Big Bug Bonanza (BB) is a bi annual campaign organized by the Terrestrial Invertebrate Working Group (TIWG). In 2017 BBB ran from the 6th to the 13th of August, with three key objectives: to raise awareness of the importance of invertebrate life in ecosystems, to elicit positive attitudes to invertebrates by the general public and to encourage positive towards invertebrates.
Thirty two BIAZA collections hosted activities ranging from bug encounters, story times and quizzes, to wildlife walks and bug hotel construction sessions. Visitors were asked to give three words to describe bugs after the event. The words most often used were “interesting”, “creepy” and “cool” and 53 % indicated they felt positive towards invertebrates which was brilliant to hear. Even more impressive was that after participating in a Big Bug Bonanza event, 45% of people reported they felt even more positive towards invertebrates!
In addition to having fun and participating in the Big Bug Bonanza events, visitors were encouraged to think of actions they themselves could take to conserve invertebrates in their own garden. Building bug hotels, wildflower planting to attract pollinating insects and rescuing and releasing bugs that are in distress are just some of the things you can do to help invertebrate species.
All in all the Big Bug Bonanza campaign 2017 was greatly enjoyed by the visitors attending the events and it was hugely successful in encouraging positive behaviour towards invertebrates. These species have an incredibly important role to play in our ecosystems and we have an important role to play in encouraging more people to take actions to conserve invertebrates in their own garden.
Please keep an eye on our campaigns page for information on the campaign BIAZA runs in 2018.
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