Brilliant Bug Clubbers!

At the AES Annual Exhibition and Trade Show you can see the AES Bug Club exhibits. These are exhibits put forward by children aged between 5 and 16 who are members of the Bug Club www.amentsoc.org/bug-club/. I was seriously impressed with the standard of presentation this year. These are children who simply have a interest in invertebrates but are willing to share that with others. One very young lad bought his bug collection with plastic models, toys and real specimens. He was full of enthusiasm and had travelled a long way in a car without air conditioning. Not that hard in October you might think but the temperature got up to a seriously sticky 28C. He was undaunted and smiled all day, charming the young and old. Another pair decided to teach the art of pinning as part of their exhibit. Always a popular activity with children, they had plenty of interest and I must say I have learnt a great deal from this particular young girl over the years. Her passion is cockroaches and she is extremely knowledgeable on the subject. Never under estimate the abilities of children no matter their size or age! Another lad displayed his research on ants and accompanied it with exquisite watercolours he had done. The well deserved overall winner was a real entomologist in the making. Almost to the point of obsession, this boy knows his plasmids, (stick insects) and the detail his observations went into was second to none. A really superb piece of work entirely by his own hand. My two entered their own exhibits, my youngest on the joys of bug hunting and my eldest on the Silk Moth Bombyx mori. Both had worked hard and my youngest son is painfully shy so it was a real delight to see him chatting about his exhibit to the public and to the judges. Well done to all that entered and well done to the Bug Club for enabling them to do it in the first place!