Awesome Mini-beast Incursions in NSW and ACT, Australia

Travelbugs Mobile Mini-beasts is a fun 'hands-on' mobile education service that travels all over NSW (and beyond) educating people of all ages about the benefits and wonders of invertebrates or 'mini-beasts' (insects, spiders, snails, millipedes etc) within our environment. Every workshop includes a hands-on mini-beast experience not to be forgotten! Live mini-beasts brought along include large and colourful stick insects, centipedes, millipedes, giant burrowing cockroaches, preying mantis, spiders, scorpions, beetles, caterpillars and more. A large collection of over 200 specimens of preserved mini-beasts or ‘biofacts’ are also brought along including sea shells, urchins, starfish, sponges, corals, cocoons, eggs, eggs cases, skins, preserved insects etc.

Travelbugs Mobile Mini-beasts also offers services to the media and has featured on several popular television programs in Australia such as Creature Features, Gardening Australia, Playschool, Burke's Backyard, Sunrise and Better Homes & Gardens.

Let us bring the mini-beasts to you!

We come to your school and conduct a fun, interactive workshop on the importance of 'mini-beasts' and their life cycles within food webs, ecosystems, agriculture, forestry, medicine, etc. Questions on 'mini-beasts' & everything entomological will be answered!

At every workshop, we exhibit a wide variety of 'live mini-beasts' including various species of stick insects, giant burrowing cockroaches, preying mantis, millipedes, centipedes, crickets, mealworms, scorpions, spiders, beetles and more and allow supervised handling of harmless mini-beasts and over 200 preserved biofacts including embedded and dried insects, shells, starfish, corals, sponges, sea urchin, eggs, egg cases, skins, wings, cocoons etc. 

How Much?

1 hour interactive demonstration to entire group + 20mins hands-on discovery
session per class.

Inside Sydney Metro area (including Blue Mountains & Bathurst)
$7 per child (min 60 / $420) GST EXEMPT

Outside Sydney?
Prices vary upon number of students, workshop/display requirements & venue location. Email or call us for a quote!

If you have a particular mini-beast topic or activity that you would like us to cover, we will design a workshop specifically to meet your needs.

All workshops meet the Board of Studies K-12 Syllabus Guidelines and assist teachers in meeting a variety of learning outcomes. Topics covered may include mini-beasts and:

• Changes in Our World: life cycles, food chains, food webs & the seasons etc.
• Preparing for the Schoolyard Safari: Discovering Mini-beasts: What you can do at home or school. Collecting and studying mini-beasts in the backyard, schoolyard & beyond. Learn how to build insect traps, terrariums, butterfly garden or compost heap, keep live mini-beasts, safety, capture, ID, re-release, surveys etc. (Several options available)
• Fears & Phobias; think you're scared?
• Communities, Habitats & Ecology; Who lives where? Who helps who? Shelters.
• Conservation & Threatened Species; threats & recovery plans.
• Uses in Industry: Agriculture, Forestry (Pests & Allied Species) & Medical Uses & Research as well as Forensic Entomology.
• Entomology: career & hobby choices available.
• Anatomy & Physiology; Mini-beast form & function explained. Dissection conducted for HS Biology students on request.
• Taxonomy, Classification & insects ID
• Art & Photography

We can do up to ~180 students per day.
Discounts for Special Needs schools.

All workshops are supported with a free CD filled with over 50MB of mini-beast resources including fact sheets, activity sheets, care sheets, clip art and more.

Risk Assessment & Management Plans available for incursions upon request. We have full Public Liability cover.

For more information, resources, teacher/student comments and more, check out our website at
www.mini-beasts.com or find us on Facebook!