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

CHEMICAL ECOLOGIST Walter Leal, professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, working in his lab. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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'A Nose for Insects' Sense of Smell'

November 30, 2010

"He is slim and intense, with graying hair and clipped sentences jagged with inflections from his years in Brazil and Japan. And he does not, perhaps cannot, quit.

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BRICKS mark the spot where yellowjackets are nesting at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Hanging Out to Get In

November 29, 2010

They're here. They're there. The Western yellowjacket (Vespula pensylvanica) likes to hang around bee hives. If you're a beekeeper, you've probably seen them nesting in a rodent burrow or hollow log near your hives. At the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

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Yellowjackets!

November 26, 2010

Yellowjackets is a word you never want to end with a period, but with an exclamation point! They probably annoy you when they invite themselves to your barbecue to partake of your hamburger and other protein-rich foods. They're persistent predators.

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HONEY BEE foraging on pomegranate blossom. Without bees, there would be no pomegranates. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Bee-ing Thankful

November 25, 2010

President Obama just pardoned a couple of turkeys--Apple and Cider. They won't make it to the White House Thanksgiving dinner today. But what he could have done--when he was pardoning the turkeys--was to praise the honey bees.

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SPOTLIGHTING bees, the North American Bee Calendar features 12 species of bees. Some are pictured here. Most of the photos are by noted insect photographer Rollin Coville. (The honey bee is the work of Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Mark Your Calendar

November 24, 2010

Mark your calendar. If you're a bee aficionada and haven't ordered your educational North American Bee Calendar, you have until Tuesday, Nov. 30 to place your order. It's for a good cause.

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