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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drenched honey bee gets ready to sip honey from a plastic spoon. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey
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Rescue 911

April 6, 2012
Okay, Ill admit it. I have a soft spot for honey bees. Today I fished out some thoroughly drenched honey bees from our swimming pool. Indeed, the pool looked like an Olympic meet for Apis mellifera.
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Bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey of UC Davis and Washington State University shows how to hold a queen--by the thorax. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Don't Impale the Queen!

April 5, 2012
A would-be beekeeper "inherited" an empty bee box, a reconditioned bee box, in his backyard. "How do I become a beekeeper?" he asked. A very good question, and one that the UC Davis Department of Entomology answers a lot.
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The winning Davis Linnaean Team is comprised of (from left) Kelly Hamby, Matan Shelomi, Kelly Liebman and Jenny Carlson. With them is mascot, Max. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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They Know Their Insects

April 4, 2012
They know their insects. They know what a "land lobster" is. They know diseases caused by trypanosomes. They can name the six orders of arthropods represented in the circus troupe from the movie, "A Bug's Life.
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A red-shouldered stink bug peers at the camera.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Kill It Or Let It Live?

April 3, 2012
So, you've just stepped on a bug. Do you kill it and put it out of its "misery" or do you let it live? That was basically the question that UC Davis entomologist/doctoral candidate Matan Shelomi answered on Quora.
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Derek Downey checks the cluster on a newly hived colony. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Charmed

April 2, 2012
The third time was definitely the charm. After rain postponed the grand opening of the Davis Bee Collective's Bee Sanctuary not once, but twice--the third time, Sunday, April 1--proved to be the charm.
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