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

POLLEN-PACKING honey bee buzzes over a pink begonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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A Bee on The Bee-gonia

September 21, 2009

If there's one plant in our yard that the honey bees don't like, it's the begonia. Lavender, sage, catmint and sedum? Bring 'em on. Sunflowers, citrus and pomegranate? Yes! Yes! Yes! Rock purslane? Like rock candy. Oh, how about a little begonia, Ms. Honey Bee? Sorry, not interested.

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A HONEY BEE nectars sedum, a favorite among gardeners and bees. This sedum is "Autumn Joy." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Reducing Pesticide Use

September 18, 2009

Good news! Entomologist Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and a member of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences faculty, has just received one of three Pest Management Alliance Grants awarded by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR)...

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A HONEY BEE nectars a dwarf tangerine bulbine (Bulbine frutescens) in the UC Davis Arboretum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Bee-ing There for the Bees

September 17, 2009

Apimondia. No, it's not a rock band or a new dance move or a new Billboard hit. It's the name of a worldwide bee organization. The 41st World Apiculture Congress is meeting this week through Sunday, Sept. 20 in Montepellier, France, and the buzz is all about what's killing the honey bees.

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BAXTER HOUSE, built in 1938, went up in flames on June 30 in a UC Davis firefighters' control burn. The grounds will now be a quarter-acre field of wildflowers called The Campus Buzzway. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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It's All the Buzz

September 16, 2009

Rising soon from the ashes of the Baxter House fire will be the soothing colors of the Campus Buzzway. It's a story that began in May 1938 with a farmhouse-turned-lab-turned-eyesore. It will end with the honey bees' version of "A Field of Dreams"--the Campus Buzzway.

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HONEY BEE, packing pollen, heads into a patch of Argentine rain lilies (Zephyranthes candida) in the White Garden, UC Davis Arboretum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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It's Raining Rain Lilies

September 15, 2009

It's raining rain lilies in the Carolee Shields White Flower Garden of the UC Davis Arboretum. The Argentine Rain Lily (Zephyranthes candida), also known as the White Rain Lily, White Fairy Lily and White Zephyr Lily, is drawing a few honey bees, but the bees like the lavender and sage best.

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