Just Do It

Bug Fest

by Jakob Dorof

Sat.-Sun., Aug. 16-17, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., free with admission, Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Ben Franklin Parkway, 215-299-1000, ansp.org

So now we're well into the dog days of summer, and the city's insects have had plenty of time to proliferate. Between your itchy skin and the dead mosquito in your sugar bowl, the evidence is everywhere: Around this time of year, there is no shortage of invertebrates.

But just in case you wanted, say, 17 million more, the Academy of Natural Sciences has your welted back. They've been collecting specimens since opening in 1812, and now they're pooling their resources and calling all their insectophile friends to help throw the first-ever Bug Fest.

The weekend-long party offers more than a dozen events and comes free with the standard museum admission. On Saturday, you've got an "Insects as Living Art" presentation, a seminar on planting butterfly gardens and a game show that measures your intellect against that of a cockroach. Sunday brings an informational talk about the regional stink bug, an outdoor bug story time and a discussion of the relationship between insects and plants. On both days, there's a flea circus, roach races, a please-touch exhibit of live tarantulas and scorpions and an Iron Chef-style insect cuisine cook-off between Cajun bug chef Zach Lemann and David Gracer, an advocate of the insect as a part of a healthy, sustainable diet.