‘Ant’ chiladas, Wax worm Quiche, Stir-fried Cantonese Crickets, Three-bugsalad and Hush Grubbies: all part of the food served to hungryvisitors to North Carolina Natural Science Museum.

var uslide_show_id = “a24a7364-7a98-4b9e-b5e2-efae265983b3”;var slideshowwidth = “468”;var linktext = “”;

A father takes a bite out of a fried cricket as his young daughter looks on, squealing with a mixture of revulsion and delight. Nearby, a group of middle school-age boys eat ‘ant’ chiladas and cricket stir-fry with glee. A mother, to her children’s apparent delight, slurps down green bug Jell-O.

It’s the 10th Annual Bugfest, and insects are not only on the menu, theyare also the stars. A museum employee walks around in a cockroach suit — complete with antennae — acquainting himself with the crowd. On the event’stemporary stage is the main attraction, the Alberti Flea Circus, featuringEllie the flea, the circus’ main performer. Ellie does stunts like the highjump, jumping off a small platform and landing with a visible splash ina can of water.

The event, held on Saturday, was both fun and informative, and there was something for everyone. The crowd was a diverse mix of young and old; families as well as college students, and Wolfpack red was worn by students and fans alike.

Patrick McElroy, a sophomore in communication, said it was the perfectevent to gather information for a portfolio for one of his classes, ENT201: Insects and People.

University students made up a portion of thecrowd, and they were also part of the staff.

John Walters, a graduate student in middle grade education, ran the ant race — a game in which the participants, kids of all ages, must work together to carry a large cardboard tube on a short path.

“Come on,” Walters said to a elementary age boy and his younger sister as they struggled through the race. “Entropy, second law of thermodynamics.”

Margaret Shearin, another Bugfest volunteer, and a senior double majoring in zoology and botany, was able to participate in the event because she was an intern at the museum last summer. The museum staff works most of the year preparing for Bugfest, Shearin said.

Another one of the activities was a “Get’er Dung” race in which participantsroll large blowup balls, sometimes bigger than they are, painted tolook like animal dung, and race the balls on the grass outside the museum.

Not all of the exhibits were games and entertainment, however. A stormwater and pollution display was set up to educate passers-by aboutsources of water pollution, as well as ways to reduce this pollution.

On display at another exhibit were fragrant fennel plants covered with caterpillars. Fennel is a host plant of the caterpillars — future Black Swallowtail Butterflies. They were put on display by the Master Gardener Volunteers, a group that attends civic events to teach people about gardening and nature. Volunteer Jane Arey said the exhibit was set up to demonstrate the importance of these host plants to the butterflies. The Monarch Butterfly is one animal which is suffering due to the destruction of it’s host plant, Milkweed, accoriding to Arey.

Through all the different exhibits and activities, Bugfest allowed visitorsto get intimate with the earths most diverse form of life: insects.