All About Insects stall at the Really Wild Festival

August 2008: All About Insects stall at the Really Wild Festival 30th-31st August 2008:

I had a display at the fabulous two-day Really Wild Festival in St Davids. The stall had information about beneficial insects in garden and farm as well as insect trinkets to buy, general information and live insects. These included a tank of dock beetles, munching happily on a dock plant, which really showed the potential of these beetles in controlling this problematic weed. Also on the stand were bloody-nosed beetles (great for kids to handle) and a tank containing two dor beetles, alternating layers of sand and soil, topped with dung, showing how these beetles bury dung.

A pair of hercules beetles and a large goliath beetle (confusingly named 'Hercules') really drew in the crowds. The stand was packed with interested youngsters and adults on both days. The edible cheese and onion flavoured grubs, barbequed crunchy crickets and scorpion lollipops definately provoked some interesting reactions, and surprisingly sold out on the first day!

The display

I was lucky to have some very willing helpers whose parents had other stalls at the event.  They visited the stall frequently to hold the bloody-nosed beetles, munch on the crunchy crickets and bring over any creepy-crawly they came across in the grounds for an on-the-spot i.d.

Some of my loyal supporters handling the bloody-nosed beetles!

I was also presented with a small elephant hawkmoth caterpillar, found by Gareth Davies in Solva. The caterpillar apparently had a death wish as it had taken up residence in the middle of his driveway! He had thrown it into the garden several times, but it always re-appeared the next day! The caterpillar has now turned into a chrysalis and is happily hibernating in my garage to hopefully emerge resplendently in the spring.

Eating one of the crunchy crickets!

I'm already planning next year's event and increasing my collection of pet invertebrates so that next year's display will hold more feasts for the eyes (as well as the taste-buds)!

Really Wild Festival photo gallery

Please click on the thumbnails to view the full-sized images.