- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The katydid nymph did.
It did appear in May.
The UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) tells us that katydid nymphs appear in our gardens in April or May.
This little nymph was right on time, barely, as it surfaced in our Vacaville garden on May 28.
The nymph, a leafeater, is usually so camouflaged in the vegetation that we don't see it--unless it's hanging out on a California golden poppy blossom or a neon pink rock purslane. The adult katydid can be an economic pest when it feeds on such crops as mandarins.
Frankly, it can look quite comical as it "walks the walk," its long threadlike antennae probing the way as it descends a stem in the early evening.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"It's really serious," says UC Davis distinguished professor James R. Carey, a noted authority on the invasion of tropical fruit flies.
Professor Carey will discuss his findings at a UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar at 4:10 p.m., Monday, June 3 in Room 122 of Briggs Hall. His seminar, titled "California's Fruit Fly Invasion Crisis," also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/9 5882849672.
"After seven decades of near-continuous outbreaks in scores of California cities, tephritid fruit fly invasions (e.g., Mediterranean, oriental, peach, and Mexican fruit flies) are reaching critical mass, with many of the annual eradication programs morphing into below-the-radar, never-ending fruit fly control programs," Carey says in his abstract. "Permanent establishment of any one of these tropical species has the potential to shut down the multi-billion dollar domestic and foreign markets for hundreds of California fruit and vegetable crops."
"I will present an overview of the long-developing crisis, discuss lessons learned from analysis of fruit fly detection databases, and argue that, in order to have any chance at stemming this ever-rising tide, CDFA (California Department of Food and Agriculture) and the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) urgently need to switch from their historic, ad-hoc eradication strategy to a new one that is evidence-based and far more scientific."
Carey served on the CDFA's Medfly Scientific Advisory Panel from 1987-1994, testified to the California Legislature "Committee of the Whole" in 1990 on the Medfly Crisis in California, and authored the paper "Establishment of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly in California" (1991, Science 258, 457).
Carey is a senior scholar in the Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging at UC Berkeley and former vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. He focuses his research on insect biodemography, mortality dynamics, and insect invasion biology. He joined the Department of Entomology in 1980.
Fellow of Four Professional Societies. Carey is a fellow of four professional societies: the Entomological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Gerontological Society of America. He is former director (2003-13) of a 11-university consortium funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIH/P01) on the evolutionary ecology of lifespan.
He co-authored the book Biodemography: An Introduction to Concepts and Methods (Carey, J. R. and D. Roach. 2020; Princeton University Press) and authored three previous books, Demography for Biologists (Oxford University Press 1993), Longevity (Princeton University Press, 2003), and Longevity Records: Life Spans of Mammals, Birds, Amphibians and Reptiles (Odense, 2000). He has written more than 250 journal articles and book chapters. For any technical issues with Zoom, contact seminar coordinator Brian Johnson, associate professor, at brnjohnson@ucdavis.edu.
Resources:
- The 30?Year Debate on a Multi?Billion?Dollar Threat: Tephritid Fruit Fly Establishment in California, June 8, 2017, American Entomologist
- Behind the Scenes in the California Fruit Fly Invasion, Aug. 6, 2013, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
- From a Trickle to a Flood: The Large-Scale Cryptic Invasion of California by Tropical Fruit Flies, October 2013, Proceedings of the Royal Society B
- Establishment of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly in California, 1991, Science
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Ricardo Vela, manager of UC ANR News and Information Outreach in Spanish (NOS), won the ACE 2024 Rising Star Award, an annual award that "honors communicators, instructors and researchers who demonstrate exceptional leadership and technical skills in their communication field, to their institution, and service to ACE."
Five other UC ANR communicators won either a gold (first place), silver (second place), or a bronze (third place) award.
- A trio from UC ANR Strategic Communications--Michael Hsu, senior public information representative; Ethan Ireland, senior videographer; and Evett Kilmartin, photographer--teamed to win a silver award for their video, “Farm-to-Corrections Project."
- Strategic Communications' social media strategist Doralicia Garay won a bronze award for her entry, “Improving Lives in California” in the category, social media organic campaign.
- Kathy Keatley Garvey, communications specialist for the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and author of the Bug Squad blog on the UC ANR site, won a gold award for “best feature photo."
They will receive their awards at the ACE conference, scheduled June 23-25 in Salt Lake City Utah. The theme: “Big Ideas Start Here.”
