Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay

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UC ANR is renovating its website. The Bug Squad blog, by Kathy Keatley Garvey of the University of California, Davis, is a daily (Monday-Friday) blog launched Aug. 6, 2008. It is about the wonderful world of insects and the entomologists who study them. Blog posts are archived at https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/archive.cfm

A male monarch arrives Oct. 3 to nectar Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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The Monarch Who Arrived Late for Dinner

October 5, 2022

Never be late for dinner or it might be all gone. Take the case of the Mexican sunflowers, Tithonia rotundifola, that we planted last April for the monarchs. Monarchs seem to favor Tithonia more than any other nectar source in our pollinator garden.

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A praying mantis hanging out on a cleveland sage, Salvia clevelandii, at the UC Davis Bee Haven. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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So, You've Planted a Bee Garden--Now What? Enroll in This UC Davis Class

October 4, 2022

So, you've planted a bee garden, and you're looking at it and thinking "Okay, now what?" You'll want to register for a class on "I Planted a Bee Garden: Now What?," offered Saturday, Oct. 29 by the UC Davis Bee Haven, part of the Department of Entomology and Nematology.

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Vector-borne disease specialist Olivia Winokur of UC Davis with her Dalmatian, Scotty.

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Olivia Winokur: Targeting the Yellow Fever Mosquito

October 3, 2022

If you've been following the statewide news on the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes ageypti, you'll want to hear a seminar by Olivia Winokur on Wednesday, Oct. 5.

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Postdoctoral researcher Severyn Korneyev, a Ukrainian entomologist who studies flies, discusses insects with guests. On the screen is a Jerusalem cricket, also known as a potato bug. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Learning About Wasps and Other Insects

September 30, 2022

They came to learn about wasps--"The Weird and Wonderful Wasps"--at the recent open house hosted by the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. They learned about such wasps as the Asian giant hornet (aka "murder hornets"), pteromalids, and fig wasps.

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The Bohart Museum's family arts-and-crafts table, featuring how to make gall ghosts, was busy throughout the open house, themed "Weird and Wonderful Wasps." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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At Bohart Museum of Entomology: It Took Gall to Make a Ghost

September 29, 2022

It took gall to make a ghost. Really. When the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis recently hosted an open house on "Weird and Wonderful Wasps," the family arts-and-craft activity was to create a gall ghost.

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