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Event offers insect-themed activities
Visitors got up close with bugs through bingo, puppets, exhibits, stories and more.
CANFIELD — Sporting washable insect tattoos and carrying pompom caterpillars they’d just made, Lily and Emily Hawkins announced they like bugs.
“I always say they should have been boys because they love bugs, so this is something they’ve been looking forward to,” said Kim Patton, their mother.
The 9-year-old Columbiana twins and their mother were among the many visitors Sunday at Mill Creek MetroParks’ Bug Day.
The event has been at MetroParks Farm every other year since 1992, said Ray Novotny, a Mill Creek MetroParks naturalist. It alternates with the parks’ reptile/raptor show.
Kids are fascinated with bugs, Novotny said, but at the same time they are often afraid of them because of the problems they can cause.
“So, since bugs are all over and kids like them and fear them, [Bug Day is] just a way to kind of embrace bugs and learn more about them,” he said.
“I enjoy looking at the bugs,” Patton said.
She didn’t like the cockroaches though, her daughters pointed out.
But Andy Beichner, 7, said the cockroaches were his favorite. His sister, 4-year-old Lainey, liked the scorpions best.
“We’ve done the honey harvest and the microbugs [activities], and we did the bug exhibit,” said Linda Beichner of Boardman. “We’re having a great time. We can’t wait to go play bug bingo.”
This was the first time the Beichner family attended Bug Day.
Children in strollers, toddlers, older kids and parents lined up to view preserved and live bug exhibits, play bug bingo, make bug crafts, play with bug puppets and hear bug stories, among other insect-themed activities.
“I volunteered when I was in high school,” said Elizabeth Crowther of Boardman. “And [participants] always seemed to have so much fun and they had really nice organized activities for the kids.”
This time around, Crowther attended the event with her young family.
“It sounded like a good activity for the kids, and my son is really into bugs,” Jeff Crowther said. “So we wanted to come out and play some of the games.”
Japanese beetles are his favorite bug, 4-year-old Jonas said.
“There are a lot of them,” he said. “They’re eating our plants.”
“Insects are the largest group of animals on the face of the Earth,” said Jim Smolka, a Hinckley, Ohio, entomologist.
Learning about bugs, through activities like those at Bug Day, is important, he said.
“They are the most abundant animal on Earth and they are affected in so many ways,” Smolka said. “A lot of species are unfortunately being lost because of our activities.”