Story by: Doug Foreman
LEESVILLE, OH - On Saturday, July 12th, 2008 Lowe-Volk Nature Park went really buggy, because it was the Crawford Park District's annual Bug Bonanza.
Teaching seminars were given throughout the day by various exhibitors on a wide range of topics.
One of the biggest attractions was the tarantula display of Dan Zornes. He and his family had a wide variety of tarantulas for people to look at, as well as handle. This created some most unusual reactions by people.
One of the more unusual tarantula's brought to the event was the Mexican Red Legged Tarantula. According to Dan Zornes, back in 1993 when he acquired his Mexican Red Leg Tarantula that he calls, Seemore, he had to get a permit from the USDA. They were getting close to being on an endangered species list at that time.
Male tarantulas will live usually up until 6 years old, while the females will live up to usually 15 years old. One of the reasons being that, females will attack the male during breeding. If the male is not fast enough to get away from the female, she will eat him. That is why the males usually don't live as long. He lost a male not too long ago because of this happening to him while breeding a female.
The tarantula will eat insects like flies, crickets, and locust, while some of the older ones will eat small pink mice. According to Shumana Zornes, if you were to see a tarantula up high on it's legs, it usually means that they are eating.
Tarantulas have a more erratic feeding schedule. They can fast for weeks or months at a time. Fasting is sometimes an indication of an upcoming molt.
Then there was a racetrack set up inside just for folks to watch the cockroach races. That had lots of excitement too.
Kohl's Department Store was offering a Bug Snacking Menu which consisted of: Bug Juice; Chocolate Covered Ants & Insects; Cheddar Cheese Meal Worms; Salt & Vinegar Crickets; BBQ Meal Worms; Mexican Spice Meal Worms; and Bacon & Cheddar Crickets for people to sample. All are snacks that they can order into the store in Ontario.
What was really nice about Kohl's coming to the Bug Bonanza was that, they have a group of employees are called their A-Team. They go out into the community to help with fundraisers. "We being the A-Team come to your event, and at the end of the day, Kohl's will match donations up to $500 in collected donations that day" said Kohl's A-Team member, Tom Sabourin.
