Over the last month, intu Milton Keynes shopping centre in Milton Keynes has been the home to 12 giant bugs, much to the delight of children and adults during the summer holiday.
Since crawling into the centre on the 31 July, visitors to the centre have been invited to interact with the Big bugs tour, text the critters and start a conversation to reveal facts about each one. Over 1,600 people had conversations with the bugs, and it has been revealed that Milton Keynes’ most popular bug of the tour was the hornet, closely followed by the beautiful swallowtail butterfly.
The national tour, which was supported by nature expert Chris Packham, also saw involvement from local charities and organisations who came into the centre to run activities for shoppers to enjoy completely free. This included the intu Milton Keynes Green Gym who ran bug hotel workshops over two days and The Parks Trust put together a fantastic guide of where to find the bugs in their natural habitats in and around Milton Keynes, to encourage children and families to spend more time outdoors.
Kirsty McGiff, marketing manager at intu Milton Keynes said, “Our big bug tour has been a huge success and we couldn’t be happier with how it was received by our shoppers. The bugs are incredible and so detailed which means that this, as well as the text tool means families are able to see and learn about the bugs.”
The bugs included in the tour were the swallowtail caterpillar, the climbable ladybird, the elegant southern damselfly, the adorable nut weevil, the stag beetle, the honeybee, a black ant, the rose chafer, the fascinating greater water boatman, the meadow grasshopper and of course the two Milton Keynes favourites mentioned above.
intu Milton Keynes was the second intu shopping centre to receive the tour and the bugs will be travelling to 13 intu shopping centres all together, with intu Uxbridge as the next hosts. For more information go to www.intu.co.uk/BigBugs.
