Hokie BugFest sparks student’s lifelong passion for insects

Michael Worrell’s journey from bug collector to budding entomologist began 13 years ago at Hokie BugFest.

Worrell, then an 8-year-old from Hillsville, and his friend Josh Martin entered the festival’s Insect Collection Contest with 50 carefully pinned specimens. They won third place.

“We were immediately hooked,” he said. “The next year, we made another collection and got second place. We came back the following year and got Best in Show.”

Worrell never stopped coming back. At age 14, he graduated from participant to volunteer, taking more responsibility with exhibits at each event. 

“A lot of kids arrive at BugFest afraid of bugs,” he said. “I love helping them overcome that fear by letting them hold one and see up close how amazing these creatures really are.”

Now a senior majoring in agricultural sciences with a minor in entomology, Worrell is Hokie BugFest’s longest-running participant-turned-volunteer — and a prime example of the event’s impact.

The 15th annual Hokie BugFest, which will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, at Squires Student Center, is a cornerstone of Virginia Tech’s youth outreach in science education. The event unites the Department of Entomology, Virginia Cooperative Extension’s 4-H program, the student-run W. B. Alwood Entomological Society, and more than 200 volunteers, all dedicated to inspiring ongoing discovery and learning.

“I think I’m a great example of what this program can accomplish,” Worrell said. “They took a kid from a small town and showed him something he’d never learned before and developed a passion. Now here I am graduating with a minor in entomology.”

Curious camper turned "Bug Buster"

Two months before he attended his first BugFest in 2012, Worrell was a participant in the inaugural Hokie BugCamp, a one-day summer camp that teaches kids the basics of insect collecting and identification. 

Worrell immediately made a strong impression. Whitney Weaver Wright, the youth outreach coordinator for both Hokie BugCamp and BugFest, recalled that Worrell and Martin stuck their bug-catching net over an underground wasps’ nest, setting off an angry swarm.

“We thought, ‘Oh, gosh, this kid is a troublemaker,’” Weaver Wright said. “He kept coming back, and we realized that ‘trouble’ was just curiosity.”

Worrell hasn’t missed a BugCamp since. He’s a volunteer now and has attended all but one BugFest in the past 13 years. He’s well-known to the festival’s organizers and to members of the Department of Entomology for entering and winning contests as the “Bug Buster.”

“To see Michael go from a kid at our very first camp to a college student volunteering with our programs is so rewarding, and we are extremely proud of him,” Weaver Wright said. “His story is a big reason why we’ve continued to grow our programs.”

As an undergraduate student in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Worrell has expanded his interest in entomology by doing field research on diamondback moths with Professor Thomas Kuhar. After graduating this spring, he hopes to continue his studies in the Department of Entomology’s master’s degree program. 

“My ultimate goal is to be a professor of entomology,” he said. “Because of attending these events at Virginia Tech, I went from a kid that just enjoyed playing with bugs to someone who realized I could do this for the rest of my life as a career.”

Where entomology takes flight

At this year’s Hokie BugFest, Worrell will help with the Hokie BugZoo, one of the largest collections of living arthropods in the region, which includes whip spiders, tarantulas, millipedes, blue death-feigning beetles, and glowing scorpions.

More than 40 exhibitors from Virginia Tech labs, Extension programs, local museums, and industry and community partners will share their research and offer hands-on activities, games, storytelling, crafts, and demonstrations. Highlights include the Bug Carnival and Insect Collection Contest, along with the chance to see and touch live insects, mammals, and birds.

“Entomology is a unique way of seeing the world — you pay attention to the small things in nature,” Worrell said. “I like that point of view and teaching it to others.”