You pick up a maggot with a forceps, dip it into a non-toxic, water-based paint, drop it (gently) on a white paper, and let it crawl around, or guide it. Voila! Maggot Art!
It's a conversation piece. It's suitable for framing. And, it could make a good gift card--or at least a temporary spot on your refrigerator door.
The Bohart Museum of Entomology's recent open house featured Maggot Art as the family arts-and-crafts activity. The open house, themed "Forensics and Insects," spotlighted UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert "Bob" Kimsey of the Department of Entomology and Nematology. (See Bug Squad blog)
Maggot Art began on the UC Davis campus, at Briggs Hall, in the early 2000s as part of the annual UC Davis Picnic Day celebration. The Entomology Graduate Student Association and the Department of Entomology and Nematology coordinate the entomological activities.
Rebecca O'Flaherty, a former graduate student of UC Davis forensic entomologist Kimsey's, coined the educational teaching curriculum, "Maggot Art," back in 2001 when she was studying at the University of Hawaii. She was rearing blowflies for her forensic research and wanted an activity to draw the interest of elementary school students. She also wanted to generate interest and respect for forensic entomology.
In Maggot Art, who is the artist? Do the maggots, Calliphora vacinia, own the copyright, or do the two-legged participants?
Maybe both? The artist picks the colors and guides the maggots.
Want to do Maggot Art? Mark your calendar for the next UC Davis Picnic Day. It's Saturday, April 20. Entomological activities are in Briggs Hall and the Bohart Museum; Maggot Art is only at Briggs. If you access the Picnic Day website, you'll learn the days, hours, minutes and seconds remaining until the much-anticipated event.
The next open house at the Bohart Museum is "Night at the Museum" (Moth Night) from 7 to 11 p.m. on Saturday, July 22. All open houses are free and family friendly, and parking, too, is free.
The Bohart Museum, directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also maintains a live "petting zoo" (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, tarantulas and more) and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, jewelry, posters, books, pens and collecting equipment.
The Bohart Museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. The insect museum is open to the public (walk-ins) only on Tuesdays from 2 to 5 p.m., this summer, now effective. This is due to the high number of outreach programs, summer camps, scheduled tours and unavailability of staff. More information is available on the website or by emailing bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
Attached Images:
Maggot Art at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house. Tools of the trade: maggots, water-based and non-toxic paint, paint containers, forceps, and white paper. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Isaiah Hu, 4, of Davis, works on his Maggot Art creation, while his mother, Lisa Hu (next to him) and Bohart Museum associate Kat Taylor, a UC Davis entomology major, watch. Lisa is a 2011 graduate (DVM) of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Maggot Art underway; it begins with picking up a maggot with a forceps. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bohart Museum volunteer Kat Taylor, a UC Davis freshman majoring in entomology, shows her Maggot Art. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)