The only really good bug is a reading bug.

    However, Las Animas children Tuesday got to hold and pet the real thing Tuesday as part of an outreach program from the Butterfly Pavilion in metro Denver.

    The program called attention to the motto for this year’s statewide summer reading program — “catch the reading bug.”

    Several dozen children jammed into the Las Animas/Bent County Library meeting room for an hour-long presentation on the different kinds of bugs in our world.

    They got to pet a Madagascar hissing cockroach, which is considered a beneficial cockroach. But they were not allowed to pet or touch a centipede  nor a black widow spider that were safely incarcerated in taped plastic boxes.

    The informative program told the young readers and pre-schoolers what made a crustacean different from an arachnid. And they learned that a centipede may have up to 42 sets of legs, while a millipede can have more than 300 sets of legs.

    Despite an occasional scream here and there, the children remained focused on the education they were receiving from Joann Dawe and Vern Collins of the Butterfly Pavilion.

    After the lengthy program concluded, children were offered the ultimate treat: an opportunity to hold Rosie the pavilion’s mascot tarantula.

    Joann Dawe, a former teacher, is the lead demonstrator for the program, which has been made available to libraries throughout the state to help boost the summer reading program.

    “Actually, I do not like bugs,” Joanne confessed after the children had left, hopefully to go home and read.

    However, she has learned that the bugs she talked about are at the very bottom of the food chain, and thus all more advanced life above is dependent upon them for survival.

    “Everything progresses up from there,” she noted.

    “Without bees there would not be 150 agricultural crops. We would be without fruits, nuts and vegetables.”

    She has learned that out of 4,000 species of cockroaches, only 25 to 30 are considered pests. Naturally, some of those run wild in Las Animas.

    When she retired from teaching she was looking for a volunteer job and found one at the Butterfly Pavilion, which is about a mile from her home. After volunteering for a year she became a staff person. She has 10 different programs in her repertoire, but brought this particular bug demonstration to southeastern Colorado because it has one of the widest variety of bugs incorporated into the presentation.

    “The more you work with them, the more you appreciate them,” agreed her co-presenter, Vern Collins.

    “They are an integral part of our world that we do not think much about.”
    Collins predicted:

    “If we find something on Mars, it will probably be a bug.”

    He noted that crustaceans have been found deep under the sea, and other bugs have been found thriving in sulfuric environments and temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees.

    Joanne agreed.

    “Scorpions have been around since the Paleozoic Era. There are bugs in the Antarctic<” she said.

    Joanne and Vern were returning to La Junta for an evening demonstration on bug eating.

    In some cultures bugs are “what’s for dinner.”
   
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