BROOKINGS – “A family friendly event celebrating our six-plus legged friends.” That billing delivered as promised Saturday at McCrory Gardens in Brookings, as area residents of all ages turned out to visit a variety of bugs and creepy crawlers best described as the good, the bad and the ugly.
Events included an assemble-an-arthropod contest, insect photo contest, crafts, games, education, a bug bouncy house, edible insects, cockroach races and monarch tagging.
The latter two events proved very popular as Madagascar cockroaches – much larger than the local variety that you hope you don’t find in your kitchen at 3 in the morning – were covered with red plastic cups and released in a marked circle, shown above. The first one out of the circle was the winner.
The monarch tagging – whose participants were a lot better looking than the roaches – was the handiwork of Julie Steen of Dakota Nature Park, below.
She provided kids with nets to catch the monarchs. Following that she tagged the butterflies with tiny tags that would allow those seeing the magnificent creatures as they migrated southward to know that they had stopped over in South Dakota.
While the event was a first-timer, Christina Lind-Thielke, the garden’s education coordinator, is determined to make it an annual event and has it on the calendar for the next two years.
