STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Alex Olsen held his Mexican redkneed tarantula named Scooter in his hand as brave tots ventured closer to get a look at the orange patches on its legs.

“I’m careful so I haven’t been bitten, but I’ve come closer three times,” the 17-year-old Silver Creek High School student said in response to one youngster’s question.

The tarantula is one of 29 tarantulas and spiders that Olsen and his father Tracy Olsen have collected. And both Olsens were out in force Saturday at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden’s Bug Zoo Festival  as they showed off some of their favorites.

“I’ve always had a place in my heart for tarantulas and spiders. I started collecting them when I was 14 with a Greenbottle blue tarantula I named Marley after bad Bob Marley,” said Alex. “I got it when it was no bigger than a thumbnail.”

Since, Alex has added to his collection the Ghost Ornamental Tarantula, an arboreal tarantula that climbs trees. Another, the Avicularia Versicolor or Pink Toe Tarantula, is also a tree dwelling tarantula native to the Caribbean. His Mexican Red-Rump Tarantula is a relatively large tarantula that digs up plants and moves them around. He, like most of the tarantulas, just needs a hide that he can hide under when he’s stressed.

Alex’s favorite is Savage, a Brazilian whitekneed bird eater with brilliant white stripes on its leg joints and a penchant for tackling food many times its size

“I keep half of the tarantulas in my room. The rest need a room with high humidity,” said Olsen, who plans to study culinary arts at College of Southern Idaho after he graduates this spring.

Alex’s father Tracy Olsen admits to being terrified of spiders and tarantulas when his son first started collecting them.

“I went from, ‘I don’t want a spider in my house’ to collecting them myself,” he said. “Feeding days are particularly fun. We feed them cockroaches and crickets every weekend.”

“The first thing is not to be afraid of tarantulas and arachnids,” chimed in Alex. “Once you get past their slimy legs, you see them in a new way. They’re pretty to look at and they reduce insect problems.”

Kat Vanden Heuvel, the director of the Sawtooth Botanical Garden, relishes enlisting youngsters like Alex in escorting visitors through the Bug Zoo.

“It’s neat to see adults talk about these critters But it’s even funner to see kids share their enthusiasm,” she said.

As the Olsens talked about their tarantulas, the garden’s education director Kristin Fletcher recounted how you can tell what a woodpecker is up to by the type of pecks it’s making.

It tends to court by pecking on something brassy like a street light or metal fireplace. It has a different pecking rhythm for digging in a tree to get to bugs and a different one still for carving out a nest in a tree.

Vanden Heuvel said the Bug Zoo inspired her daughter in a way she would never have imagined when her daughter was in kindergarten.

“We had a tarantula named Athena and I told her all about how Athena was a goddess of war in Greek mythology. Less than a week later she came home with four books she’d checked out on different gods and goddesses in Greek mythology, including Athena. We finally had to buy her a guide to Greek mythology because she was checking  it out so often from the Hailey library that we felt no one else was getting the chance to read it. Now she even knows all the Norse gods.”

DID YOU KNOW?

Wow! Students in Hemingway’s third grade and Community School’s sixth came up with a number of interesting factoids about this year’s Bug Zoo stars:

A chameleon changes colors—even blue!—to help blend into its background.

Mantises spread their wings and open their mouths to appear bigger when confronted by a predator.

Corn snakes are all muscle—they climb trees to eat bird eggs.

Beetles have hard shells to protect them from attack.

Black widow spiders have eight eyes enabling them to see all around . They also sense prey by listening for vibrations.

A stick bug looks like a stick.

Grasshoppers blend in the grass to hide from attackers.

Butterflies attach their eggs to leaves with a special glue.

Killer bees can chase their victims up to a quarter mile. They can remain agitated for 24 hours after an attack.

A lantern fly has real eyes on one end and fake eyes on the other to throw off prey.

BUG ZOO U COMING UP:

This year’s theme focuses on adaptations insects and other critters use to survive. Among them, mimicry or copying something to increase their chances of survival. For instance, butterflies and moths sometimes feature frightening eyespots that startle birds, giving the butterflies a chance to escape.

Learn more when the SBG hold BUG ZOO U from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 13. Owners of many of Bug Zoo’s 35 critters, including Alex and Tracy Olsen, will be on hand to share stories about their pets, including Burma the Corn Snake, Boris the Ball Python and Sneakers the French Ivory Millipede. Cost is $5 for adults, $3 for children 5 through 18 and free for children 4 and under.

The SBG will offer FREE PUBLIC VIEWING of the Bug Zoo from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, May 8-12 and Monday through Thursday May 15-18. Those who can’t come during those hours can come earlier but should be aware that the SBG will be entertaining school classes earlier in the day.