Schedule for Summer 2004

Last Fall and Early Winter Programs   

Last Summer's Programs 

Frequently Asked Questions

Bugs / Bug Finders

Children who came to Bug Finders hunted for (plastic) bugs in the Great Outdoors exhibit, caught some live soil bugs, and got ideas for collecting bugs at home. Activities  Learn more about it

Activities

Activities took place in the Great Outdoors and in the well-lit area adjacent to this exhibit.  They included:

• Go on an imaginary night hike in the Great Outdoors to observe and capture, keep, and then release plastic bugs (variations for 2 yrs and up).  Learn more
    
• Hunt for live bugs in soil and rotting logs (best for ages 6 and up).  Learn more
    
• Look at plastic jars with live bugs (all ages).  Learn more
    
• Get some age-appropriate ideas for making and storing your dead bug collections (ages 3 and up).   Learn more

Learn More About It

  
   Hunt for Plastic Bugs

When you come to Bug Finders, you can hunt for dragonflies by the imaginary pond, search for cicadas on the tree house, and capture butterflies on the flowery rug.      They're only plastic bugs, but it's still fun to catch them with a net, put them in a jar, and then let them go again.

EnchantedLearning.com is a great place for kids to get basic information about where insects live:
   < http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/insects/printouts.shtml >

The sections lower on the page include direct links to pages about specific kinds of bugs you can see at Bug Finders.

   Bugs in Rotten Logs and Soil

To catch some real live bugs, stop by the table with boxes of soil and rotting logs.  You'll help us find ground beetles, millipedes, pill bugs, slugs, earthworms, and many other tiny creatures. We'll catch them, watch them for a minute or two, and then put them back where they belong, in the moist soil.

Here are links to Web pages about some animals that live in rotten logs and soil:

   Sow Bugs and Pill Bugs
   < http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/CritterFiles/casefile/relatives/sowbugs/sowbug.htm >
   < http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/invertebrates/isopod/Pillbugprintout.shtml >

   Millipedes
   < http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/invertebrates/arthropod/Millipede.shtml >
   < http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/CritterFiles/casefile/relatives/millipedes/millipede.htm >

   Centipedes
   < http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/invertebrates/arthropod/Centipede.shtml >
   < http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/CritterFiles/casefile/relatives/centipedes/centipede.htm >

   Ground Beetles
   < http://www.pma.edmonton.ab.ca/natural/insects/projects/ground.htm >

   Fireflies
   < http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/insects/beetles/Fireflyprintout.shtml >

   Slugs
   < http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/invertebrates/mollusk/gastropod/Slugprintout.shtml > 

   Earthworms
   < http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/invertebrates/earthworm/Earthwormcoloring.shtml >

   Live Bugs in Jars

With some bugs, it's better to just watch -- catching them might hurt them, or hurt you, or they move so fast they might get away! During the June sessions of Bug Finders, our plastic jars were homes to crickets, meal worms, baby dragonflies, a water scorpion, and a mother wolf spider, who carried her eggs in a round, white bag.  We even had some baby mosquitoes -- scientists call them larvae (LAR-vee) -- swimming in water from a backyard pool. In July and August, we'll probably have some other types of bugs in our jars.

Here are links to more information about the insects we displayed in late June:

Mealworms
   < http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/insects/beetles/mealworm/ >
   < http://insected.arizona.edu/mealinfo.htm >

Crickets
   < http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/insects/orthoptera/Cricket.shtml >
   < http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/CritterFiles/casefile/insects/crickets/crickets.htm >

Water Scorpions
   < http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/eek/critter/watercritter/scorpion.htm >
   < http://www.bugsurvey.nsw.gov.au/html/popups/bpedia_18_tol_wa-sc.html >

Dragonflies
   < http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/insects/dragonfly/Dragonflyprintout.shtml >
   < http://www.state.ky.us/nrepc/water/dragfly.htm >
   < http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/CritterFiles/casefile/insects/dragonflies/dragonflies.htm >

Mosquitoes
   < http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/insects/mosquito/lifecycle.shtml >

Wolf Spider
   < http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/CritterFiles/casefile/spiders/wolf/wolf.htm >

For more information about other kinds of pond animals, go here:
   < http://www.saltthesandbox.org/campfire/PondAnimals.htm >

   Collecting Bugs

What do you do with a dead bug?  In our family, we save them in cardboard boxes.  You'll see examples at Bug Finders this summer. Sometimes we put dead bugs in empty jewelry boxes.  Many bugs do well in boxes with cotton on the bottom and a clear plastic lid on top.  Now that Ethan is 8 years old, he's started pinning his insects with special pins, and then sticking the pins into styrofoam fitted in the bottom of a shoebox.

Go here to see how we stored Ethan's dead bug collections at various ages:
   < http://saltthesandbox.org/cicada_hunt/YouCanDo.htm#CollectDeadCicadas >

Here's a link to a list of Web sites about insect collecting:
   < http://saltthesandbox.org/cicada_hunt/StoringCollections.htm#CollectingInsects >