Get a Taste of Honey, Watch the Roach Races, Create Maggot Art at UC Davis Picnic Day

April 15, 2008     What is entomology? (Download PDF, Picnic Day Handout)

Bob Kimsey
Forensic entomologist Bob Kimsey's new head gear. Picnic Day visitors will be able to try on insect hats. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

DAVIS—Visitors attending the Department of Entomology activities in Briggs Hall during the UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday, April 19 can taste honey, build an artificial bee, race a roach and create Maggot Art.

And over at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, 1124 Academic Surge, they can visit the petting zoo, complete with tarantulas, Madagascar hissing cockroaches and about a dozen different kinds of walking sticks, said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and interim chair of the Department of Entomology.

The Bohart Museum, home of more than 7 million insect specimens from throughout the world, will feature special displays of exotic insects for Picnic Day. Staff will on hand to answer questions.

The events take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., said Department of Entomology Picnic Day chairs Bob Kimsey, forensic entomologist, and Tara Thiemann, graduate student in entomology. Briggs visitors can craft origami, buy a “bug” t-shirt, ask questions about insects, and sample honey.

For the honey tasting, each person will be given six flat toothpicks to sample six flavors: California sage, citrus, mesquite, cotton, Nevada rangeland and yellow starthistle.

Mt. Hermon June Beetle“Yellow starthistle was one of the favorites last year, but biocontrol (of the weed) has almost put the yellow starthistle honey out of business,” said Cooperative Extension bee specialist Eric Mussen, who will staff the honey sampling area.

Briggs’ bee displays will include a observation hive and a giant bee suspended from the ceiling. Visitors can craft a paper bee with colorful paper, pipe cleaners, sequins and paste.

Other activities planned at Briggs:

  • Maggot Art, a term trademarked by entomology graduate student Rebecca O’Flaherty. Participants dip a maggot in non-toxic, water-based paint and control its movement across a paper.

  • Cockroach races. Fans pick a winner in a two-cockroach race. If the designated roach wins, the winner collects a prize. Kimsey has obtained “a couple hundred” American cockroaches.

  • Termite trails. Using Bic ink pens, visitors draw lines on paper, and then watch released termites walk only on the lines. “There’s something in this ink that mimics a pheromone,” Thiemann said. A pheromone is a chemical that triggers a natural behavioral response in another member of the same species.

  • Insect images. Visitors can guess which insects (images from scanning electron microscopes) are portrayed on a large poster.

  • Mosquito sounds. While a giant mosquito hangs from the ceiling of 122 Briggs, visitors can listen to the sounds of an Asian tiger mosquito beating its wings 600 times per second. They’ll hear the low pitch (female) and the high pitch (male). “It may not sound like a love song to you but mosquitoes use their wingbeat sounds to attract a mate,” said mosquito researcher Lisa Reimer, graduate student in entomology who set up the display.

  • Insects and human culture. “We’ll have Insects in Human Communication, proverbs and figures of speech involving insects; Insects in Media, on-screen presentations of music inspired by insects; and display items, including insect jewelry, insect dolls and silkworms, as well as insects eaten as food,” said entomology graduate student Yao Hua Law.

    In addition, insect enthusiasts can get their face painted, craft origami, buy “bug” t-shirts, ask questions of the “Bug Doctor” and integrated pest management scientists, and try on insect hats and beekeeping equipment for a “Kodak moment.”

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--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894