The Bug Brotherhood

In a world grown increasingly competitive, it appears that the United States has fallen behind in yet another category--the care and appreciation of insects.

“Insects are a big thing in all the (other) countries of the world,” said Cal Poly Pomona Prof. Dick Kaae. “You go to Europe and there are insect zoos all over the place. You go to Thailand and it’s a part of their culture.”

You can join societies in England to exchange ideas on the care and feeding of exotic insects, he said. And you can even buy packaged food for your pet beetle in Japan.

But in the United States, said Kaae, bugs are seen mainly as something to get rid of: a job for insecticides and exterminators.

So, in a bid to educate people about insects, and to raise some money to send students to Costa Rica to gather exotic varieties, Cal Poly is staging an insect exposition this weekend.

More than 200,000 preserved insects will be on display Saturday and Sunday, along with a host of live specimens from tarantulas to millipedes to walking sticks (insects that look like twigs).

There will be races featuring giant cockroaches that hiss.

There will be jewelry designs that incorporate beetles. And there will be T-shirts that say, “Sex, Bugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

Visitors will see 27 educational and commercial exhibits.

Kaae, a professor of agricultural biology, and his wife, Pat, who conducts programs on insects, reptiles and other wildlife for local schools, will show their large private collection of insects gathered in travels to Costa Rica, Thailand, Malaysia and elsewhere.

The show will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Cal Poly Student Union Multipurpose Room, 3801 W. Temple Ave. Admission is $2 for adults and $1.50 for children.

Pat Kaae said horror movies and other influences have conditioned many people to automatically shudder when they see insects.

But spend a little time looking closely at an insect, both she and her husband say, and what seems at first to be an ugly bug will become a fascinating creature.

Before long, she said, “you get over that horror that you learned” and lose the impulse to “kill everything that crawls.”

A scorpion can sting you, she said, “but they’re not going to track you down and try to get you.”

Once you know about insects, she said, you can go to a park and quietly observe them.

“Just to sit and watch a spider spin a web is enjoyable,” she said of the creatures, which are actually arachnids. “I adore spiders.”