Ricardo Vela
Ricardo Vela is a 35-year, two-time Emmy-winning broadcast journalism professional, as noted on the ACE site. As program manager of NOS, he supervises a Spanish-language expert team that disseminates news and research about agriculture, nutrition, and natural resources to Spanish-speaking communities across California. Vela is “an advocate for Latino and other ethnic groups, promoting their contributions to society and creating for the first time, events for the UC ANR community to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and Cesar Chavez Day.”
Before joining UC ANR, Vela worked as a national news correspondent for Univision and CNN in Texas and Los Angeles. He started his journalism career at the Chicago Tribune and Univision in Chicago, Ill. While in Chicago, he collaborated with several Latino community organizations, always promoting equity and inclusion. He served as Univision's main news anchor in San Diego for 17 years and hosted a morning talk radio show,“Voces Hispanas,” for 10 years. His career includes serving as news director and anchor at Entravisión (a Univisión affiliate) in Palm Springs and as a news anchor at Telemundo in El Paso, Texas. In 2006, Hispanic Magazine listed him as among the 100 most influential Latinos in the country.
UC ANR Vice President Glenda Humiston appointed Vela as a founding member of the UC Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee to serve a three-year term.
The ACE Rising Star Award memorializes Frank Jeter (1891-1955), a pioneering ACE member from North Carolina who made significant contributions to the communication field and to ACE.
Michael Hsu, Ethan Ireland and Evett Kilmartin
The Hsu-Ireland-Kilmartin team produced a video featuring UC ANR's Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) and its unique partnership with Impact Justice, ChangeLab Solutions, Spork, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDRC). Last July they launched the "Farm-to-Corrections Harvest of the Month" project, which brings fresh, specialty produce into California prisons “to improve the diets of the residents, as well as improve their overall health and well-being.” Impact Justice is a prison reform organization, ChangeLab Solutions is a health equity nonprofit, and Spork is a regional food hub.
The video, Hsu said, aims to raise awareness and build support for the project. He cited its many wins:
- Opens major untapped market for California growers and producers (especially small farmers)
- Demonstrates a way for CDCR to meet requirements for in-state sourcing of food
- Provides healthier food for residents of the correctional facilities, while introducing new produce and nutrition education opportunities that can help them live better lives while they are in prison and after they return to their communities.
Hsu conducted the interviews and wrote the script; Ireland shot and edited the video; and Kilmartin contributed photos. Some images were taken in the California Department of Corrections, California State Prison, Solano (Vacaville). (See the news story, "Farm-to-Corrections' Project Provides Fresh Produce to People in Prison, Boosts California Growers.")
Doralicia Garay
"The campaign's strategic emphasis on showcasing employees within the narrative of research efforts enhances the UC ANR brand identity and positions the organization as a collaborative pioneer in innovation," Garay wrote. "This comprehensive approach leverages the power of social media to extend reach, foster engagement, and effectively cater to our online community."
Among those featured in "Improving Lives in California:" entomologist Ian Grettenberger, assistant professor of Cooperative Extension, and a member of the faculty of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Kathy Keatley Garvey
Kathy Keatley Garvey, a journalist formerly with UC ANR before joining the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, submitted an image of a honey bee buzzing over a zinnia. Her entry, “Celebrating the Honey Bee," won the feature photo category, for "one image that effectively tells a story."
"The purpose of this photo was to celebrate the honey bee by capturing an image of a pollen-packing worker bee in flight over a bright flower," wrote Garvey. Her gear: a Nikon D500 with a 105mm lens. Settings: 1/4000 of a second (to freeze the action), ISO 1000, and f-stop 6.3. She sought to showcase "the amazing color: the bright red zinnia and the orange pollen;" the bee's speed (deliberately blurring the wings); and "to emphasize that foraging honey bees are incredible workers."
"That is one huge ball of pollen that she'll take back to her colony," Garvey wrote. Feedspot, which ranks blogs by traffic, social media followers and freshness, ranks her Bug Squad blog as the No. 4 bug blog in the world, Garvey has written the blog every night, Monday through Friday, since Aug. 6, 2008.
Communication Professionals
ACE, headquartered in Morton Grove, Ill., describes it members as "communication faculty and professionals at public and land-grant universities throughout the United States and in similar institutions in other nations.We are communication professionals at local, state and federal agencies; corporations and nonprofit organizations; and agriculture- and natural resources-focused international research centers."
Its members include "writers, editors, graphic designers, webmasters, video producers, information technologists, photographers, administrators, researchers, faculty members and others in the communications field. We plan, prepare and disseminate research results and Extension educational materials. We distribute research-based information to scientists and technicians, and practical, problem-solving information to people who put it to work: farmers, families, foresters, food processors, ranchers, homemakers, news media, youth, marine businesses, businesses and many others."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Today, Memorial Day 2024, we pay tribute our fallen soldiers, and those who served, survived, and struggled home.
