 Hello everyone. I'm Nancy Graves, 4-H Foundation Regional Extension Agent for Blunt and St. Clair Counties. Today we're going to talk about a creepy subject, insects. What do bees, spiders, millipedes, crabs, and pill bugs all have in common? They belong to the phylum Arthropoda, which means jointed foot. They're different from humans in that they don't have backbones, they have exoskeletons for support. Today we're going to talk about the class of insects, which belong to the class insecta. There are over a million different species of insects. Insects will have three main body parts, a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. Insects also have compound eyes, a pair of antennae, wings, and six legs. So is a spider an insect? No, they aren't because they don't share the same body parts. So how are they different? Spiders only have two body parts and have eight legs and no wings. The class of insects are further broken down based on the types of mouth parts they have, the types of legs, and their behavior. Okay, let's take a look at mouth parts. So grass hoppers have mouth parts that are similar to a plier. They actually chew from side to side. Female mosquitoes use their mouth parts to draw up blood like a needle in syringe. Butterflies have tongue-like mouth parts that are used like a straw to zip up nectar. Flies have mouth parts that are similar to a sponge to soak up liquids. Okay, so for today's activity, we're going to go on a bug hunt. To do that, you're going to need a way to capture the insects. You can use a plastic zip-type bag. You can use a plastic container or you can make your own bug net. So to make your bug net, the first thing you need to do is to take your metal coat hanger and make it into a round shape. Then you're going to take the plastic bag and just wrap it around. Then you're going to take some tape and just tape it along the inside. And it doesn't have to be perfect just as long as you can get the plastic bag to attach to your wire coat hanger. And there you have your own bug net. Okay, so now that you have your bug net completed, where are we going to find insects at? Insects are easy to find anywhere, especially around flowering plants. Under leaf litter, you can find them around the foundation of your homes under old logs. Or if you're out here next to a body of water, you can find insects around water easily. But please remember, if you're going to be out near water, make sure you have an adult with you at all times, because it can be a dangerous situation. Okay, so to demonstrate how to use your bug net, you just go up to different plants and just sweep back and forth, back and forth. And then you can look and see what you have in your net. But always remember, we want to practice catcher and release. So what you can do to be able to show us what kind of insects you found, take a picture of it or draw it. You can also enter this inside your nature journal too. So now that you have your bug net and you know where to find your insects, go outside and start trying to capture some really cool bugs. And don't forget to send in pictures to us or write them down and take pictures and draw them in your journal so that we can share with everyone. Happy hunting!