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ISU plans to squash its longtime Insect Zoo
A petition and letter-writing campaign is being launched in an effort to save the highly popular Insect Zoo at Iowa State University, which officials plan to close at semester’s end after three decades in operation.
Ginny Mitchell says in her 13 years as the educational program coordinator, the Insect Zoo has reached more than 500-thousand Iowans, mostly children, through the Ames campus and during visits to schools, libraries and other facilities across the state.
“We need somebody to sponsor the Insect Zoo, to become a yearly endowment for the Insect Zoo,” Mitchell says, “so that it can continue reaching the hundreds of thousands of Iowans, specifically children.”
The Insect Zoo is home to more than 175 species of arthropods, as well as millipedes, spiders, scorpions and all sorts of other creatures. Mitchell’s job is being eliminated, along with those of ten ISU students from the Department of Plant Pathology, Entomology and Microbiology who help run the zoo and take it on the road.
“The Insect Zoo does not just belong with Iowa State University. It belongs to the children of Iowa,” Mitchell says. “These are the foundational humans of our state, of our country, and it is very important, it’s very vital, especially as an agricultural state, to have information, knowledge and a lack of fear for insects, and that’s what the Insect Zoo does.”
While ISU’s Reiman Gardens may be able to add some of the insects from the zoo to its collection in the butterfly habitat, the future remains uncertain for the many dozens of other rare, living specimens from around the globe.
The petition on the website Change.org is collecting digital signatures and supporters’ stories about the Insect Zoo, while donations can be made to help with its deficit through the ISU Foundation. Mitchell remains hopeful ISU officials will change their minds about their decision to shut down the Insect Zoo.
“I just want to make sure that the public knows that they can write a letter or send an email to Wendy Wintersteen, the president of Iowa State University,” Mitchell says. “I do believe that this is the only way that we can change that and if they would share comments, share stories on our Change.org petition.”
The deficit started to mount during the shutdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic and snowballed, according to Mitchell, and the Insect Zoo is now about $150,000 in the red. The facility is slated for closure on June 30th.
