Backyard Orchard News
From Caterpillars to Butterflies to Chronic Pain Research
"Science is full of surprises." Bruce Hammock, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology who...
This photo of Gulf Fritillary adults and a caterpillar helps illustrate the article on the Medical College of Wisconsin website. Bruce Hammock's basic research on how caterpillars become butterflies led to discoveries on chronic pain. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Pretty in Pink--And in Other Colors, Too!
They're pretty in pink. Well, not just pink. All other colors, too. It's National Honey Bee...
A honey bee heads toward rock purslane. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee foraging on zinnia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This bee took a liking to a nectarine blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Rachael Long: A Boy, a Bat, a Coyote and a Crow
It doesn't get more real. Yolo County Farm Advisor and children's book author Rachael Freeman Long...
Pallid bats, shown here hanging upside down, were featured at Rachael Long's presentation on her second book, "Valley of Fire,"at the Avid Reader, Davis. She will speak on her latest and last book in the trilogy, "River of No Return," at 1 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 20 at the Avid Reader. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Rachael Long, in a presentation at the Avid Reader, shows a bat house. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Everybody Eats in the Pollinator Garden
Everybody eats in the pollinator garden. That includes crab spiders that sprawl atop a flower,...
A crab spider, on a Mexican sunflower, eating a green bottle fly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A crab spider, on a blanketflower, eating a female Halictus tripartitus, as identified by Robbin Thorp, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A crab spider, on a spent blanketflower (Gaillardia) eating a honey bee. It is joined by "freeloader flies," family Milichildae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The San Joaquin Valley battle against Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that spreads Zika.
The UC Mosquito Research Laboratory at Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center is the epicenter of California research on the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a tiny, black and white mosquito that can spread the Zika virus.
Aedes aegypti were first identified in California in June 2013, when they were found in the San Joaquin Valley communities of Clovis and Madera. They have now been detected in certain Fresno County neighborhoods, plus the Bay Area, and Southern California, according to the California Department of Public Health.
To date, the Zika virus hasn't been found in the California mosquitoes, however with thousands of Americans traveling to Brazil for the 2016 Olympics, plus travelers regularly visiting other countries with outbreaks of Zika, some could be carriers of the virus when they come home.
Entomologist Anthony Cornel, Ph.D., is working with the Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District (CMAD) on research projects aimed at controlling this new mosquito menace. Strategies include: developing effective insecticide treatment strategies, making the female mosquitoes infertile, reducing standing water where mosquitoes breed, and using genetics to understand mosquito population movement. Read more.