It's a day I remember my American Revolutionary War ancestors, but especially my Civil War ancestor, Samuel Davidson Laughlin, who at age 18 served as a Union color bearer in the Civil War. He was selected to carry Old Glory for his height (6'3"), his strength (farm boy from Linn, Mo.) and his courage (front-line duty).
"Being a color bearer (aka carrying the flag), was a prestigious and important role in the Army. Not only were you carrying the symbol of what you were fighting for, the flag was any easy mark for soldiers to organize around," according to an article written in a National Museum of Civil War Medicine post by Amelia Grabowski, the outreach and education coordinator at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum.
Young Samuel carried the flag in 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.
He returned home to Missouri, married, moved with his family to Castle Rock, Wash., and built a round barn there in 1883. He would die of blood poisoning in 1910. In 1986 his barn would be listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
He rests in a small cemetery next to his beloved barn. His gravestone reads simply: "Gone, But Not Forgotten."
"Color bearer" Noah Coughlan, a native of Vacaville, Calif., paid tribute to American soldiers, including Samuel Laughlin, in his 2023 Run Across America that spanned 167 days and 3,600 miles. See Run for Revival.
In addition, Memorial Day traditionally marks the beginning of summer, and as an aside, it's often the weekend when we see our first monarch of the year. Yesterday, right on cue, a monarch fluttered through our garden, touched down on a cherry laurel branch,surveyed the milkweed and floral resources, and then, poof...gone.
But not forgotten.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
More than 300 attended the May 19th event, noted Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator. They included residents of Yolo, Marin, Solano and Sacramento counties.
Community ecologist Rachel Vannette, associate professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and three lab members--doctoral candidate Lexie Martin, doctoral student Dino Sbardellati, and junior specialist Leta Landucci--displayed nests of bumble bees, carpenter bees and solitary bees. They also invited visitors to examine live bee larvae under a microscope and engage in the interactive displays on the bee life cycle.
Others bee researchers participating:
- Bohart Museum bee scientists Thomas Zavortink and Sandy Shanks
- UC Davis graduate student Richard Martinez of the lab of apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño, associate professor of Cooperative Extension, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. He staffed the honey bee booth and answered questions about bees and beekeeping. He also displayed a bee observation hive (attendees eagerly tried to find the queen). Children and adults alike tried on the beekeeping suits and veils. He also discussed the apiary equipment, including a smoker and hive tools.
- Doctoral student Sofía Meléndez Cartagena of the Stacey Combes lab, Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior. She studies the diversity of bees and bee behavior.
- Doctoral student Peter Coggan of the laboratory of Chancellor's Fellow Santiago Ramirez, associate professor, Department of Evolution and Ecology. Coggan studies the neurological and genetic basis of orchid bee courtship behavior and evolution.
Brownie Troop 121 of Davis, led by co-leaders Dr. Jaclyn Watkins and Mel McClendon, attended. "We thought the event was fantastic!" said Watkins, associate professor of clinical pathology and residency program director, Department of Pathology and Laboratory. "Our girls also earned their Brownie Bug Badges by attending. They had a blast."
Bee specimens displayed ranged from honey bees and carpenter bees, to bumble bees and orchid bees, to leafcutter bees and sweat bees. Visitors also perused a number of bee books, including the newly published Honey Bee Biology, authored by Brian Johnson, associate professor, Department of Entomology and Nematology; and Calfornia Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists, published in 2014 and co-authored by Robbin Thorp (1933-2019), distinguished emeritus professor. California is home to more than 1600 species of undomesticated bees, most of them native, according to Thorp.
The Bohart Museum houses a global collection of eight million insects, plus a live petting zoo, and a gift shop. Professor Jason Bond directs the museum, succeeding Kimsey, who served 34 years until her retirement on Feb. 1. Bond is the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, and the associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He also serves as president-elect of the American Arachnological Society.
The next open houses are set for
- Saturday, July 20: "Moth Night at the Museum," 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
- Saturday, Sept. 28: "Museum ABCs: Arthropods Bohart, and Collecting," 1 to 4:30 p.m.
All open houses are free and family friendly; parking is also free on weekends.
Summer public walk-in hours are on Tuesdays, June 17-Aug. 27 from 9 a.m. to noon, and from 1 to 4 p.m. The museum will be closed to the general public from Sept. 1-22.
For more information, access the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or contact bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
