plants During Native Host Decline," Wednesday, Nov. 13, 3:55 p.m., PCC 125AB.
They'll also be selling their famous member-designed T-shirts. Just like popcorn, you can't have just one! (You can also order them online at https://ucdavisentgrad.square.site)
Other UC Davis doctoral students, along with UC Davis postdoctoral researchers and faculty will be joining them, following through with the theme, "Empowering Tomorrow with Insect Science." (When non-scientists ask what "entomology" is, say "insect science."
See more information--who's presenting and the topics they will be discussing--on the UC Davis Entomology and Nematology website.
Here's to a great conference!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology, sits at a table at a Bohart open house and points to a line of small paper cups, each containing three "Crickettes." The Crickettes, from the Hotlix company, are among the many items sold in the Bohart Museum's insect-themed gift shop.
"Eat a cricket!" a sign encourages. "People around the world eat insects as an important source of protein. Why not you?"
Some are bacon-flavored. Some are cheese-flavored.
The Bohart Museum's open house, themed "Specialized Predators of Insects," featured dragonflies and spiders. It took place Saturday, Nov. 2, during the UC Davis Parent and Family Weekend, an annual event providing parents and family members of current students "the opportunity to engage with UC Davis life — from academics to athletics and everything in between," according to UC Davis Alumni and Affiliate Relations.
And that included the opportunity to be "specialized predators" and sample crickets.
"Tastes like popcorn," a consumer said. "Bet you can't eat just one."
Said another: "They taste like empty sunflower seeds."
Postdoctoral research scientist James Starrett, of the arachnology lab of Professor Jason Bond, director of the Bohart Museum (and who serves as the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences), remembered eating them when he was in Vietnam in 2018 to present a workshop on "Arachnids and Myriapods" with Bond. "Lots of fun and very cool bugs there!"
"I have had crickets before, in Vietnam, but I think they were fried in oil then, so these were different," he said. "I agree with the description of texture 'like an empty sunflower seed,' but otherwise they tasted like the cheese and bacon salt. Not bad at all!"
"A lot of people enjoyed them," Yang related. "Families were challenging each other to try them. UC Davis students would try them if their parents would try them, so there were a lot of pictures taken of a parent and a student trying them at the same time."
"One UC Davis parent said that growing up in China the kids would just gather crickets during the summer and roast them over a fire to eat, so it was no big deal," Yang shared. "There was one kid who adored them. Each sample tasting cup had several crickettes. She enjoyed them so much, that I just filled a small cup for her and she was snacking on them."
Alumnae of the UC Davis Women's Ultimate Frisbee Team, the Rogues, stopped by. "There was a tournament on campus and when that was over, a few of them wanted to come over and check out the event," Yang said. "They all tried the crickettes together, so a team that plays together, eats crickets together."
Crickets are a good source of protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and fiber and may help promote gut health, according to healthline.com. "Plus, they could be a more environmentally friendly protein source than other animal proteins such as chicken."
The word for eating insects, entomophagy, originates from the Greek words éntomon (insect) and phagein (to eat).
Entomology professor Erin Wilson-Rankin of UC Riverside, a former postdoctoral researcher (2010) in the Louie Yang lab. UC Davis Department of EntomologyandNematology, teaches a course for non-majors about the history of insects, including entomophagy. UC Riverside senior public information officer Jules Bernstein recently featured her in an article in the university's magazine.
Globally, more than 8 billion people regularly consume insects, and the practice is "good for our health and environment," Wilson-Rankin told Bernstein. "Raising insects for food does not impact the environment in the same way that chicken or beef does. It's more sustainable, so even people who prefer avoiding beef and chicken may be inspired to use this as a form of protein because of the environmental benefits. Way fewer greenhouse gases are involved compared to raising pigs or cattle. It is just a more sustainable way to feed people and could help contribute to global food security."
"You'll find the practice more common in countries closer to the equator," she shared. "Globally, beetles are the most common insects to be consumed, followed by butterflies and moths. People usually go for the larvae, because they're soft protein bags of goo, or the pupae, a form in between larva and the adult stage."
"There are geographic patterns that determine which insects are the most commonly eaten. Caterpillars are super popular in sub-Saharan Africa. You'll find ants, wasps, and bees are most common in Latin America, where they're very abundant. In Colombia, they roast ants and make flour from them. People collect ant larvae from agave fruits and put them in burritos or garlic sauce."
Available in Bohart Gift Shop. Those who missed the free samples at the Bohart Museum open house can purchase packages of the HotLix "Crickettes" in the Bohart Museum's insect-themed gift shop. (Contact: bmuseum@ucdavis.edu)
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus, is the home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also includes a live petting zoo that includes Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas.
