Rachel New
Raleigh Museum of Natural Science exhibits a grasshopper during Bugfest on Saturday, Sept 20, 2025. The event was open to the public with food trucks, vendors and volunteers.
Thousands of visitors swarmed the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences on Saturday for BugFest, the museum’s annual celebration of all things creepy-crawly, which this year spotlighted krill.
Krill, although not insects, are arthropods — animals with a hard outer shell, a segmented body and jointed legs.
“We say that crustaceans are bugs because bugs are anything under the category of arthropod,” said Morgan Bailey, curator of living collections at the museum.
Anika Rajesh, an events contractor at the museum, said this year’s theme gives educators a special opportunity to educate the public about crustaceans that most people wouldn’t be familiar with.
“We’re able to show the public that they are very closely related to insects, spiders and scorpions and I think crustaceans — they’re just underrated,” Rajesh said. “I feel like a lot of us know about crustaceans because a lot of people eat them. We don’t know about things like the mantis shrimp or the giant isopod, or the fact that the pill bugs and sow bugs in our backyards are not insects and are actually crustaceans.”
Visitors found a range of attractions throughout the museum and along Jones Street. Café Insecta featured chefs from across the Triangle offering insect-based dishes for guests to sample and vote on. Families watched live roach races, children lined up for face painting and crafts and local organizations staffed tables with exhibits on topics from pollinator gardens to invasive species.
The event embraced the internet meme “Shrimps is bugs,” which began with a viral Reddit post from someone seeking cover-up ideas for a tattoo of the phrase. Bailey said the statement is more accurate than most people realize.
“Shrimps is bugs,” Bailey said. “If you are allergic to shellfish, you can visit Cafe Insecta, but we would not recommend eating there, because people who are allergic to shellfish are allergic to other things, such as crayfish and mealworms.”
Bailey said crayfish are plentiful in North Carolina, with 60 species living in the state, and 10 in Wake County. She said crayfish are scavengers, water quality indicators and important food sources for local wildlife.
Multiple NC State extension programs and research labs were present at the festival.
Kaylin Lewandowski, a doctoral student in entomology and a research assistant in the NC State Michael Reiskind Lab, works with a team dedicated to understanding how mosquito ecology influences the spread of disease.
“[Mosquitos are] medically important,” Lewandowski said. “So we want to understand how they behave and where they are in their prevalence, understand the pathogens they can transmit to keep our communities safe.”
Other tables focused on the insects closer to home. Regan Daniels, lab manager for NC State’s Hayes Structural Pest Lab, said her team teaches visitors how to identify common household insects and handle infestations safely.
“At BugFest, we are trying to communicate to people the types of insects we see as people in our homes and our structures, what we can do about them, who to contact, how to manage them, either by ourselves or by telling a professional everything we can know about them and just educating people that not all pests are bad, and even if they are bad, or even if you want to get rid of them, there are safe, effective ways to do it that aren’t burning the house down, as people often say.”
Daniels highlighted ants as a misunderstood group. Carpenter ants, for example, can damage wood, but many species simply seek food.
“House ants, sometimes called sugar ants, they’re on the inside because maybe you left something out for them. You left a soda open on the counter. You got some fruit that’s going bad, or maybe there’s another ant that’s going after your dog food that’s sitting out. And so it’s really an education of how we interact with nature around us, and how nature responds to that.”
Some exhibits encouraged visitors to become “citizen scientists.” Taylor Evans, a representative with the N.C. Department of Agriculture, explained how residents can help track invasive pests like the spotted lanternfly.
“If you see a spotted lantern fly, you’re gonna want to take a picture of it and then go on the Department of Agriculture page to report it,” Evans said. “We’ll ask your name, where you were and how many you saw and then send someone out.”
Evans said rising temperatures have helped invasive species spread, but public reporting has helped the state respond quickly. The department also monitors potential threats such as the box tree moth, which has not yet reached North Carolina.
BugFest also highlighted the insects that keep ecosystems thriving. Sean Lewis, a representative of the Xerces Society, said his group promotes pollinator conservation by encouraging people to plant native species and create habitats in their own yards for native pollinators.
“Honey bees aren’t the answer to saving the bees,” Lewis said. “Honey bees are not a native species, and so we really need to focus on the native bumblebees and these other local species, and they’re the ones that are threatened or need some more help out there.”
Lewis said many people mistakenly plant flowers that provide little benefit to pollinators.
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there right now,” Lewis said. “A lot of people think they need to put a hive in their backyard to help save the bees, but we’re out here educating them on how they really should be helping — what plants are native to here, a lot of people think they know what plants they should be planting for pollinators, when in reality, they’re not planting native species. They’re just planting a variety of things you can pick up at Home Depot that may not be providing pollinators with the right nutrients or resources.”