Bug Squad

The Sting. (c) Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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/bugsquad/index.cfm. The story behind "The Sting" is here: https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7735.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A monarch laying eggs in a Vacaville retail nursery on Sept. 4, 2019. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

That Milkweed You Buy at Retail Nurseries May Contain Pesticides

August 31, 2022
It's Sept. 4, 2019. We notice a monarch butterfly laying eggs on milkweed in an enclosed Vacaville retail nursery. We purchase the plant and add it to our pollinator garden. Did the eggs ever hatch? Did we ever get caterpillars, chrysalids and adults? No. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
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A praying mantis, a Stagmomantis limbata, hides beneath an African blue basil leaf in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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How to Find a Praying Mantis in the Wild

August 30, 2022
If you're trying to find a praying mantis in the wild, go where the food source is. Sounds pretty easy, right? But oh, they're camouflaged. They lie in wait, as ambush predators, and strike. Now you see the predator, now you don't.
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A syrphid fly, probably a Syrphus opinator, warms its flight muscles in the Ruth Risdon Storer Garden, part of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Hello, Friday Fly Day!

August 26, 2022
Hello, Friday Fly Day! It's time to post an image of syrphid fly, aka hover fly or flower fly. We took this dorsal view of a syrphid fly in January of 2009.
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