Hokie BugFest is just one of the tech bug-focused events this fall.

Hokie BugFest, one of Virginia Tech’s largest science presentation events of the year, returns for its 12th year on Saturday, October 8th from 10am to 3pm at the Squires Student Center in Blacksburg. (A special pre-opening from 9 to 10 am is available for people with mobility or other special needs.)

“We’re thrilled to be back in person after two years of online programming during the pandemic,” said festival organizer and entomology department faculty member Daniel Frank.

This year’s event features more than 30 exhibitors, including from Virginia Tech laboratories, local museums, community groups and industry professionals. Visitors will enjoy hands-on activities, working beehives, a bug library, 3D insects and many live arthropods including scorpions, blue death beetles, tarantulas, millipedes, speeding cockroaches and more.

Virginia Tech’s Bug Festivals are community events that invite visitors and school children to learn about science in the fascinating and important world of entomology. Topics range from pollinators and urban pests to aquatic insects and forensic entomology. University and community experts will be on hand to answer questions and share their excitement about bugs.

“Our goal is to inspire the next generation of scientists and show the importance of insects around the world,” Frank said. “And what better vehicle to spark curiosity than the animated, often alien-seeming, extreme world of bugs.”

In Pulaski County and Radford, third and fourth graders had the opportunity to participate in the Hockey Bugfest at the school from September 8-29. Hokie BugFest on the trip visited 42 classrooms and more than 700 students and 50 teachers or administrators at these NRV locations.

Hokie BugFest On the Go BugFest is a traveling field trip program brought to the classroom from Virginia Tech. For about an hour, small groups will learn all about entomology, meet live arthropods from the Hawkeye BugZoo, and work with graduate students and university faculty and staff. All participants will receive activity booklets to help reinforce concepts after the event.

For those who can’t attend an event in person, the Virtual Hokie BugFest presents the world of bugs online from October to May 2023. Visit hokiebugfest.org for videos, photo galleries, downloadable activities and fun facts about bugs.

Created in 2020 to protect festival goers during the pandemic, the Virtual Hockey Bug Fest reached over 10,000 unique visitors in 2020 and 2021 and will continue this success in 2022.

Along with this year’s programs in Henrico County and Virginia Beach, the Hockey Bug Festivals reflect Virginia Tech’s Ut Prosim motto and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ commitment to science education and national outreach.

The Virginia Tech Hockey Bug Festivals are supported by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Cooperative Extension, the Virginia Tech Department of Entomology, the Virginia Tech Pesticide Programs, as well as many community partners.

– Submitted by James Mason, Virginia Tech.