Age when you started collecting

[simosg]

I think I was 11 or 12 years old.

Hannes

[modestomoths]

I started bringing insects home in my lunchbox when I was 5. Surprised my mom when she opened it!

[prillbug2]

I started to actually collect when I was 9 years old. But may have been interested in insects when I was 4. I remember that when we moved into our second home, that the lawn had not been put in yet, and that we had weeds for one summer. The caterpillars were thick that year and I liked to let them crawl all over me. I've been studying insects since 1969. Joined 4H and presented my first collection, then joined Peoria Academy of Sciences at Lakeview Museum here in Peoria, Illinois, where I met a number of people who influenced me to continue to study insects. I settled on Cerambycidae and moths.
Jeff Prill

[saturniidave]

I was 7 years old, 46 years ago now!
My two older brothers collected for a while when I was very small, but my Dad always had cases of tropical butterflies on the walls at home so I have been around butterflies since birth really! He used to buy them from The Butterfly Farm in Bexley, Kent just a mile down the road from my house. It was run by the famous L. Hugh Newman and as a small boy I got to know him very well and he taught me all about butterflies, he became my mentor and my interest just grew and grew. I used to rush home from school, jump straight on my bicycle so I could spend an hour or two there most days before they closed, every Saturday morning was the same.
When he retired and sold the business I started to visit Watkins and Doncaster in Welling, a little further away but by now I was well experienced in catching buses. There I got to know Robin Ford and his father Richard. I still visit them at their shop at Hawkhurst but it is an hours drive now.
When I started seriously collecting around 10 years of age there were around half a dozen of us used to go out together, but one by one they succumbed to the attractions of girls and alcohol and I am the only one left now. Luckily my girlfriend and eventually wife was very understanding and quite enjoyed the odd trip out for bugs, she has been very tolerant over the years as my hobby and collection grew, to the extent of us getting a bigger house with a garage that could be converted into a bug (and shell, my other love) room.
I still have all my fond memories of those early days though.

[wollastoni]

About memories, I have heard a story about a collector now deceased.

He was very old and suffered from Alzheimer. A friend of him told me that at his end, he could not remember the first names of his children ... but he could perfectly speak about the different butterflies species he has collected in his life.

That shows how important butterflies are in our life !

PS : don't tell this story to your family...

[Deleted]

forgot to mention how much encouragement I received from Robert Gooden over the years, he has a lot to answer for.

[58chevy]

I started at age 8. I was fascinated by my uncle's collection, so I decided to start my own. I was interested in insects before I started collecting.

[bugboys3]

I started when I was 10 or 11. I entered an insect collection in 4H and continued to do so throughout my high school years.

I forgot about it in college and didn't start collecting again until my oldest son joined our local 4H club. I got him started taking insects as a project for 4H. Since then my other son has taken insects for 4H as well and now my 9 year old daughter will be bringing an insect project to the 4H fair this summer.

I'm glad I didn't throw away my old collection as I had a few really nice specimens in that old collection.

[bobw]

More than one person has mentioned something called "4H" in this thread. What does that mean?

Bob

[maurizio]

I started when I was 6 years old, exactly 50 years ago. My first "victims" were Papilio machaon and Vanessa cardui fluttering on Zinnia.

[admin]

13 years old.

[modestomoths]

Bob - 4-H is a youth education program that came out of the American Country Life movement in the early 20th century. The program promoted agricultural (and nature) education in rural communities (so that kids would develop an early appreciation for farm living and not move to cities). It was organized nationally under the land-grant university agricultural extension programs (1914) and continues to be a popular way for kids to get early exposure to nature and agriculture. The four "H"s stand for Head, Hands, Heart, and Health. I never participated, but I'm writing a thesis on the Country Life movement and Conservation, so I'm familiar with the history.

Travis

[dertodesking]

Hi James,

Good topic

Like several others I started when I was seven or eight although I was interested in "bugs" from an earlier age - one of my earliest memories is catching beetles and woodlice in the rockery of my parents garden when I was probably five.

I can't remember why (I'm getting old now - 37!!! ) but when I was about seven or eight I announced to my Mum that I wanted to collect butterflies. I will ALWAYS remember her taking me to the Hancock Museum in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (UK) and visiting the entomology department. In those days it consisted of row after row of cabinets full of butterflies that the casual visitor could open and look at. During our visit my Mum approached one of the workers and told him that I wanted to collect butterflies; the look of horror on his face is etched into my memory and is his bellowing of "YOU CAN'T COLLECT BUTTERFLIES"!!! As I've grown older I've always thought what a fool he must have been to try and discourage an interest in nature or the sciences.

