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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PESTY YELLOWJACKET--A Western yellowjacket (Vespula pensylvanica) sips water from a watering device at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Seeing Yellow (and Black)

October 5, 2010
So you're planning a big barbecue, a garden party or a wedding reception. You want to make sure that Mr. and Mrs. Yellowjacket and all their offspring--plus nephews, nieces, uncles, aunts, cousins and assorted other relatives--aren't on the invite list.
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LADYBUGS on artichoke leaf. Soon, more beneficial insects in the garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Sex Amid the Artichokes

October 4, 2010
What the world needs now is "love, sweet love" and...more ladybugs. Ladybeetles are our friends. They gobble up aphids and other pests in our garden, and then look around for more. They have insatiable appetites.
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LYGUS BUG, a serious pest of such crops as cotton, alfalfa and strawberries, is also commonly found in the garden. This one is on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Looking for Lygus

September 30, 2010
Frances Sivakoff knows a lygus bug when she sees one. Sivakoff (right), a doctoral candidate in the UC Davis Department of Entomology, won a 2010 Robert and Peggy van den Bosch Memorial Scholarship for her work on the regional movement of the pest.
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FIERY SKIPPER (Hylephila phyleus) in a jet-fighter position on sedum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Skippers and Sedum

September 29, 2010
Skippers and sedum. Sedum and skippers. A perfect match. The flower, sedum (family Crassulaceae), and the fiery skipper butterfly (Hylephila phyleus, family Hesperlidae) make a stunning autumn photo. When late afternoon sun strikes its fighter-jet wings, it glows brilliantly.
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