Bumblebees pollinate many of our favorite foods, but their own diet is being upset by climate change, according to a new University of California, Riverside study. There’s a sweet spot where the floral nectar bees eat has just the right balance of microbes like bacteria and yeast in it. Hotter weather can upset that balance...
The Entomology Program was awarded a GAANN (Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need) grant by the Department of Education. Funding from this award will be used to recruit and provide fellowships to 6-8 UCR Entomology PhD students per year. PhD applicants for Fall 2022 are strongly encouraged to indicate their interest in being considered...
Bumblebees pollinate many of our favorite foods, but their own diet is being upset by climate change, according to a new UC Riverside study. Bombus impatiens, aka the common eastern bumblebee, served as taste tester for this experiment. There’s a sweet spot where floral nectar that bees eat has just the right balance of microbes...
When I moved to Los Angeles years ago, I was told by native Angeleno friends that the city without humidity also definitely did not have mosquitoes. What is that whizzing sound then? The welts on my ankles? My favorite cafe has taken to selling bottles of insect repellent next to the cash register. Were my...
In less time than it takes to read this sentence, hummingbirds can catch a whiff of potential trouble. That’s the result of new UC Riverside research showing, contrary to popular belief, the tiny birds do have an active sense of smell. Researchers have known for some time that vultures have a highly sensitive sense of...
UC Riverside Professor of Entomology Thomas Perring actively engages the UCCE network in his research and teaching. One example is his work with Area Viticulture/Pest Management Advisor Carmen Gispert to evaluate Pierce’s disease (PD) and sharpshooter vectors in Coachella Valley vineyards. He also exposes undergraduate and graduate students to the work that farm advisors do...
Bumblebee queens start off as solitary insects, looking for a place to nest. After finding a spot, the queen lays eggs and collects food to feed the brood. This continues until the first group of workers hatch and take over the queen’s food gathering and feeding duties. Woodard’s group will do experiments to find out...
If you care about bees... well, let’s be real: If you care about eating (since bees pollinate the plants that produce our food) two new studies underscore two simple things we home gardeners in and around Los Angeles can do to help those busy buzzers live longer, healthier lives: 1. Lace your yard or balcony...
Anew UC Riverside study shows that a type of insecticide made for commercial plant nurseries is harmful to a typical bee even when applied well below the label rate. The study has now been published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences . Chemically similar to nicotine, neonicotinoids are insecticides that...
What can the fruit fly teach us about taste and how chemicals cause our taste buds to recognize sweet, sour, bitter, umami, and salty tastes? Quite a lot, according to University of California, Riverside, researchers who have published a study exploring the insect’s sense of taste. “Insect feeding behavior directly impacts humans in many ways...
The Department of Entomology created a scholarship in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and has named microbiology major Ariana Sanchez its first Inclusivity Scholar. Sanchez became interested in studying bacterial pathogens transmitted by insects because members of her family suffer from chronic illnesses transmitted by fleas and ticks. She will further this interest...
The California Department of Pesticide Regulation has awarded grants to two UCR scientists, Kerry Mauck and Chow-Yang Lee, for innovative research projects to reduce overreliance on pesticides. Excessive pesticide use causes widespread environmental contamination. It can be toxic to other living things, including beneficial insects, wildlife and humans. More than 90 percent of water and...
Releasing hordes of sterilized male insects for unfruitful mating with females—a process known as the sterile insect technique (SIT)—is a proven process for combating many species of pests. Its success depends on sterile males dispersing widely enough to outcompete their wild counterparts and mate with enough females to reduce reproduction of a population. Link to...
The Eastern U.S. is about to see something that hasn't happened since the final episode of Friends aired on NBC: massive swarms of Brood X cicadas. Billions of the red-eyed, black-bodied insects are taking to the skies after 17 years underground, buzzing loudly to attract mates before they die. Not only is the spectacle of...
The Royal Entomological Society has bestowed its Westwood Medal upon entomology professor Christiane Weirauch for her work on true bugs — a group of insect that includes plant attackers and human disease spreaders as well as natural pest controllers. The society, based in the U.K., is one of the oldest and most prominent organizations of...
The UC Riverside Microbiome Initiative and California-based General Automation Lab Technologies, or GALT, have partnered to advance plant pathology, environmental microbiology, and insect and human gut microbiome studies. As part of this collaboration, GALT will support five UC Riverside research projects that will use the company’s Prospector® high-throughput microbial isolation and cultivation system to generate...
If you think blueberries, cherries, or almonds are expensive, wait until you buy cranberries for Thanksgiving this year. They’re about to get much pricier, if you can get them at all. All of them are dependent on pollination by bees, as are about a third of the foods we put in our mouths. If honeybee...
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside are leading a new effort to stop and reverse a worldwide decline in honeybees. To boost dwindling honeybee populations, the University of California’s Office of the President has awarded $900,000 to a four-campus network of bee researchers and engineers. Boris Baer is a professor of entomology at UC...
Late last month, Anne Danielson-Francois, an associate biology professor at the University of Michigan, received an unusual package. She had instructed the sender to make sure the contents — spiders — were cushioned because she did not want their legs to break off. When Dr. Danielson-Francois opened the little brown box, there they were —...
