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.

BOTTLE-GREEN blow fly, the color of emeralds, on a pink cosmos. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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The Bug Stops Here

June 18, 2009

President Obama caught a little flak when he smacked a fly during a recent press interview in the White House. During the interview, a pesky fly buzzed around his head and then landed on his hand. Big mistake. The commander-in-chief nailed him. The bug stopped there. "I got the sucker," he said.

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SPIDER COCOON outside the window of John Emery's San Francisco office. (Photo courtesy of John Emery)

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Our Spider Man in San Francisco

June 17, 2009

John Emery is a spider man. Oh, hes not a super hero who clings to city skyscrapers and chases villains and rescues damsels in distress. Hes the IT manager for Sue Mills, a company which sells school uniforms. But he's truly a spider man.

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BARE-ARMED, UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey examines a frame of her much-praised gentle bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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The Shirt Off Her Back

June 16, 2009

UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr., Honey Bee Research Facility, is the kind of person who would give you the shirt off her back. Really. And that's exactly what she did when several visitors recently toured the Laidlaw facility.

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POLLEN-PACKING bumble bee (Bombus vosnesenskii), the most common California bumble bee, buzzes a flower in the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Arboretum. This photo was taken July 13, 2008. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Where Have All the Bumble Bees Gone?

June 15, 2009

The Smithsonian Institution is the place to "bee" on Monday, June 22. UC Davis pollinator specialist and researcher Robbin Thorp will join other bumble bee experts from across the country in a "Plight of the Bumble Bees" public symposium from 10 a.m.

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GOLDEN BULLET--really a queen yellowjacket--(see far left) heads for a honeycomb held by bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. Beekeepers know that when they open a hive, a predatory yellowjacket with a voracious appetite for honey and bees may be in the vicinity. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Faster Than a Speeding...

June 12, 2009

Faster than a speeding bullet... As soon as UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey opened a beehive and removed a chunk of honeycomb to show visitors, here came the speeding bullet. A fast camera shutter caught what the eye couldn't see. It was a queen yellowjacket taking dead aim at the comb.

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