Iowa State to shutter Insect Zoo that taught kids to love bugs, not squish them
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Kids examining bugs from the Insect Zoo. Photo: Courtesy of Ginny Mitchell
Iowa State University's Insect Zoo is set to close this summer, ending a program that encouraged Iowans to be curious about rather than scared of bugs.
Why it matters: The hands-on program that brought live arthropods to schools, fairs and libraries across the state taught students about the importance of insects in our ecosystem, program coordinator Ginny Mitchell tells Axios.
Driving the news: ISU's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, which helped fund the Insect Zoo, decided to close the program after it examined the program's budget and decided it was no longer viable, according to a statement sent to Axios from ISU.
- The college is working to rehome the insects.
What they're saying: "The more compassion that we can show towards these little things, it's also going to lead to more compassion towards humans," Mitchell says about the importance of the zoo. "It's all interconnected."
State of play: For the last 13 years, Mitchell has helped lead the program, inviting kids to get hands-on experiences with animals, including tarantulas, beetles, scorpions and millipedes.
- The zoo is home to 175 arthropod species, including 100 animals confiscated by U.S. Fish & Wildlife, like these baby tarantulas.
- The program survives largely on small fees paid from schools and events, which were kept low to ensure rural areas could afford programming as well, Mitchell says.
- The zoo also offers sensory-friendly tours for children with autism and others with sensory sensitivities.
Zoom in: The program itself costs around $75,000 annually to operate, but it has suffered from a deficit, which worsened when the pandemic hit and organizations were not paying to have the zoo travel to them, Mitchell says.
- Mitchell says she's long wanted outside donors, sponsors or an endowment to help fund the zoo. In her staff role, she's not allowed to fundraise, she says.
What's next: Justine Bailey, a mother who started a petition to save the program, says her two kids first experienced the Insect Zoo over a decade ago at the South Side Library.
- The hands-on exhibit encouraged their love for science, which they're now studying in college.
- "There are sports camps and youth soccer leagues and baseball and softball and football coming out of our ears, but my poor little nerdy, science-loving kids did not have that much available to them," Bailey says.
The bottom line: "These children are the ones who are going to grow up and do the things for our planet, for our Earth, for our society that need to be done," Mitchell says.
- "And if they don't have these types of experiences to bring them close to nature ... how are they ever going to care about it?"