Backyard Orchard News
A Bugworthy Kind of Christmas
It's a bugworthy kind of Christmas. Remember the iconic song, "The 12 Days of Christmas," ...
The "Bugworthy" version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" includes a golden bee--actually five golden bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Yes, an Insect Museum Can Have Mounted Heads, Too!
When you enter the Bohart Museum of Entomology, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge...
Wade Spencer, a UC Davis entomology major who works at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, stands next to the mounted heads of rhino beetles. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Wade Spencer (left) and Parras McGrath of the Bohart Museum hold a mounted rhino beetle head next to a mounted deer head. Spencer is a UC Davis entomology major, and McGrath is a high school student (The Met, Sacramento) who also helps out at the Bohart. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of the head of a mounted male rhino beetle. Bohart Museum associate Greg Kareofelas cut the board from Sika spruce, using the Shield pattern (used to mount game heads). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Gifts to Bohart Museum of Entomology
Folks are asking how to donate to the Bohart Museum of Entomology, the world-renowned insect museum...
A walking stick in the live "petting zoo" at the Bohart Museum of Entomology changes hands. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator, interacts with visitors.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Crowds fill the open houses at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Weekend open houses take place throughout the year. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Degree Day Units are Finally Leveling Off
As the graph shows, degree day unit accumulations for California red scale were not quite as bad this year as the previous two years, but were still well above the 30 year average. Which explains why California red scale is so difficult to control lately - an extra generation! If we get prolonged cold this winter and average daily temperatures (max + min divided by two) stay below the scale's developmental threshold of 53oF, then two things will happen: 1) the scales will stop developing until the weather warms in March, and 2) younger instars will experience overwintering mortality, leaving mostly adult females and males. A synchronized scale population is easier to control with insecticides, because crawler emergence occurs over a short period of time in the spring and summer and crawlers are the easiest stage to kill with insecticides.
Targeting Cystic Fibrosis
A UC Davis entomologist who started his career studying insects--and is now focused on human...
UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock, whose research went from insects to human health, is shown here in his office in Briggs Hall. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis researchers Jun Yang (left) and Christophe Morisseau of the Hammock lab. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)