If you are searching for that perfect creepy-crawly gift for someone, MSU’s Insect Emporium may be the place to do your holiday shopping. The gift shop, located next door to the MSU Bug House in the Natural Science Building, opened in November and is open from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.
Barb Stinnett, the outreach coordinator for the Department of Entomology, said the shop has been in planning for two to three years.
“The timing was right (this year) and we had the space to do it,” she said. “I’m hoping to appeal to university students and also the children that come through the Bug House.”
The gift shop carries bug-related items such as stationery, toys, books, T-shirts, mobiles and fake tattoos.
“If you’re not particularly interested in bugs, we have (other items),” Stinnett said.
The prices of items at the Insect Emporium range from 30 cents to $30.
Stinnett said the gift shop is a good place for students to find items for younger brothers and sisters.
“I have some great stocking stuffers,” she said.
Laura Palombi, a Bug House tour guide and entomology graduate student, said profits from the gift shop are used toward bug camp, maintenance of the Bug House and other outreach programs.
“In the summer we do half-day camps and we do a four-day camp for 9- through 12-year-olds,” she said.
Students attending the camp make their own insect-collecting gear and explore the different ecosystems of MSU’s campus.
Palombi said a lot of students and faculty have stopped in, but the shop also hopes to appeal to the field trip students who come in next semester when tours of the Bug House resume.
“We hope to carry (items with) a range of prices, so if a kid wants to spend a dollar on a toy, he or she can do that,” she said.
The MSU Bug House, created in 1996, has tours for groups ranging from preschoolers to senior citizens. It’s open for scheduled tours every day and to the public on Monday evenings from 5:30 to 7:30 and Friday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
The tours involve educational sessions and an optional hands-on look at some of the walking sticks, millipedes, cockroaches, assassin bugs, milkweed bugs and tarantulas.
The insect collection of the Department of Entomology includes more than a million specimens. Visitors to the Bug House have the opportunity to view many specimens from the collection.
Stinnett said the busiest month this year was May, when more than 2,000 Lansing-area students participated in the tours.
The Insect Emporium will remain open through Dec. 23 and will reopen in January.
MELANIE MILONAS
