LITTLE BUGGERS

Sometimes it's the little things that bug people, and sometimes it's little bugs, but that certainly wasn't the case last week at Plains School when a staff member from the Missoula Butterfly House and Insectarium visited with some of her special pets.

Carolyn Taber, a museum educator with the Missoula nonprofit organization, was a guest at the Plains Schools Summer Program last Tuesday and had some small critters for the kids to hold, including a beetle, a millipede, a walking stick and a cockroach. Most wanted to hold the bugs and a few only wanted to touch them, but there were a couple that were fine just looking at them, including Debbie Brown, the program coordinator, who hoped none would escape, especially the domino cockroach from India. It was a "bonus bug" for the older group of kids.

"He's really fast, so if you want to hold him, you have to be on top of your game," said Taber, who's been with the Missoula Butterfly House and Insectarium for seven years. The facility is presently closed, but Taber said they hope to open a new facility at the Missoula County Fairgrounds next June. The insectarium contains several hundred individual bugs of about 45 species from every continent except Antarctica, said Taber.

The kids were separated into two groups - kindergarten to second grade, followed by third through seventh - in the school's new gymnasium, where Taber talked about each bug before and after the showing.

This was the first time the Missoula Butterfly House and Insectarium had participated in the summer program in Plains, which is in its second year, the result of a grant. Brown, who headed the program last year, is assisted this year by Holly Blood, Erin Miller and Cindy Gumm. The program started in late June and goes through July 28. Nearly 50 children ranging from kindergarten to eighth-graders are signed up, but the number fluctuates daily. It includes a variety of subjects with several guest speakers, some local.

The "Bug Lady," something Taber is routinely called, was a big hit, said Brown. Taber told the kids none of the bugs would hurt them, but there were still a couple who had no interest in having the creatures crawl on them. Sticky, prickly, scratchy and ticklish were some of the kids' descriptions after holding them. Taber goes to several schools a year with her caged bugs. The radius is normally an hour's drive, but she made an exception for Plains.

Measuring about a half of an inch, the blue death feigning beetle from Arizona was first up for the 13 children in the first group. Taber passed the two beetles from kid to kid, making sure the kids were gentle with the bugs. "Will they pee on you?" asked 8-year-old Jase Russell, among the 15 kids in the second group. Trace Browning, 9, named one of the beetles "George."

Fewer kids let the millipede from Florida crawl on them, but the Vietnamese walking sticks were the most popular. The four-inch long females crawled up and down the kids' hands and arms, prompting some to giggle as they went.

"The walking sticks are usually a favorite," said Taber, who's been to more than 20 schools so far this year. She said she likes showing bugs to the kids. "They ask such good questions. They're like little scientists. They're so curious," said Taber.

After each bug, the Bug Lady had the kids act like the bug just presented. As the millipede, they rolled up into a ball as a way of protection against predators. For the beetle, they feigned death as a way to fool the predator spider, played by Taber. She explained that the walking stick defense is its ability to camouflage itself. She also had a baby walking stick, born two days prior, though it was too delicate to take out of the jar. With each group, she had them draw a new species, write down its survival skills and name it.

"The bugs were a huge hit. They really seemed to enjoy it," said Brown, an educator at Plains School for more than 30 years. "I would have her back next year and feel the Butterfly House and Insectarium would be a wonderful guest speaker for the regular classroom experience during a bug unit," she added. Brown also said that if they get the summer program grant next year she'd like to take the kids on a field trip to the Missoula Butterfly House and Insectarium.