Bug Blog
Boy Wonder!
I've been waiting for a decade to see a male Valley carpenter bee (Xylocopa varipuncta) foraging in our family bee garden. The girls? Oh, yes. We see them every day. Sometimes half a dozen at a...
A male Valley carpenter bee engaging in nectar robber; he's drilling a hole in a foxglove to get the nectar, avoiding the pollination process. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Male valley carpenter bee foraging on dwarf bulbine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Male Valley carpenter bee "cuddling" a blanket flower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Eyeing the photographer, a male Valley carpenter bee gets ready to leave a blanket flower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A male Valley carpenter bee lifts off a foxglove. He was early chased by a territorial male European wool carder bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bee-hold, the Bumble Bee Nest!
You've seen bumble bees in flight. You've seen the heavy pollen loads. But have you ever seen the ground nest of a bumble bee? You will if you attend the Spring Festival hosted at the Loma Vista...
Bumble bees, Bombus vosnesenskii,are nesting in a ground cavity at the Loma Vista Farm, Vallejo. (Photo by Rita LeRoy, Loma Vista Farm)
Going in! Coming out! There's lots of activity at the bumble bee nest at the Loma Vista Farm, Vallejo. Farm keeper Rita LeRoy discovered the nest of Bombus vosnesenskii. (Photo by Rita LeRoy, Loma Vista Farm)
Our Girls Made the News!
Did you see that amazing time-lapse video of honey bee development by Anand Varma on the National Geographic website? Varma's time-lapse video of 2500 images vividly shows the development of...
Staff research associate/beekeeper Billy Synk tending the hives at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bees keeping bee-sy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The sign that fronts the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility is the mosaic-ceramic work of Davis artist Donna Billick. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Name That Bug! What About Bob?
Naming a child or a pet takes some major thought and requires some major decisions. Naming our son was easy. We opted for family names handed down 200 years ago. A puppy? When we acquired a...
Theme of the Bohart Museum open house on May 17 is "Name that Bug! How about Bob?" This is UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert "Bob" Kimsey doing research on Alcatraz. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Managing Pests via Remote Sensing and the Smart Use of Fertilizers
Christian Nansen, the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's new agricultural entomologist will talk about his exciting research on "Remote Sensing and Smart Use of Fertilizers to Manage...
Decoding reflectance signals to biotic stress in crops. Christian Nansen is at right. (Photos courtesy of Christian Nansen)