Bug Squad

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.

This is the solo slide that UC Davis graduate student/nematologist Alison Coomer presented.

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Alison Coomer's Video on Root-Knot Nematodes Makes the World Finals

November 26, 2021

Alison Coomer, a second-year doctoral student in the lab of nematologist Shahid Siddique of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, recently achieved worldwide recognition for her three-minute thesis (3MT) on root-knot nematodes.

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The squash bee, Peponapis pruinosa, is a specialist that pollinates only the cucurbits or squash family, Cucurbitaceae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Thank the Squash Bee for That Pumpkin Pie

November 25, 2021

"Hey, there, pumpkin, how big of a piece of pumpkin pie do you want?" If you've ever been asked that, you may have responded--quite politely--"Small, thank you!" You probably didn't thank the squash bees.

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A lady beetle and her eggs in a Vacaville garden. Everything in nature is connected, says Frédérique Lavoipierre. If you have no aphids, no lady beetles or soldier beetles for you. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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'Garden Allies': Everything in Your Garden Has a Place

November 24, 2021

Don't ask if the insects you find in your garden are "good bugs or bad bugs." Everything in your garden has a place, and your place should be a healthy, thriving garden--free of pesticides, says Frdrique Lavoipierre.

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Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, shows visitors some of the butterfly specimens. The worldwide Lepidoptera collection now totals more than 500,000. One of the most recent donors was the late Charles Hageman of Yuba City (1945-2021). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Bohart Museum Butterfly Donor Chuck Hageman Leaves a Lasting Legacy

November 23, 2021

When the Northern California Lepidopterists met in February of 2019 at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, the members and guests admired the Rod Davis fritillary specimens recently added to the Bohart collection, courtesy of Charles "Chuck" Hageman of Yuba City.

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"The growing presence of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which can transmit the viruses that cause Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever as well as the parasite that causes heartworm in pets, is a major public health threat," says UC Davis medical entomologist/geneticist Geoffrey Attardo. (Photo by Geoffrey Attardo)

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Geoffrey Attardo: Growing Presence of This Mosquito: 'A Major Public Health Threat'

November 22, 2021

UC Davis medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, an assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, says that the public health threat of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, cannot be overstated and it's crucial to control them now before a public health emerge...

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