The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science held its annual BugFest Sept. 21.
From 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., attendees explored a variety of demonstrations and booths sponsored by local organizations. BugFest offered many opportunities for people of all ages and a personable experience for all visitors, despite the large size of the event.
Many of the booths were run by groups that came from NC State. The Insect Zoo, which was run by the NC State University Entomology Graduate Student Association, was one of the more popular booths at this year’s event, along with the Honey Bee Lab run by NC State.
In addition, NC State University Department of Mathematics and Center for Research in Scientific Computation co-hosted the “Math Doesn’t Bug Me” booth. Lorena Bociu, an associate professor of mathematics at NC State, said the goal of the booth was “to show the beauty and fun and usefulness of mathematics to children of all ages.”
There were also NC State students who enjoyed the event as attendees. Chris Hoppe, a fourth-year studying aerospace engineering, went to the event for the first time and said he was looking forward to eating the bugs.
The volunteers got their share of fun as well. Ken Ahlstrom, a volunteer for Bugfest, worked the “Stump the Experts” booth, presented by NC State’s Department of Entomology . Here, people were able to ask Ahlstrom an insect-themed question. If they could stump him, they got their name written in the “Hall of Fame.”
Ahlstrom has been coming to BugFest since its first year and has worked “Stump the Experts” for 18 years. He said one of his favorite parts was meeting the interesting people that came to his booth.
Kari Wouk, senior manager of educational collaborations for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, helped organize the event and also loves the visitors that come to BugFest each year.
“My favorite part of BugFest is watching the visitors interact with all the different exhibits,” Wouk said. “I also love seeing how our visitors come dressed in their bug clothes and how everyone just comes here to celebrate bugs. It’s a wonderful thing.”
Wouk continued to talk about what makes BugFest such a unique event at the North Carolina Museum of Natural History.
“We really focus on education,” Wouk said. “It’s all education and conservation.”
The goal of this year’s event was to educate the public on the importance of the theme bug: the beetle. There was a large wall in the front entrance of the building where people wrote ways they will actively help conserve this large animal group.
“My goal this year is to really talk about arthropod conservation and conservation in general,” Wouk said. “We are currently facing a global insect collapse, and so we want people to understand how valuable insects and arthropods are.”
Austin Rose, a fourth-year studying fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology at NC State and worker for the NC State Honey Bee Lab, said education is important to this effort.
“When the public gets a greater exposure to our six-legged friends, then they fear them less and they understand their benefits more,” Rose said.
Bugfest is an annual event that is hosted every year at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science. For information on past events and updates about next year visit https://naturalsciences.org/calendar/bugfest/.
BugFest is an annual event that attracts over 30,000 people each year to experience and learn from over 100 exhibits, crafts, and bug-related activities. The theme of BugFest 2019 is beetles, and visitors can explore the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences to learn more about these interesting creatures. Photo above of caterpillar species, Danaus plexippus, was taken on September 21, 2019.
