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HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU--A praying mantis shows no fear. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

On Your Knees!

January 19, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
The praying mantis glared at me. It was not afraid of me, my camera, or my jockeying around to get a better position. When I captured the image (below) last fall in a neighbor's garden, I decided that in 2009, I would get my very own praying mantis. Or maybe dozens of them.
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TEAM B.E.E.S.--These high school students from Allendale, N.J., are learning to be beekeepers and are educating the public about the importance of bees. From left are Camila Robbins, Bryan DiBlasi, Malith Waharaka, Colin Bassett, and Manny Gonzalez. However, Allendale prohibits backyard beekeeping. They're lobbying to change the ordinance.

What Would We Do Without the Bees?

January 16, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Dianne DiBlasi is frustrated. Shes the advisor of Team B.E.E.S. (Bergen Environmental Effort to Save Bees), a group of six high school students in Allendale, N.J. involved in a honey bee project.
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BEE CRUSADER--Katie Brown, 6, of Phoenix, Ariz., loves bees and just donated $20 from her allowance savings to the UC Davis honey bee research program.
Bug Squad: Article

Our Young Bee Crusaders

January 15, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Dear Bee Scientists, wrote 6-year-old Katie Brown of Phoenix, Ariz. I am giving this money to you so you can help the bees. I love the bees. She enclosed $20 from her allowance savings. Hannah Fisher Gray, 11, of Wilmington, Del.
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TINY PREDATOR--This juvenile Gambian spotted-eyed flower mantis, less than an inch long, is one of the live specimens at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Tiny Predator

January 14, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you meander over to the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis campus, you'll see a very tiny predator that looks for all the world like a green leaf. It's the Gambian spotted-eye flower mantis and it's one of the many live specimens housed there.
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BLOWIN' SMOKE--Smoke shoots from a bee smoker at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. Bee hives are in the background.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Blowin' Smoke

January 13, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you've been around honey bee hives much, you know what a smoker is. It's a tool that beekeepers use to inspect, manipulate or handle a hive. They smoke a hive to check the health of the colony, to add a little food, and to take a little honey.
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HEAD OF ARGENTINE ANT--This automontage of an Argentine ant is the work of Eli Sarnat at the University of California, Davis. Sarnat has just launched an interactive ant key to help professionals and non-professionals identify ants. See Web site at http://www.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/PIAkey/index.html.
Bug Squad: Article

Know Your Ants

January 12, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Know your ants. If you want to identify red imported fire ants and other invasive ants found in the Pacific Island region, a newly launched Web site by an entomology graduate student at the University of California, Davis, will help you do just that.
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THE LADYBUG--The ladybug is an indicator of health and sustainability in olive orchards, scientists in Spain have found. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

Another Good Reason

January 9, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Heres another good reason to be kind to ladybugs. But we are, arent we? EurekAlert! alerted us Jan. 6 to a study relating that an abundance of ladybugs in olive orchards is an indicator of health and sustainability.
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AT THE RECEPTION--From left are entomologist Diane Ullman, associate dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and co-director of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion experimental learning program; artist Catherine Chalmers; and UC Davis Department of Art faculty members Matthias Geiger and Darrin Martin. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

The Insect We Love to Hate

January 8, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Catherine Chalmers hates cockroaches. She said so at her presentation Wednesday night, Jan. 7, at UC Davis. The occasion: The Consilience of Art and Science centennial colloquium, sponsored by the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion experimental learning program. We have an adversarial relationship.
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LARVAE INSIDE WALNUT--This fallen walnut contained three larvae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

Aw, Nuts!

January 7, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Walnuts are packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, right? Right. And sometimes a little protein. Protein, as in larvae. That's not a welcome sight. Sometimes you'll find two or three navel orangeworm (NOW) larvae inside a single walnut, along with copious amounts of webbing and frass.
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BACK TO UC DAVIS--After receiving his doctorate in population biology at UC Davis in 2006 and then serving as a UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at UC Santa Barbara, Louie Yang is back at UC Davis. He joined the Department of Entomology faculty on Jan. 2. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

Back to UC Davis

January 6, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
DAVISHe's back. Entomology folks at UC Davis remember when Louie Yang was a doctoral candidate, studying population biology with major professor Rick Karban.
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