Bugs

It has been a couple months since we have gone down to the Nature and Science Museum and it felt great to be back! They had a great “Bugs” exhibit and we LOVED it. Mark said he thought it was maybe the best traveling exhibit we have seen. And I would have to agree. It was the perfect mix of information, hands on, and so visually appealing! We had a great time!

The highlight was definitely these large displays that you would walk through spotlighting a specific “bug” and its defensive special power. It was fascinating and so well done!

Orchid Mantis

The orchid mantis was frightfully beautiful! It’s super power: DISPLAY! She is so beautiful she looks like a flower and uses her bright color to attract flying bugs and then snatches them from the air at lightning speed.

They had this great activity (a slightly elevated version of “Whack-a-Mole”) to test your speed compared to an orchid mantis. Let’s just say it brought out the competitive side in all of us!

Dragonfly

The dragonfly’s super power: FLIGHT! This bug has a 95% strike rate while he is hunting! It controls each of it’s four wings separately which makes it very agile and uses it’s complex eyes and fast working brain to ambush bugs in the air.

Jewel Wasp

This bug was just disturbing! Yikes! Chills down your spine kind of stuff. It’s super power: VENOM! It is the brain surgeon of the bug world and turns cockroaches into zombies to feed their kids. WHAT?! They inject a special venom with their stinger and then brings the zombie cockroach to become food for her children (that they eat from the inside out!).

Japanese Bees

The Japanese Bees super power: SWARM! To defeat giant hornet invaders, the Japanese bees send chemical signals to one another to join together to rapidly move their wing muscles and generate enough heat to “cook” the hornet. Now that’s team work!

Bombardier Beetle

This beetle’s special power: EXOSKELETON! This bug has it’s own combustion chamber where it can instantly mix explosive chemicals and fire this boiling hot spray out it’s backside to it’s enemies. It protects itself with a very tough exoskeleton! Crazy.

We had such a great time! 100% recommend this exhibit!