Eating Creepy Crawlies

Insects are rich in protein

The first insects appeared on this planet over 400 million years ago, before humans, before mammals and even before the dinosaurs.

Insects are the most successful inhabitants of our planet, living on every continent and in every climate of the world. They are also a valuable food source.

In the days before farming and commercial food manufacture, insects provided a much-needed source of protein to the world's hunter-gatherers. Our ancestors made the most of any food source, particularly one as plentiful and protein-rich as insects.

So why are we disgusted at the prospect of tucking into a plate of grasshoppers? This revealing exhibition explores that burning question.

In China water beetles are on the menu and in Japan you can feast on baby bees. And it's not only insects - in Venezuela people eat tarantulas.

Eating Creepy Crawlies looks at the variety of insects eaten all over the world: some are eaten as delicacies; others form part of a stable diet.

Visitors inspect a giant locust model

The exhibition gives visitors a fascinating insight into the subject of eating insects, with a stimulating mix of real specimens, graphic panels and stunning photographs from the book Man Eating Bugs by Peter Menzel.

The exhibition is flexible and can be used as a background for a variety of attention-grabbing events such as cookery demonstrations, giving visitors the chance to find out for themselves the unique taste of insects.
In some countries eating insects is the most normal thing in the world.

If space permits, the exhibition can be enriched by adding two giant animatronic models of a stick insect and a locust. Give your visitors the chance to get a close up look at how the insects' mouth parts work and how wide their wings expand.

For more information, download the Eating Creepy Crawlies information pack (PDF 7.0MB)