Annual insect festival grows over the years
Edward Humphrys
Issue date: 10/8/08 Section: News
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."
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."
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