If You're Scared of Bugs, Don't Watch This
Oct. 30, 2014 - In the Insect Zoo at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, visitors can see all sorts of creepy, crawly insects up close. But behind the scenes, entomologists care for a plethora of insects, including giant cockroaches, tarantulas, and even a giant 300-legged millipede.
Transcript
DAN BABBITT, MANAGER – INSECT ZOO AND BUTTERFLY PAVILION,
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION:
INTERVIEW: We are in the laboratory of the Insect Zoo and
Butterfly Pavilion. This is a
containment facility for our live exhibits.
[Madagascar cockroaches hissing]
Dan SOT: Can you hear them hissing?
Dan SOT: They have really meaty claws full of muscle. They can use that to grab anything smaller
than them. So we feed them crickets.
INTERVIEW: We have over 30 million specimens in our research
collection. We show arachnids which
includes spiders, millipedes, centipedes, crustaceans and then insects.
INTERVIEW: We have insect from all parts of the world.
Dan SOT: These guys have a chemical defense. They can spray cyanide. Not enough to injure us, but it can chemically
stain my hands. So I might at the end of
this have yellow marks on hand that won’t come off for a while for a days or
so.
INTERVIEW: I mean, it’s a natural history museum so most
people here are really into all animals.
But not everybody likes spiders.
Spiders and roaches are a hard sell
INTERVIEW: One that pops up a lot–it is such a gorgeous
insect–is our phyllium, which is a
walking leaf. It’s a master of mimicry
and it looks just like a leaf. And so it
always shocks people when you hold it and then once it moves people’s minds
blow up. Anytime I can make that happen
makes me happy about the bug!
The giant walking sticks from Australia. They’re a big bug. And they look like dead leaves or dead
bark. Some can have little parts sticking
off from them. They look like lichen
coming off their body. So they’re
amazing mimics.
We’ve found in learning over the years in working with the
visitors and working with live insects, it’s an amazing way to connect with
people. Especially when we have our
volunteers out and people get to hold an insect. Everybody has a bug story. So we’ve found it makes for a great
discussion in getting people engaged in our material and the exhibit and things
we are passionate about.
