Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CARNIOLAN HONEY BEE, a dark bee, is drenched from falling into a swimming pool. She is magnum black. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Gone Fishin'

July 20, 2009
It's not just two-legged humans that take a dip in the pool. So do six-legged honey bees searching for water. When temperatures soar, honey bees scramble to collect water for their colony. They release droplets of water in the hive as their hardworking sisters fan their wings to "cool it.
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THIS GNAT-SIZED insect with a red abdomen is a female cuckoo sweat bee from the genus Sphecodes. Fished out of a swimming pool, it is crawling around on a net. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Seeing Red

July 17, 2009
Its triple-digit hot and youre relaxing in a swimming pool when suddenly you realize you have company. A knat-sized insect with a red abdomen lands next to you. It looks like a wasp. No, it looks like a bee.
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BRUCE HAMMOCK knows how to dodge water balloons and he'll do so again Friday at Bruce's Big Balloon Battle at Briggs at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Bruce's Big Balloon Battle at Briggs

July 16, 2009
The economy is tanked. The cuts keep coming. The smiles fade. Not tomorrow. Friday afternoon, July 17 is the seventh annual Bruce's Big Balloon Battle at Briggs.
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HONEY BEE nectars an almond blossom. This is one of the photos appearing on Cooperative Extension's newly launched Bee Health Web site. California's 700,000 acres of almonds require two hives per acre for pollination. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Bee-utiful Work!

July 15, 2009
Honey bees--what do you know about them? Do you know what the queen bee, worker bees and drones do? Do you know why bees swarm? Do you want to learn to be a beekeeper? Or, if you already are a beekeeper, how do you keep your hives healthy? If you're a researcher, what are your colleagues doing?
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BLOSSOM BOUND, a pollen-packing honey bee heads toward a Peter Pan Agapanthus, a dwarf version of Lily of the Nile. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Peter Pan Bees

July 14, 2009
Peter Pan vowed he'd never grow up. "I won't grow up!" yelled the boy, a figment of a Scottish novelist's imagination. "I won't grow up!" So it is with Peter Pan Agapanthus (Agapanthus africanus), a dwarf version of a spectacular flower known as Lily of the Nile. It won't grow up.
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