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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLOSE--A beekeeper smokes a hive at Olivarez Honey Bees, Inc. in Orland. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

A Matter of Perspective

March 20, 2009
To really know the honey bee industry, visit an apiary or bee yard. From a distance, you'll see a beekeeper working the hives. Look closer, and you'll see bees landing on visitors. Look even closer, and you'll see an individual bee going about her work.
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SOAPBERRY BUG crawls along an almond tree branch at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. The almond tree will be part of the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Biodiversity in the Honey Bee Haven

March 19, 2009
When the half-acre Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven is implemented by the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis later this year, honey bees won't be the only ones enjoying the garden. Expect to see butterflies, bumblebees and other insects.
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BEE BREEDER-GENETICIST Susan Cobey (center, with frame) manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility teaches a class on the "Art of Queen Bee Rearing." Here she transfers bees. This photo shows an estimated 250,000 bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Buzz

March 18, 2009
Let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees And the flowers and the trees... The Birds and the Bees (music and lyrics by Herb Newman) Don't know about "the birds and the flowers and the trees," but the bees were definitely there. Lots of bees. More than 250,000.
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A LONE FLY visits a flower in the Storer Garden, UC Davis Arboretum, on Feb. 27, 2009. The common housefly is known to transfer at least 100 different pathogens and carry about 6.6 million bacteria on its body at a single time, according to UC Davis forensic entomologist Bob Kimsey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Flies 'n Superbugs

March 16, 2009
It wasn't too surprising. Reuters posted a story online today about flies spreading drug-resistant "superbugs" from chicken droppings.
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