Bugs

A member of the UC Davis, Bohart Museum of Entomology, made a visit to the Ulatis Library in Vacaville on Tuesday, March 7^th. We take care of our 3½ year old granddaughter on Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons; so decided this would be an educational event she might enjoy. 

When we show her worms in our compost pile or beetles under rocks in the yard her response is usually “yuck” or “ewwwwww”! She wants to squish all bugs like they are her enemy.  I'm now telling her they are mommy bugs and to treat them kindly as they need to get home to their children. When hearing this, she will let them go and watch as they scurry off. She loves books and movies about parents nurturing their offspring.

When we entered the library, I was surprised to see about 40 children, plus parents gathered around a table with a stack of glass cases and jars of specimen insects.  The children were sitting on the floor in anticipation of what was to come.

The glass cases were shown one by one; the butterflies, the beetles, the walking sticks and praying mantis collections. The children were full of questions and wanted to be heard, three or more talking at the same time. They had personal stories about bugs they had seen or touched at home and at school.  The collection shown of insects from California was interesting as all of them were diminutive and not quite as interesting as the bugs from Africa or Madagascar.

At the end of the presentation, the jars with live insects were opened and the children were allowed to hold cockroaches and walking sticks with support from their parents and the library personnel. A few of them were brave and allowed their “bug” to crawl up their shirt or arm. Often at ease with the bug crawling from their hand up their arm, they became anxious when it continued towards their shoulder or face. As long as they could ‘see' their insect, it was okay.  When it went beyond their field of vision, they wanted the Liberian to remove it and let another child continue with the handling. It was fun to watch as each child participated. My granddaughter was interested in the other children holding the bugs and did not offer up her hand for a bug pathway.

The library was set up for this event with several dozen books placed around the room. There were insect dictionaries to “I love bugs” nooks. It was a high energy; noisy, informative afternoon and everyone had fun!

photos by Sharon Rico

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