Picnic Day: Bohart Museum Display Moves to Briggs Hall
Bohart Theme: 'Bond with the Bohart at Briggs'
All UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology displays and activities at the 110th annual UC Davis Picnic Day, set Saturday, April 20, will be in and around Briggs Hall. This includes the Bohart Museum of Entomology displays.
The Bohart Museum is planning a pop-up tent just outside of Briggs Hall, announced Professor Jason Bond, director of the Bohart, and Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator. The Academic Surge Building, home of the Bohart Museum, will be closed to the public that day.
"The Picnic Day Committee has just approved our application to do a pop-up tent over at Briggs for this Picnic Day," Yang related. "We will be outside but against the building next to the underground bike parking. We will be alongside the rest of the department.Since we are reimagining our volunteer program and the Entomology Club is committed to the parade and the graduate students to Briggs, it seemed prudent to keep it sustainable, so we will have a couple of tables that can be managed by 2-6 people, like we would at any festival."
Theme of the Bohart display features the alliteration, "Bond with the Bohart at Briggs!"
Professor Bond, who succeeds UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey as the director, is the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He also serves as president-elect of the American Arachnological Society.
The Bohart Museum, the seventh largest insect collection in North America, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. Plus, it features a live "petting zoo" of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects (walking sticks), tarantulas and others; and an insect-themed gift shop. It is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane.
On April 20, Picnic Day signs in front of the Bohart Museum will direct visitors to Briggs.
Traditional entomological displays at Briggs Hall include "The Bug Doctor," with graduate students answering questions about insects; "Dr. Death" booth, staffed by forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey; cockroach races (pick an "athletic roach" and cheer to the finish line); maggot art (dip a maggot in water-based, non-toxic paint and let it crawl or guide it on a piece of white paper); T-shirt sales by the Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA); ant, bark beetle and honey bee displays; fly-tying demonstration by Fly Tyers of Davis; mosquito control information provided by the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District; and a display by the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management (UC IPM).
Co-chairs of the 2024 Picnic Day for the Department of Entomology and Nematology are forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey, representing the faculty; and doctoral student Grace Horne of the Emily Meineke laboratory, representing EGSA.