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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Honey bee pollinating an almond blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey
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Best Management Practices for Honey Bees

October 15, 2014
The Almond Board of California will unveil its Honey Bee Best Management Practices tomorrow (Thursday, Oct. 16) in an ongoing effort to promote and protect bee health. The board will do so by holding a press conference at 8:30 a.m.
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A male Monarch nectaring on Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Go West, Young Monarch, Go West!

October 14, 2014
Westward, ho! The western migration of the Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) to their overwintering sites along the California coast is underway.
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Honey bee "squadron" aiming for the flowering artichokes. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Bees and the Blue Angels

October 13, 2014
Honey bees and the Blue Angels... Honey bees sometimes seem to fly in formation over such plants as flowering artichokes, but their precision--if you could call it that--never matches that of the Blue Angels. For one, the pollen-packing bees are wobbly and bump into one another.
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Male wool carder bee heads for the photographer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Male Wool Carder Bees: In-Your-Face Behavior

October 10, 2014
She described it to a "T." That would be "T" for territorial. Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at UC Davis, spotlighted the European wool carder bee in her current edition of the Bohart Museum Society newsletter. The males are aggressive.
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