VT Entomology Department will be at Kids' Tech University on March 28th!

Exhibit title- CREEPY, CRAWLIES OR JUST MISUNDERSTOOD?

Why do insects creep us out so much? Could it be because they have so many legs? Maybe it’s because we don’t fully understand them. There is a common misconception that anything with more than four legs is an insect. Insects only have six legs, three body parts, two antennae, and wear their skeletons on the outside. This means everything else with more than six legs is technically not an insect. There are all kinds of insects: harmless and harmful, beneficial and destructive, abundant and endangered. Did you know insects live in water too? Research within the VT Entomology Department matches the diversity one finds in the insect world. We explore chemical and molecular tools for controlling insects that cause damage in urban environments and agricultural crops along with carriers of diseases harmful to humans and animals. We promote beneficial insects such as pollinators, also predators and parasitoids, which are used to control damaging insect pests or invasive weeds to reduce the use of pesticides. Other research utilizes insects to monitor environmental health of individual streams and watersheds to ecological diversity within terrestrial habitats. The exhibit provides mounted insect displays and hands-on activities.