Is There a Doctor in the House?

Apr 20, 2012

Is There a Doctor in the House?

Apr 20, 2012

Is there a doctor in the house?

If you head over to the UC Davis Department of Entomology's displays at Briggs Hall and at the Bohart Museum of Entomology on Saturday, April 21 during the campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day, you'll find them.

Bug doctors. Lots of them. They'll be there from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey will be behind a sign that says "Dr. Death" in Room 122 of Briggs Hall. (Briggs is located off Kleiber Hall Drive.) There you can ask him all kinds of questions about forensic entomology and he'll let you peer through his microscope. Ask him about CSI!

Out in front of Briggs Hall will be a "Bug Doctor" booth where you can "bug" the experts about bugs.  Entomology faculty and graduate students will rotate shifts.

The UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) will have a team of experts at Briggs,  too, to answer all sorts of questions. "We will do our usual display of information and tools for managing pests in homes and gardens," said Mary Louise Flint, the UC IPM's associate director of urban and community IPM and an Extension entomologist with the UC Davis Department of Entomology. "We'll give advice on managing pests with less toxic, environmentally sound IPM methods.  We will have Quick Tips to hand out, people can try out our touch screen IPM kiosk to answer questions and we will also be distributing live lady beetles (aka ladybugs) for children."

Over at the Bohart Museum in Room 1124 of Academic Surge on California Drive, you'll meet the team of bug experts headed by director Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology. You can examine the specimens (there are more than seven million housed in the museum) and they'll even let you hold the critters in their live "petting zoo" which includes Madagascar hissing cockroaches and walking sticks.

Yes, there will be doctors in the house, but you know what? They will be far, far outnumbered by insects.  (See the UC Davis Department of Entomology website for the full list of activities.)