Boo, Hiss (What Was THAT?)

Oct 23, 2012

Boo, Hiss (What Was THAT?)

Oct 23, 2012

When you combine a "boo" with a "hiss," what do you get? The Bohart Museum of Entomology's annual pre-Halloween open house.

The "boo"--in the way of costumes and decorations--is traditional. The hiss? That's the sound emanating from the Madagascar hissing cockroaches, aka "hissers."

This all will happen from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 27 at the Bohart Museum on the UC Davis campus. The museum is located in Room 1124 of Academic Surge, Crocker Lane (formerly California Drive).

The event is free and open to the public. Wear a Halloween costume! Ghouls just love to have fun---but so do ghosts and goblins. 

The theme,  "Insects and Death," focuses on forensic entomology. UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey of the Department of Entomology will be on hand to answer questions about insects as decomposers, and why they’re important.

Bohart Museum officials also will correct myths about “deadly” insects and “creepy crawlers.”

“House flies and mosquitoes cause more human deaths than all other insects combined,” said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and professor of entomology at the UC Davis Department of Entomology. 

In addition to the hissers, other live attractions at the open house will be walking sticks and a rose-haired tarantula. 

Carved pumpkins, with an insect motif, will decorate the museum.

Over at the gift shop, you can purchase jewelry, T-shirts, sweatshirts, posters, and "entomological" candy.  Especially popular around Halloween are scorpion-themed lollipops, chocolate-covered insects and flavored mealworms.

The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946 by noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007), is the home of more than seven million insect specimens. More information is available on the Bohart website at or by contacting Tabatha Yang at tabyang@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-0493.