The 39th “Venomous” Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (IFFF) will be held on Saturday, February 26, 2022. It will be hosted by the Entomology Graduate Students Association in the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This year’s festival will be online via Zoom at https://publish.illinois.edu/uiuc-egsa/ifff/. Activities will begin at 5 pm CST, and film introduc
tions will start at 7:30 pm. A full schedule and a registration link will be available on our website. This year’s festival will feature a special presentation from Justin Schmidt of the famous Schmidt sting pain index, along with a virtual insect petting zoo, venomous insect Bugscope, a virtual tour of the Illinois Natural History Survey insect collection, bee
ventriloquism, insect crafts, and a virtual gallery of the annual IFFF art contest featuring insect-themed artwork by local K-12 students. This year, as befits our Zoom format, a program featuring animated and live short films and clips from feature-length films will be presented. Clips will be shown in three groups--first, stings as exaggerated comic plot elements; next, reactions to stings, including anaphylaxis, as humorous, dramatic, or horrific highlights; and, finally, shorts revealing the scientific reality of venom and venomous insects, including potential beneficial uses of arthropod venom. Venom usage among arthropods can vary greatly--honey bee workers sting as a means to protect themselves or their colony, while predatory wasps use their venom to paralyze their prey to feed to their larvae. We will even be featuring a live stinging demonstration to highlight the fascinating process of venom delivery. Come and feel the virtual burn!
