Bug Squad

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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/bugsquad/index.cfm. The story behind "The Sting" is here: https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7735.

This is a dead caterpillar killed by an infectious virus disease (Polyhedrosis), as identified by UC Davis butterfly expert Art Shapiro. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Highly Infectious Viral Disease, 'Kind of Like Ebola'

October 7, 2014

It's something you don't see every day. I'm used to seeing Gulf Fritillary chrysalids hanging from our passionflower vine (Passiflora) but this thing hanging from our African blue basil was not a chrysalid.

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Honey Is Not Bee Vomit

October 6, 2014

For years, uninformed folks have declared that honey is "bee vomit." It's not. These things are inequitably false. 1. The world is flat. 2. Einstein said that "if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left." 3. Honey is bee vomit.

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Entomologist Jeff Smith shows Cassidy Hansen fof Rio Vista how to pin a butterly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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How to Pin a Butterfly

October 3, 2014

How do you pin and spread a butterfly? Entomologist Jeff Smith, an associate at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, showed everyone from pre-schoolers to adults how to do just that at the Bohart's recent open house. It was all hands-on.

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A honey bee embeds its stinger in the wrist of Eric Mussen and then tries to pull away. Note the abdominal tissue trailing. (This is an actual photo of a bee sting; it was not posed.) (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Why Do Honey Bees Die When They Sting

October 2, 2014

"Why do honey bees die when they sting?" That's the question PBS Newshour asked Extension apiculturist (retired) Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology for its "Just Ask" feature.

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Honey bee heading for a Cosmos. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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A, B, and C: What They Really Stand for...

October 1, 2014

Give me an "A" (for excellence). Give me a "B" (for bee). Give me a "C" (for Cosmos). Watching honey bees collect nectar and pollen on the showy Cosmos (Cosmos bipannatus) is not to be missed.

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