This August you and your family can do bug yoga, visit a bug clinic and race a cockroach at the Academy of Natural Sciences’ Bug Fest — to be held Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9.
Hundreds of live beetles, millipedes, centipedes, scorpions, stick insects, cockroaches, caterpillars, tarantulas, spiders, and more will be wiggling throughout the museum during the annual family festival. New bug chef David George Gordon, author of the popular The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook, will prepare some of his favorite recipes incorporating scorpions and crickets and offer samples to the brave, or the merely curious.
In a nod to the July release of Ant-Man, the superhero film based on Marvel Comics characters, there will be plenty of live ants to observe plus a special display of ant specimens from the museum’s collection of some four million insects. There will be opportunities to touch live bugs and search for bedbugs (they won’t be alive!) too.
“This year in our presentations we’re highlighting the creepy, crawly, prickly, wiggly aspects of bugs to carry on the theme of our exhibit Animal Grossology, which is on view through August 30,” said Bug Fest coordinator Karen Verderame. “You can even get a close up look at real bug vomit, poop and slime.”
Visitors who come dressed as their favorite bug will get $2 off admission.
Also during both days at Bug Fest visitors can:
- Watch Celebrity Bug Chef David George Gordon cook tasty insect treats (1 p.m. show) and meet him in person from 11 a.m. to noon and from 3–5 p.m. Sample some of his buggy treats while supplies last.
- Practice yoga stretches and poses like a stick insect, grasshopper and mantid.
- Take a walk on the wild side of Logan Square with Academy entomologists to look for what insect species live there.
- Visit a bug clinic to find out how bugs might help or hurt your health.
- Talk with entomologists and see insects from all over the world.
- Watch cockroaches and maggots create artworks as they scurry through trails of vibrant paint.
- Search for lice and find out why they like hair so much.
- Touch real maggots and discover why they might fill in for bandages.
- Enjoy stage shows featuring live insects magnified.
- Cheer your favorite cockroach to the finish line in the Roach Race 500.
- Meet a bedbug sniffing dog and learn how dogs do their job with Western Pest Management.
For more information, visit ansp.org/bugfest.
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