Discovery of the tiny bug world

[Wayne Harrison]

By Deanna Dawson
newsletter@seacoastonline.com

STRATHAM, N.H. -- Something was "bugging" staff and visitors at the Great Bay Discovery Center in Stratham last week.

From mosquitoes to moths the GBDC has been running educational programs all week on our buggy friends. Wednesday night, Dr. Paul Johnson, professor of Natural Resources at UNH with a degree in Entomology brought his small zoo of insects or Arthropods to GBDC for an evening presentation followed by show, touch and tell.

"Every summer we try to do something special with insects," said Sheila Roberge, volunteer coordinator and person in charge of the Wednesday night Bayviews public programs.

Three tables were lined with bugs of all kinds. One table included microscope lenses for viewing the likes of moths and bees that were collected by Beth Heckman, educator for the week's bug programs, and her crew of interested kids. Roberge said the educational programs run each day through bug week were packed and the waiting list was as long as the list of participants.

The other two tables set up in the Hugh Gregg Coastal Conservation Center were for Johnson's zoo of creepy crawlies and were of great interest to the children before and after the presentation. In the cages were a giant African millipede, a rosyhaired tarantula, tropical cave cockroaches, hissing cockroaches, mealworms and milkweed worms.

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