Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay

Looking for a specific Blog post?

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

BEEKEEPER AND ARTIST Andrew Tyzack of East Riding, Yorkshire, UK, with his bees. (Photo courtesy of Andrew Tyzack)

Article

Bees in Art

November 16, 2009

Bees engage us. They fascinate, charm and inspire us. Last Sunday morning, as the temperature climbed from 40 to 50 degrees, the honey bees joined us in our garden. They buzzed in and out of the autumn blossoms, gathering pollen and nectar.

View Article

VARROA MITE on a honey bee (see raised reddish-brown spot under the wing). The mites reproduce in the hive, sucking the blood of pupae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Article

Not a Pleasant Sight

November 13, 2009

What's wrong with this photo? A honey bee is nectaring a lavender, right? Right. But if you look closely, you'll see a Varroa mite--a parasite--attached to her. Varroa mites, considered the No.

View Article

HONEY BEE, with tongue extended, makes a "beeline" for pink oxalis (Oxalis herta) in the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Article

Bottoms Up

November 12, 2009

A recent visit to the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden found honey bees making a...yes...beeline...for the pink oxalis (Oxalis herta), a native of South Africa. Some folks consider oxalis, especially yellow oxalis, a "weed.

View Article

PACKING red pollen, a honey bee glides in to gather nectar from a lavender (Lavandula), a member of the mint family. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Article

Red November

November 11, 2009

The honey bees are hungry. There are fewer flowers blooming this time of the year, so the bees are foraging for what they can. This morning the bees were all over the lavender (Lavandula) in our yard.

View Article

QUEEN BEE at the Bohart Museum open house was Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart and professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Article

Pollination Nation

November 10, 2009

Pollination Nation. That's the title of a new display at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis. It's quite timely and appropriate because of the beleaguered bees.

View Article