 "Photo: Brandon Tan/Poly Post")
Students and visitors enjoyed the 16th annual Insect Fair as part of the weekend Pumpkin Festival.
Thousands of live and preserved insects were on display and some were up for sale to help Cal Poly's Agriculture Biology Club raise funds.
"You grow up in the city and all you see are maybe cockroaches, so it's nice to see other [bugs] here," said Pat Kaae, an Insect Fair volunteer.
Approximately 200,000 insects were showcased at this year's fair.
Dr. Richard Kaae, advisor of the Agriculture Biology Club, estimates he spends 120 hours to prepare and run the fair each year, and that approximately $10,000 will be raised this year.
This year's event was held at AGRIscapes near the Farm Store.
Previous events were held in Ursa Major in the Bronco Student Center.
One new exhibitor, the Southern California Arachnid, Bug and Invertebrate Entomological Society, or "Scabies," was co-created two years ago by Andrew Olson.
"One of the things the people in the group share is that we really appreciate the local California bugs," said Olson.
The fledgling organization, which already consists of 230 members, had its first information booth at this year's fair, but Olson is not new to the event. Olson bought his first bug at the 2004 Insect Fair. "It's one of my favorite things every year, to come back," said Olson while trying to avoid bites from a Blue Ring Centipede he held in his hands. Melissa Galvan, a Glendora schoolteacher accompanied by her husband and son, has come to the Pumpkin Festival for several years, but this was her first visit to the Insect Fair. "It was better than what I expected," said Galvan. "I did not know there would be bugs for sale." Larry Donlin of Rancho Cucamonga attended the event with his young daughters. "The kids like to hold them, but I won't go near them," Donlin said. "I don't like the bugs." Agriculture Biology club members can volunteer 40 hours at the fair for two years or more to earn a spot on the club's biennial trips to Southeast Asia. Alumna Taylor Lura, former president of the Agriculture Biology Club, said some students work 40 to 50 hours during a single Insect Fair by sending flyers, assisting in vendor setup and working the event itself. Lura said the work pays off when the students are able to travel to a foreign locale. "There we usually study the agriculture and insects of the country, and it's just fun for the students to go to another country and see another culture," said Lura. Besides live bugs and preserved insects, honey and bug-themed books and toys were among some of the other items available for purchase at the event.
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