Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
Looking for a specific Blog post?
Search Now

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boone Vale, a volunteer with the Bodega Bay Fire Department, took this heartbreaking image of a fire reaching the Pope Valley hives of Caroline Yelle, owner of Pope Valley Queens. Yelle credits him for saving some of her hives. (Photo by Boone Vale, used with permission)
Article

The Bee People, The Bees, and The Fires

September 4, 2020
The wildfires that raged through California, crippling and/or destroying beekeepers' homes and their livelihoods are heartbreaking. One victim, Caroline Yelle, owner of Pope Canyon Queens (PCQ), located on 8307 Quail Canyon Road, Vacaville, lost 500 hives.
View Article
A cuckoo bee, Xeromelecta californica, rests on a leaf in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Ever Seen a Cuckoo Bee?

September 3, 2020
Ever seen a cuckoo bee? They're also called parasitic bees or "kleptoparasites" or "cleptoparasitises." They cannot carry pollen (no apparatus) and do not construct their nests. They lay their eggs in the nests of their hosts and then eat the food meant for the hosts.
View Article
This monarch caterpillar was reared from an egg collected on a tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Welcome to the World of Monarchs, Greta!

September 1, 2020
Welcome to the world of monarchs, Greta! We don't normally name the monarch butterflies we rear, but we decided that the first one reared from an egg "The Greg Way" would be named for Greg--naturalist Greg Kareofelas, associate at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis.
View Article
Caroline Yelle, owner of Pope Canyon Queens, lost some 500 hives during the Aug. 19 Vacaville fire. (Photo by Caroline Yelle)
Article

What Do Honey Bee Colonies Do During a Raging Wildfire?

August 31, 2020
What do honey bee colonies do when a raging wildfire heads straight toward their hives (bee boxes)? No, the bees do not abscond with their queen and relocate, says Norman Gary, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis.
View Article
Subscribe