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.

Honey bee foraging on mustard. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Good News for the Bees!

October 29, 2014

Good news for the honey bees! And none too soon. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today (Oct.

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Medical entomologist Anthony Cornel with a snake in Brazil.

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Anthony Cornel Knows Mosquitoes

October 28, 2014

Medical entomologist Anthony Anton Cornel knows his mosquitoes--and a few snakes, too. When he was doing research in Brazil in September, he draped a snake around his neck and posed for the camera. His favorite research subjects, though, are mosquitoes.

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UC Davis scientists in the Walter Leal lab have discovered the odorant receptor in the Culex mosquito that repels DEET. From left are
project scientist Pingxi Xu; postdoctoral scholar Young-Moo Choo; AgChem graduate student Alyssa De La Rosa; and Professor Leal. (Photo credit: Academic Technology Services/Mediaworks)

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Unraveling the Mystery of DEET

October 27, 2014

You spray DEET on your arms, and those pesky mosquitoes leave you alone. It works. However, not everyone wants to use DEET, a synthetic insect repellent. There's that smell, for one thing.

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Honey bee heading toward a bulbine (Bulbine frutesens). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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UC Davis Arboretum Plant Sale!

October 24, 2014

If you missed the first fall plant sale at the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive, you're in luck. The next public sale is Saturday, Oct. 25 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. We attended the sale on Saturday, Oct.

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Honey bee sharing a sedum blossom with a Gray Hairstreak. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Seeing Eye-to-Eye on a Sedum

October 23, 2014

If you've ever watched a Gray Hairstreak butterfly (Strymon melinus) nectaring a sedum, and then watched a honey bee (Apis mellifera) land on the same flower, it's a study in sharing. "I was here first," says the Gray Hairstreak, sipping nectar. "I was here second," says the honey bee.

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