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

ROSE CURCULIO lays its eggs inside a yellow rose bud. Note the holes in the rose bud. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garevy)

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I Never Promised You...a Rose Weevil

May 25, 2009

I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine, There's gotta be a little rain sometimes. --Joe South And maybe a rose curculio or rose weevil.

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SYRPHID, aka flower fly or hover fly, lands on a cosmos. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Caught on the Cosmos

May 22, 2009

Cosmos flowers are somewhat like Libras. They balance. In fact, the word, "cosmos," means "harmony" or "ordered universe" in Greek. Plant cosmos and you'll soon be enjoying colorful flowers that belong to the Asteraceae family, which also includes sunflowers, daisies and asters.

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UC DAVIS RESEARCHER Robbin Thorp with a computer screen showing Franklin's bumble bee. He captured this image on a California poppy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Goodbye, Franklin's Bumble Bee?

May 21, 2009

Let's have a show of hands. How many of you have seen Franklin's bumble bee in the wild? Never HEARD of it, you say? Well, you probably will never SEE it, either. Bumble bee experts think it may be extinct.

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BEE PROJECT--Bay Area resident Sheridan Miller raised $733 to help bee research at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Because Sheridan Cares

May 20, 2009

Sheridan Miller's gift to UC Davis for honey bee research was both generous and thoughtful. The 11-year-old Bay Area resident raised $733 for the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

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FEET FIRST--A male carpenter bee glides in for a landing on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Touchdown!

May 19, 2009

Insects love the lavender. Think honey bees, syrphids, and carpenter bees. The noisiest are the male carpenter bees. They buzz the lavender looking for females and then touch down for the nectar. They're quick, territorial, aggressive and noisy.

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