Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
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UC ANR is renovating its website. The Bug Squad blogs are archived at https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/archive.cfm

 

Meanwhile, here are the latest blogs. They can also be found on the Bug Squad blog, Facebook, at https://www.facebook.com/TheBugSquad

March 28, 2025: Congrats to Douglas Walsh, PBESA's Woodworth Award Recipient

March 27, 2025:  In Support of Honey Bees

March 26, 2025: Remembering Professor Harry Lange and Helping the Bohart Museum of Entomology

March 25, 2025: Hammock, Morisseau to Give TEDX Talk at School of Medicine Research Celebration

March 24, 2025: A UC Davis Living Lab: Which Plants Are Best for Your Garden?

March 21, 2025: 'Fantastic' and Much Needed Workshop: Fruit Fly ID

March 19, 2025: Thinking Pink on the First Day of Spring

March 18, 2025: Dad's Bees

March 17, 2025: Don't Pinch Me! I'm Green

March 14, 2025: CC Edwards Elected Chair of Youth Professionals, American Mosquito Control Association

March 13, 2025: Bohart Scientists Explain Venomous vs. Poisonous

March 12 2025: A Beautiful Bombus at Bodega
 
March 11 2025: Learn How Two UC Davis Entomologists-Artists Fuse Art with Science
 
March 10, 2025: How to Color a Frog: the Boh-Art Way
 
March 7, 2025: Bohart Museum Open House: Hopping with Poison Dart Frogs
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This drone fly, a female, is an Eristalis tenax from the Syrphidae family. It's sometimes called the "H Fly" for the pattern on its abdomen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

You're No Honey Bee!

October 13th, 2008
Remember the 1998 U.S. vice presidential debate when Sen. Lloyd Bentsen told Sen Dan Quayle: "I knew Jack Kennedy, and you're no Jack Kennedy!" Well, in the insect world, there's a fly that looks a lot like a honey bee, but it's no honey bee.
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An immature ladybug on sage. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Luck Be a Lady

October 10th, 2008
Ladybugs love our Russian sage. Ladybugs, aka ladybird beetles, eat aphids, which are pests in the garden. The ladybugs are welcome. The aphids are not. Belonging to the family Coccinellidae, ladybugs look resplendent in their bright red or orange wing covers, dotted with spots.
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The parasitic tachinid fly feeds on nectar in the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Arboretum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Pity the Poor Caterpillar

October 9th, 2008
Pity the poor caterpillar. Here you are, minding your own business, and this tachinid fly comes along and lays eggs in your head. Good day for the tachinid fly. Bad day for the caterpillar.
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A pollen-packed honey bee dips her head in cenizo in the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Arboretum.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Cenizo!

October 8th, 2008
If you've ever visited the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Aboretum, you've probably noticed the honey bees enjoying the cenizo(Leucophyllum frutescens), an evergreen shrub with silvery foliage and bell-shaped pinkish-lavender flowers.
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A pollen-packed honey bee curls up in a pomegranate blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Queen of the Crops

October 7th, 2008
We often hear of "cream of the crop," but the honey bee is the "queen of the crops." Honey bees are crucial to Californias $32 billion agriculture industry.
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