The free family event is done partly for fun, and partly to share Ohio’s creepy, crawly, mostly good to have around nocturnal bug life.

Graduate students, faculty and staff from CFAES’s Department of Entomology — the science of insects — will lead the event’s activities. There will be guided walks, black light traps to lure moths in so people can see them up close, a bug zoo, cockroach races, face painting, firefly catching and maggot art.

The event will proffer a sampling of edible insects and guided walks in the dark.

There’s no set schedule for the activities, which will run throughout the event, but the walks will have a sign-up sheet. A walk will venture out into the darkness as soon as a group is filled.

Registration is not needed and parking is free. Participants will receive a free milkweed plant for their garden, a food source for, among other things, milkweed tiger moths at night and monarch butterflies during the daytime.

Bring a flashlight, walking shoes and a clear, empty jar for collecting insects. Park in the lot across from the arboretum’s Garden of Roses of Legend and Romance on Williams Road, and from there, walk a short distance on a paved path to the Jack and Deb Miller Pavilion.

If rain is threatening, call 317-403-4193 to find out whether the event will go on. The rain date is July 2 at the same time and location.

The sponsors of the event are Mike and Diane Borger; Ohio State’s Zamorano Program; and CFAES’s Entomology Graduate Student Association, Department of Entomology and Secrest Arboretum.