Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
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A yellow-faced bumble bee nectars on jade blossoms at the Benicia (Calif.) Capitol State Historic Park. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Is Jade Lucky? Well, Bumble Bees Like It!

February 7th, 2018
The bumble bee was hungry. She moved quickly from blossom to blossom on a jade plant at the Benicia (Calif.) Capitol State Historic Park, Solano County. As she foraged, you could see her tongue (proboscis) and her trademark yellow face and yellow stripe on her abdomen.
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A stick insect in the process of molting. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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A Little Sticktoitiveness

February 6th, 2018
Well, it did what it was supposed to do. It walked. When Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and UC Davis professor of entomology, glanced at a wall near the entrance of the Bohart Museum during a recent open house, she noticed something that wasn't part of the wall.
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This Culex mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus, transmits West Nile virus and other viruses. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Why Vector-Borne Diseases Remain a Key Threat to Human Health

February 5th, 2018
"Vector-borne diseases remain a key threat to human health, wildlife, and plants, in part, due to the multitude of factors that influence their transmission," says biologist A. Marm Kilpatrick, assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UC Santa Cruz.
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A yellow-faced bumble bees, Bombus vosnesenskii, forages on almond blossoms in Benicia, Calif., on Feb. 2. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Not Just Honey Bees Pollinate Almonds

February 2nd, 2018
It's beginning to look a lot like...almond pollination season in California. Almonds usually begin blooming around Valentine's Day, but it's often earlier, depending on where you look or live. Take Benicia, Solano County.
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