Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
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A female butterfly, a painted lady, nectaring on Spanish lavender on March 8 in the Benicia Community Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Welcome Back, Painted Ladies

March 10, 2014
The painted ladies are on move. Butterflies. Scores of painted ladies (Vanessa cardui) are now migrating north from their overwintering sites near the U.S. Mexico border.
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Queen Turner inspects the beekeeping operation on the rooftop of the San Francisco Chronicle. Turner completed a 10-month stay in the U.S. and returned to Botswana where she is head of the beekeeping section of the Ministry of Agriculture in the Botswana government. (Photo: Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Just Bee-Cause

March 7, 2014
In recent years, honey bees received neither recognition nor respect until commercial beekeeper David Hackenberg of Pennsylvania/Florida sounded the alarm in 2006 about his missing honey bees.
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This honey bee, in the process of defending her hive, is stinging Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of UC Davis. That's her abdominal tissue being pulled out. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Why Bee Stings Can Be Deadly Serious

March 6, 2014
The Daily Mail, UK, recently reported a tragic case of a fatal bee sting that occurred in a back yard in Hampton, near Solihull, West Midlands, England. A honey bee apparently stung a 47-year-old father on his foot and he went into anaphylactic shock.
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Leafcutting bees heading home to their condo. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Go Native! Be a Native Bee 'Beekeeper'

March 5, 2014
If you're yearning to be a backyard beekeeper, "go native." "Go native" with native bees, that is. Many folks are building or buying bee condos to provide nesting sites for blue orchard bees (Osmia lignaria) and leafcutting bees (Megachile spp.).
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This is the insect that Matan Shelomi studies. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey
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About Those Walking Sticks...

March 4, 2014
Why would anyone want to study walking sticks (stick insects)? Well, why wouldn't anyone NOT want to? That's the question we ought to ask. Enter doctoral candidate Matan Shelomi of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
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