Keith Gerber started breeding maggots a week ago to prepare for the BugFest. He hopes to have a couple hundred ready for maggot art.
The 20-year-old UF entomology sophomore and president of UF’s entomology club was preparing for today’s free open house hosted by the entomology department from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Steinmetz Hall, 970 Natural Area Drive.
The first 400 people will receive free pizza and tickets to the Butterfly Rainforest at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
For maggot art, people will dip maggots in paint and put them on paper to trace their paths.
There will also be cockroach races and cricket-spitting, a competition to see who can spit a cricket the farthest.
Gerber said the idea of BugFest is to recruit high school and college students to the entomology department.
This year, BugFest will be seminar-style, with presentations every 10-15 minutes.
“Insects are a daily part of your life, no matter what you try to do about it,” Gerber said.
The entomology club’s secretary, Jade Hilliard, said the highlight of this year’s Mardi Gras-themed event will be the arthropod petting zoo, which will consist of a tarantula, a scorpion, Madagascar hissing roaches, crickets and a giant African millipede.
“This year, we’ve actually gotten a lot of insects instead of just our typical tarantulas or roaches,” said the 21-year-old entomology senior. “Now we have mantis and beetles and things like that, so we’ve expanded our little zoo.”
