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.

HELPING TO SAVE the honey bees is Gimbal's Fine Candies, which is donating 5 percent of the proceeds from its Honey Lovers' fruit chews to UC Davis research. Accepting the first check, issued March 8, is Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (left) from Lance Gimbal, CEO of Gimbal's. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Sweet!

April 5, 2010

Sweet! That one word aptly describes the generous donation by Gimbal's Fine Candies, San Francisco, to aid honey bee research at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis.

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BLUE SKY, a field of golden mustard and gleaming white hives--it's a picture-perfect day at the Olivarez Honey Bees' farm in Orland, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Picture-Perfect Day at a Bee Farm

April 2, 2010

Picture this. It's a picture-perfect day on Thursday, April 1 at Olivarez Honey Bees, Inc. in Orland, Calif. Susan Cobey's queen bee-rearing class at the University of California, Davis, is touring the bee farm with guide Ray Olivarez Jr.

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HONEY BEE foraging on mustard at Olivarez Honey Bees, Inc., Orland, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Cutting the Mustard

April 1, 2010

A golden bee on golden mustard. What could represent spring in California more than that? Well, besides the just-ended almond pollination season. Bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

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BEE BREEDER-GENETICIST Susan Cobey (left) shows a hive to the students in her queen bee-rearing class. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Rearing Queen Bees

March 31, 2010

It wouldn't dare rain on Susan Cobey's queen bee-rearing classes. And it didn't today. Well, a little sprinkle, but that was it. Bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

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HONEY BEE lies still on a white calla lily in the Carolee Shields White Flower Garden at the UC Davis Arboretum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Death on a Calla Lily

March 30, 2010

It probably wasn't colony collapse disorder. Probably not pesticides, a disease, malnutrition or stress, either. It could have been a pest.

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