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
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A pollen-packin' honey bee heads toward a gaura (Gaura linheimeri). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

High-Wire Act

September 15th, 2008
It's like going to the circus. A bee circus. When you see honey bees gather pollen from a gaura (Gaura linheimeri), it's as if they ran off and joined the circus. You'll see hire-wire (er...high-stem) acts, somersaults, pirouettes, cartwheels and cliffhangers.
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A honey bee heads for the colorful button-willows (Cephalanthus occidentalis).(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Cute as a Button (Willow)

September 12th, 2008
A bee on a ball. When it flowers, the button-willow (Cephalanthus occidentalis), also known as willow, buttonbush, honey ball, and button ball (oh, that's so close to butter ball!) attracts honey bees and butterflies like you wouldn't believe.
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The queen bee (the largest bee, center) is surrounded by her court, the worker bees, who take care of her every need. They feed her, groom her and protect her "and then they have the additional tasks of rearing and feeding her young," said bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. (Photo courtesy of Susan Cobey, UC Davis Department of Entomology)
Article

The Queen Bee

September 11th, 2008
If you were a queen bee, you'd be laying about 1500 to 2000 eggs today. It's your busy season. "She's an egg-laying machine," said bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. "And she's the mother of all the bees in the hive.
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A male gray hairstreak butterfly (Strymon melinus) nectars on sage. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Gray Hairstreak

September 10th, 2008
"Omigosh, what's that? A gray hairstreak?" If it's in your hair, you consult a mirror, your favorite salon, or just ignore it. If you're an entomologist or a lepidopterist, a gray hairstreak is delightful.
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This is a bee nesting block built to attract native pollinators. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Build It And They Will Come

September 9th, 2008
Build it and they will come. Baseball's Field of Dreams? No, a bee nesting block. Think "bee condo." It's an artificial nesting site made of wood and drilled with different-sized holes and depths to accommodate the diversity of native pollinators. Often the bee block is nailed to a fence post.
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