Backyard Bug Activities

Backyard Bugs

"Teaching a child not to step
on a caterpillar is as valuable
to the child as it is to the
caterpillar." - Bradley Millar

Insects amaze us, pester us,
and help us to survive.
Scientists have described and
studied close to one million different kinds, or species, of insects so far! This makes insects the largest class of animals on Earth, larger than all the other groups of animals combined! How many different kinds of insects can you spot in your backyard?

The best way to learn about insects is to find one and watch it. What does it look like? How does it move? What does it do? What special features does it have?

Entomology is the study of insects, and the activities below will help you become a backyard entomologist!

What You Need:
A few simple tools will help you study insects.

• Loupe or Magnifying Glass - these will help you get a more detailed look
• An Insect Net can help you catch insects that fly away before you get a chance to study them
• An empty jar or Tank and Cover will temporarily hold an insect you want to watch
• Garden trowel to help you search the soil for insects that live in the ground
• Notebook or sketchpad and pencil to help you record and remember what you see

Backyard Listening

• Lay on the ground, close your eyes, and listen to the bugs in your yard.
• Can you identify each sound?
• Does your yard sound different at various times of the day?
• Try this activity in the morning, afternoon, and at night. How are the sounds different?

Cricket Meteorology

• Male crickets chirp to attract females. They chirp by rubbing their legs or wings together. The warmer the weather, the more chirping they do.
• Did you know you can tell the air temperature by the number of chirps a cricket makes? Count the number of chirps you hear in 15 seconds (you will need a watch to time this), then add 37 to this number. The total gives you the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.
• Different types of crickets have a variety of chirping frequencies, but the number you calculate will be very close to the actual temperature. Try it!

Insect Eggs and Pupae

• Look for insect eggs in your garden, on leaves, under leaves, on weeds, or in the woods.
• When you find the eggs or pupae, tie a colorful ribbon around the branch or stem to help you find it again.
• Watch this area each day and observe the changes. You may even be able to watch the adult emerge! Metamorphosis describes insect growth, and means "change of form".

Night Light Observations

• When the sun sets, turn on a porch light and sit back and watch the insects the light attracts.
• See if you can count the number of insects you see.
• Try to identify the insects.
• One theory why insects are attracted to light is that they use it as a navigational aid. Sometimes the light can attract a staggering number of insects in a very short amount of time. You might even get to see a Luna Moth!

Identify Butterflies

• Learn to identify the butterflies in your backyard and neighborhood.
• Use a Butterflies and Moths Field Guide or the Internet to identify the butterflies.
• Sketch your favorite butterflies!

Spider Webs

• Find a spider web and watch to see if you can spot the spider that lives there. Look on shrubs, in tall grass, on trees, and on houses.
• Compare the different spider webs you find. Look for sheet webs, orb webs, or tunnel webs. See if you can determine why the webs are built the way they are - what are the benefits of this style web?
• Use a Loupe or Magnifying Glass to observe the web close up. You might even get lucky and see a spider capture its prey!
• Use a Spiders Field Guide or the Internet to identify the spiders you find.
• Tap a tuning fork (preferably one that vibrates 200 times a second) on a hard surface, then gently hold one of its prongs against the web and see what happens. The sound should make the spider come running toward it. Spiders have specialized receptors in its legs, allowing it to feel the vibration of its web and identify the prey that is trapped. Pretty cool, eh?!

Scientific Names
The same insect may be called by many names. Most people use the common names of insects, but scientists refer to insects by a combination of their Latin genus and species names.

• Find the scientific names for the insects and spiders you've spotted in your yard. A good field guide or the Internet is a helpful resource.
• Look up the Latin and Greek roots to these words to help explain what the name means.

Insect Orders
Scientists have come up with a variety of ways to classify living things according to the similarities and differences among them. Taxonomy is another word for classification. One taxonomic system groups all animals together in a large kingdom, the Animalia. This vast kingdom can be divided into smaller groups, called phyla. The members of one phylum can be divided into classes, the classes into orders, orders into families, families into genera, and genera into species.

• Become familiar with the most common orders of insects, for example: odonata (dragonflies and damselflies); orthoptera (crickets, grasshoppers, locusts, praying mantids, and cockroaches); isoptera (termites); dermaptera (earwigs); anoplura (head lice); hemiptera (cicadas, leafhoppers, aphids); coleoptera (beetles); trichoptera (caddisflies); lepidoptera (butterflies and moths); and hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants).
• An insect book, such as The Practical Entomologist, or the Internet will help you.
• When you are familiar with the orders, you will be able to classify them when you spot them in your backyard.

Insect Safari

• Go on an insect safari... armed with a digital camera!
• Take close-up photographs of the insect you spot in your yard.
• Assemble a photo album, and place the photos by insect order (see above).
• Return often to the same location to look for insects. Populations can change drastically over time, and you might discover something new on frequent visits.