Icon Legend

This session is not in your schedule.

This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Presentation Icons

In-Person

On-Demand

Student Competition

Poster

Ticketed Event

Back

41 Views

ViewAttendees 2

10-Minute Paper

Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity

Formal and Informal Teaching

SysEB: Education and Outreach, Behavior, and Pollinators

Engaging youth and the public with live arthropods: Challenges and conquering them

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

2:18 PM – 2:30 PM ET

Location: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Azalea 2

Presenting Author(s)

HJ

Harry Jones

Laboratory Technician
Mississippi State University
Starkville, Mississippi

Co-Author(s)

Beverly Keasler

Outreach Coordinator
Mississippi State University
Starkville, Mississippi
JS

Jennifer Seltzer

MIssissippi State University
Starkville, Mississippi
JH

JoVonn Hill

Mississippi Entomological Museum
Mississippi State, Mississippi

Mississippi Bug Blues is an outreach program of the Mississippi Entomological Museum, founded in 2012 and emphasizing invasive species awareness and native biodiversity. Since its inception, Bug Blues has continued to expand its methods to help engage the public in entomological curiosity and conservation. One of the most effective methods towards this goal is the development and growth of the Bug Blues Zoo, housing and rearing arthropods for outreach use. Interaction with live insects and arthropods has a significant difference in the level of engagement, and sometimes the level of fear, is magnified strongly. Over the last several years, our outreach team has had hundreds of contact hours using isopods, tarantulas, whip scorpions, scorpions, cockroaches, walkingsticks, assassin bugs, grasshoppers, and others. In this paper, Bug Blues will share experiences in the curation and effective use of live arthropods in outreach including success stories and room for improvement.