I was undetered (and my Mum is made of stern stuff) so my desire to collect did not go. In those days our local newspaper ran a column answering readers questions (this was pre-internet) and my Mum wrote to them asking if they knew an address of anyone who supplied entomological equipment and they provided me with the address of "Watkins and Doncaster" as mentioned by Dave previously. It was from them that I got my first setting boards and entomology pins and I use them to this day.

When I was around 12 or 13 I was collecting on some local wasteland when I saw an older man with a net who I recognised as a neighbour. I went to see what he was doing and he was also collecting. I struck up a conversation and we arranged to meet again the following week. After a couple of weeks collecting together he invited me back to his house to see his collection. I remember we both went back to my parent's house to ask their permission (my Mum was unsure but was invited back for a cup of tea with this gentleman's wife). Well, when I saw he collection was was gobsmacked - until then I had only seen British butterflies but his collection was like something out of a museum with butterflies, moths and beetles from all four corners of the world. Work forced me to move a couple of hundred miles from my parents address but I'm still in contact with the man (who is now in his eighties) who remains as passionate as the first day I met him.

My late teenage years and early twenties brough other interests (mainly girls, booze and cars!) and more recently the birth of my daughter three years ago has meant less time than I'd like to invest in the collection (plus other things to spend money on). However, an interest in insects is something constant that has remained with me.

I guarantee you - if you're new to collecting - stick with it; it will bring years of fascination, exhiliration and joy (plus some upset along the way when you damage that prized specimen!)

Simon

[boghaunter1]

Hi Fellow Bugsters,

I've been interested in insects ever since my own 1st instar... ;D...crawling about chasing beetles, grasshoppers, bugs, ants & later making ant farms (kept under my bed!), then collecting water beetles with kitchen strainers, then by age of 8-9... chasing butterflies with homemade nets.

Saved up money & bought Holland's "The Moth Book" & poured over the plates for hrs. on end hoping one day to see & to collect some of the glorious moths pictured therein. Caught my 1st Polyphemus moth at the kitchen window shortly thereafter & pinned it inside a small wooden box I especially made for it (& still have it yet...somewhere!). Vividly remember my 1st Great Poplar Sphinx moth (Pachyshinx modesta) violently crashing into my sheet right beside my house...WOW... ...I didn't realize anything that big occurred way up here in SK! Around age 13-14 I visited our provincial museum & saw my 1st properly curated insect display/collection organized & set up by one Ronald H. Hooper...I was hooked... then & there I resolved to make my own proper scientific collection. While at the museum I also bought R. Hooper's little "Butterflies of SK'" book & read & reread it. Bought my 1st insect pins, spreading boards, storage boxes from BioQuip & began seriously collecting insects around age 16; I was always interested in all insect orders & have always considered myself a general insect collector... " a small game hunter, if you will"... ;D

Had the great good fortune to actually meet Ronald Hooper in person while in my early 20's & we have been friends ever since. Sadly Ron, my oldest collector friend & longtime mentor of 30 yrs, passed away unexpectantly only 2 months ago, & I am still very devastated... .

My absolutely happiest days have always been spent out in the field, in some beautiful secluded location, with a net/camera in hand collecting/photographing butterflies/bugs or crouching beside a light & sheet at night awaiting the wonders that fly in... . I so love being out in the field with nature...it recharges my spirit, my sanity & my soul ...don't enjoy so much being stuck inside curating anymore...bad back & glasses needed now!

John K.

[Deleted]

Starting with cigar boxes when very young and moving to the drawers was awesome. I had the good fortune to get behind the scenes at the Smithsonian when my dad ( a professional entomolgist) got permission to view the 'guts' of the establishment. All the rows of drawers just feuled me more.

Then...I got the priviledge of getting to know Dr. Lee Miller and his wife who took me ( a kid at the time) to their collecting spots. He was so nice and the Allyn Museum of Entomology took my breath away. I remained in touch with them for decades until Dr. Miller's death a few years back.

I can't describe that feeling when I opened the wings of my first purchased morpho. To this day, I remember it as though it were yesterday. My parents bought me a male Morpho cypris for my ninth birthday(a few years back from either Ianni or Taylor of Combined Insects and I simply went nuts after relaxing that butterfly and eventually opening those magical wings.
I have met SO many great insect people and I still am these days. This is the greatest of hobbies and I feel blessed to be a part of it.

I enjoyed reading about all the others and their beginnings. This was a good idea.