DIY Bug Halloween Costumes
It's Halloween week! Jess is going to a party in Portland and is going to do some mad makeup like the Cheshire Cat. I am flying down to Texas to trick-or-treat with my niece (8) and nephews (12 & 2). I'm going to be Big Bird. I'm making the costume last minute. We'll see how it goes. It's one of those things that is either going to be amazing or horrible. Maybe you bugdorks are Last Minute Lucys as well? Need some ideas? You can totally pull together a cool insect mask in no time at all. We're going to let you in on some behind-the-scenes Bug Chicks costume-making mojo. With these easy costumes, armed with a few fast facts people will drop the candy in your bag and you can drop the knowledge!
BUTTERFLY: You need BIG sunglasses that are comfortable. They are your base. Glitter painted styrofoam balls for the eyes. Cut them in half. Hot glue them onto the lenses. Leave a little room for, you know, seeing. Pipe cleaners wrapped around the nose piece with little tips at the end. You're a butterfly, and butterflies have capitate antennae- little caps on the ends. BOOM. That's morphology. Aquarium tubing for the butterfly proboscis. You can use a smaller tube than we did. Hang it over your arm. Adorbs. Playfully search around for candy using the proboscis. You're searching for sweet, salty, fatty, sour. These are your essential minerals. When butterflies are on the ground licking dirt, this is what they're searching for. It's called puddling.
TIGER BEETLE: Sunglasses and eyes from above. Cardboard for the face and the mandibles (we used corrugated plastic because we teach with these and need them to last). Wrap the part that go in your mouth with electrical tape. Pipe cleaners. We should invest in them. We use them a lot.
MALE MOTH: Make moth antennae in five minutes! Use a hard head band for the base and LOTS of pipe cleaners. We wrap them around wooden barbecue skewers. These antennae use a combination of super, big fluffy pipe cleaners and regular ones. Top these off with sunglasses and some Halloween store wings and BLAMMO! You're a male saturniid moth that use these big antennae to detect female pheromones in the air.
Borer Beetle: Wanna get a little more intense? Get a hoodie sweatshirt. Poke holes in the top to add antennae. We used pipe cleaners wrapped with black electrical tape. We colored the back of the hoodie with a sharpie. Again we used corrugated plastic to make the beetle wings but you can definitely use cardboard. Paint it and stitch it to the shoulders of the hoodie. And you're the banded alder borer beetle. The larvae bore into heartwood of trees. Woohoo!
Happy Halloween!