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Mention "bugs" in any classroom and you're bound to gain the instant attention of your students. Because of the incredible way insects have woven their way into just about every subject of human study, insect-related curriculum represents a wealth of subjects to motivate and inspire students of all ages. Insects are everywhere!! Insects are often encountered, at least with a little searching, in homes, yards, around building foundations, basements, crawl spaces, flower or vegetable gardens that are NOT heavily sprayed with pesticides, around lights at night, near streams and lakes, abandoned fields, parks, and forests. Dead insects in reasonable condition (for collections) can often be found on windowsills, car grilles, roadsides and walking paths. Some insects are very sedentary and are easy to catch with a pair of tweezers. Others fly, some pretty slowly and others (like dragonflies) are FAST! Catching insects takes some practice. It is best not to catch dangerous insects such as bees and wasps at first. Collectors may want to keep an observation notebook to help them keep track of their expeditions. It is a good idea to make labels for insects that include collection date, location and habitat, as well as the collector's name. One optional honor requirement (and I think a really fun one) is to collect and mount 20 insects. Here are some tools that will help make the collecting easier. INSECT COLLECTING TOOLS Tweezers or forceps, to pick up insects 35mm film canisters, to hold small insects Killing jars, made from peanut butter jars with nail polish remover or alcohol on an absorbent material such as cotton balls or newspaper. Place a crumpled piece of tissue paper in the jar, to give insects a place to 'hide' so they don't beat themselves up trying to escape. Write 'POISON' on the outside of the jar, so the contents are not mistaken. Colanders can be used for aquatic collection, to 'scoop' out insects at the water's surface or underwater at the edge of a stream or lake. Aquatic insects include water striders, whirlygig beetles, backswimmers, diving beetles, immature mosquitoes, immature dragonflies, and giant water bugs (many of these bugs can bite!). Sweep nets are used for sweeping the grass of meadows and abandoned fields, as well as catching insects in bushes and up in trees. Because they are made of solid material, sweep nets won't snag like butterfly netting. Unwind a wire coat hanger (or No. 9 wire), bend the wire in the form of a round loop, and thread the wire through the casing of an old pillowcase. Tape the ends of the wire to a dowel rod or broomstick with duct tape or electrical tape, or tighten the wire to the broomstick with a hose clamp. Butterfly nets are best for catching flying insects. They are assembled like the sweep net, except that the body of the net is made of netting (purchased from a craft store, 1/2 yard will do). Cut and sew the netting material into a 'cone' shape, then fold the edge over and sew a casing through which to thread the wire loop. Attach to a dowel rod or broomstick as described for the sweep net. Beat sheets are used to collect slow moving and small insects that have been jarred from plants. An inverted umbrella, white pan or sheet of paper is placed under plants. Shake or jar the insects off of plants onto the beat sheet, then grab them with tweezers or shoo them into jars. Light traps are used at night to catch insects. "Black lights" or ultraviolet lights may be more successful than regular outdoor lighting, but even normal outdoor lights attract lots of insects. A white sheet placed behind the light may help with collecting since it gives the flying insects a place to land and fewer escape routes. Once you’ve collected the insects you will need to mount them so that they can be examined without damaging them. To get instructions go to the following webpage. Mounting Specimens Here are some additional web pages with information and games that can be used to teach the insect honor.
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