Annual insect festival grows over the years

By: Edward Humphrys

Posted: 10/8/08

Insect lovers and nature enthusiasts should clear their calendars Thursday, as the graduate students, faculty and staff of the UA Entomology Department are preparing to host the 10th edition of the Arkansas Insect Festival.

The festival, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, at the Pauline Whitaker Animal Science Center.

This year's edition of the festival is to be bigger than ever, with projected attendance to be around 3,000 people, said Donald Steinkraus, UA professor of entomology and founder of the Arkansas Insect Festival.

"In 1993, I started the Insect Festival of Arkansas. There had not been any activity like this in Arkansas before the first festival," Steinkraus said.

"We held our first festival in the Giffels Auditorium in Old Main, and we brought in insects for kids to handle, collections and had films, too.

"The turnout was so amazing that we rapidly outgrew Old Main and went to the Student Union, then Barnhill Arena and, finally, the Pauline Whitaker Arena," Steinkraus said.

"The main motivation was to educate children in a fun way about the importance of insects as pests, as beneficial organisms and their beauty," he said.

The festival is a big undertaking for the entomology department, with everyone from graduate students to staff and faculty lending a hand in curating the festival.

"It is an exciting event and requires quite a few volunteers, about 60 volunteers per festival," Steinkraus said. "We usually have about 15 graduate students, 10 faculty, 10 staff and entomologists from around the state come and participate."

The rotating cast of participants lends certain unpredictability to the content of the festival. But crowd favorites, such as the hissing cockroaches, often make return appearances.

"Each festival has core exhibits and displays and activities, such as the live arthropod/insect zoo, the hissing cockroaches for kids to handle, the Arthropod Museum display boxes and the cockroach races," Steinkraus said. "But some of the other displays change as students and faculty come and go."

This constant influx of new exhibits keeps the Insect Festival fresh and exiting as it continues to grow. Past audience members can never be sure what to expect at the next festival.

"A new display we have is an aquatic insect display by Dr. Scott Longing, an expert on aquatic insects," Steinkraus said. "One year we had a graduate student who had pet hedgehogs and we used them as examples of insectivores.

"A very important relatively recent display is the 'cotton patch' run by Dr. Tina Teague. We make a cotton patch where kids can harvest some cotton, see it ginned, learn about cotton production and insect pests," he said.

The exploratory nature of the festival has historically been a huge success with children, something Steinkraus admits with enthusiasm.

"Children are the primary audience because they are still open to new experiences," Steinkraus said. "Most young children are still fascinated by nature and insects. We want to encourage them in this and hope it will be a lifelong interest, even in some cases, leading to becoming a biologist or entomologist.

"I think it is very important for children to be exposed to entomology, to science, and to biology," Steinkraus said. "I hope that they will learn that insects are worthy of respect, study and that a lifetime is too short to know everything about insects. I want them to leave thinking that insects are 'cool.'"

Though children often turn out in larger numbers than UA students, Steinkraus said there will be plenty to hold the attention of older attendees.

"Students can, first of all, expect to have a good time," he said. "It is a festive event and there are lots of fascinating insects to look at, from beautiful butterflies and moths to jewel-like beetles.

"Second, they can expect to learn about the importance of insects in everyone's life. If it weren't for pollinators, we would have very few fruits, vegetables and nuts. If it wasn't for insects we would have very few birds, bats and freshwater fish." he said.

More information about the festival, as well as directions, can be found at the Arkansas Insect Festival Web site at http://entomology.uark.edu/festival.