Bug Squad

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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/bugsquad/index.cfm. The story behind "The Sting" is here: https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7735.

HIGH HONOR--UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey receives the "Outstanding Service to Beekeeping" award at the Western Apicultural Society conference from president Eric Mussen, Extension apiculturist. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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A Tip of the Veil

August 27, 2009

A tip of the bee veil to Susan Cobey. Cobey, bee breeder-geneticist and manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis, has won the 2009 Outstanding Service to Beekeeping award from the Western Apicultural Society (WAS).

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TWO ON A SUNFLOWER--A honey bee (Apis mellifera) and a female sweat bee (Halictus ligatus) share a sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Sharing a Sunflower

August 26, 2009

If you're in the right spot at the same time, you may get a double bonus: a non-native bee and a native bee on a native plant.

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HONEY BEE heads for lavender. "It's especially important to provide nectar and pollens at the end of the season-- late summer and fall," says Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen of UC Davis. "That's when resources tend to become scarce." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Bee Well

August 25, 2009

What's causing colony collapse disorder (CCD)? Are we any closer to determining the cause? CCD, the mysterious malady characterized by bees abandoning the hive, leaving behind the brood and food storage, continues to be of great concern--and rightfully so.

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HOVER FLY, from the family Syrphidae swoops down on a dandelion claimed by a sweat bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Squatters' Rights

August 24, 2009

Squatters' rights. A dandelion poking through the rocks near Nick's Cove on Tomales Bay, in Marshall, Sonoma County, seemed an unlikely host for squatters' rights. It first drew a tiny bee, barely a quarter-inch long.

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HONEY BEE heads toward an almond blossom. Saturday, Aug. 22 is National Honey Bee Awareness Day. Without honey bees, we would not have almonds. Two hives per acre are needed to pollinate California's 700,000 acres. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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All Hail the Honey Bee

August 21, 2009

All hail the honey bee. Tomorrow (Saturday, Aug. 22) is the first-ever National Honey Bee Awareness Day, as proclaimed by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. It's "hive time" this insect has its own day.

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