About 125 kids attended the Iowa State University Insect Zoo at the Greene County Elementary School gym Thursday.

ISU Entomologists Lauren Brewer and Matthew Pfab talked about how bugs and insects are really good for the environment. They also went through the lifecycle and different parts of insects, and showed how some of them behave and use their abilities to defend themselves. Brewer talked about why she wanted to be involved with the Insect Zoo.

“I’ve always been interested in animals, insects included. Well actually I heard about the Insect Zoo first from one of my classmates (who) joined the Insect Zoo and she was like talking about it. And I would see all these pictures of all the cool insects and I was like ‘Man I want to do that.’ When I saw an opening for a position, I was like ‘I gotta hop on that.’”       

After the initial presentation, the kids got to be up close and personal with some of the insects. Some of the insects kids got to touch were beetles, worms and even a tarantula. First grader Delaney Pedersen describes her favorite part of the event.

“Touching the big tarantula. I like spiders. It was cool.”

The Insect Zoo also visited the Grand Junction and Rippey libraries the same day. The Insect Zoo went to all six libraries, having visited Scranton, Churdan and Paton earlier this month. It was made possible by the Greene County Libraries Association and the Greene County Board of Supervisors.