Just don't eat the live petting zoo tenants. However, people in some parts of the world eat tarantulas and Madagascar hissing cockroaches, also known as "hissers." Street vendors in Cambodia serve fried tarantulas as a delicacy and a staple food; they are often eaten by the handfuls. Hissers are the main ingredient in Roach Stir Fry, Roach Fondue, Roach Tacos and Roach Burritos.
Fact is, just as some farmers specialize in cricket farming, some specialize in roach farming.
Bon appétit!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
This just in from entomologist and migratory monarch researcher David James, an associate professor at Washington State University, who maintains a Facebook page, "Monarch Butterflies in the Pacific Northwest":
"October gave us mostly good weather in the PNW for monarchs migrating south and the last one was seen in Washington just a few days ago (26th). Sadly though, the number of sightings (17) was way down from October 2023 (40). This follows the downward spiral of the number of monarch sightings that I first reported in August. In June and July, numbers were up by nearly 70%! Curiously, something happened during the development of eggs, larvae and pupae of the migratory generation that reduced the population substantially. The number of sightings was down by 34% in August, 48% in September and 42% in October, compared to the respective months in 2023."
"While high temperatures occurred in many parts of the PNW in August," James shared, "they were not as high as in July when monarch sightings were common. PNW summer temperatures this year were not as high or as prolonged as during the heat dome event in late June 2021 which had no discernible impact on monarch sightings or the 2021/22 overwintering number which was substantially higher than the previous winter. Instead of climate, my guess is that the natural enemy community (or part of it) affecting immature stages of monarchs had a very favorable summer and caused greater than normal mortality to the monarch population."
On Oct. 1, James predicted an overwintering population in California of 112,000, half of the total in 2023. "I now believe the number this winter will be below 100,000, perhaps back to the levels we saw in 2018 and 2019 (around 30,000 butterflies). This will be disappointing for sure, but we know how resilient the monarch is and we know there will be a rebound in the future."
He mentioned that a tagged male monarch released Sept. 7 from the Elkton Community Education Center in southern Oregon was found Oct. 17 nectaring in Santa Barbara, "a record so far this year for the longest distance flown....over 38 days, this monarch flew a remarkable 670 miles! Not a record migration flight for a western monarch (that goes to a monarch that flew 840 miles from Seattle to Pismo Beach in 2017), but highly impressive, nevertheless. Not least for being able to avoid or overcome all the hazards it no doubt met en route. Think traffic, predators, pesticides and bad weather. H2864 is a survivor, at least so far. He still has the winter to endure of course but he is off to a flying start! Thanks to Elkton CEC for rearing another tough monarch and to Joe Brazil for reporting it and taking the photos."
We remember the WSU-tagged monarch that fluttered into our garden in Vacaville,Calif., from Ashland, Ore., on Sept. 5, 2016. Citizen scientist Steven Johnson of Ashland, Ore. tagged it A6093 on Aug. 28.
"So, assuming it didn't travel much on the day you saw it, it flew 285 miles in 7 days or about 40.7 miles per day," James told us. "Clearly this male is on his way to an overwintering colony and it's possible we may sight him again during the winter in Santa Cruz or Pacific Grove!”
They didn't.
However, migratory monarchs continue to stop for flight fuel on our Tithonia every year, usually from late August through September and October. Sometimes we see two or three a day. How many tagged ones since 2016? Zero. Zilch. Nada.
James' tagging program research, launched in 2012, confirms that most of the PNW monarchs migrate to the California coast for overwintering. "However, we have occasionally had evidence that migrating monarchs in eastern parts of the PNW (e.g. far eastern Washington and Idaho) do not always head southwest to California," he wrote. "Our latest tag recovery is an example of this. A monarch tagged on September 21 virtually on the state border between WA and ID near Spokane, was found on October 15 in the mountain town of West Yellowstone in Montana. This is 373 miles southeast from where the butterfly was released and she was clearly not looking to spend her winter on the California coast!
"Other tagged monarchs from far eastern areas of the PNW have also traveled southeast but this is the first one found in the Rocky Mountains at almost 7000 feet," he pointed out. "We assumed migrants southeast from Idaho would fly south down the western side of the Rockies, but this one looks like it was trying to cross them. Sadly, this one was found dead but she has contributed another data point to our efforts to unravel this migration mystery. We suspect that these SE-orienting migrants may end up in Mexico. Hopefully, future recoveries of tagged monarchs from Idaho will help us answer this question. We thank Patrick Adair for spear-heading the tagging efforts in Idaho and working tirelessly for monarchs and their conservation through his non-profit Wings Rising Inc. We also thank Peggie Scott for finding the butterfly and taking the photograph."
Wings up.