First look inside five-acre bug zoo - and you can take a creepy crawly home

Martin French launched BugzUK more than 20 years ago in a shed in his garden and now has a five-acre tropical invertebrate park to his name.

BugzUK founder Martin French with a giant snail at his Lenwade park, which opens on May 28 (Image: Archant 2022)

A quarter of the park is in use and Mr French has plans to develop the Nowhere Lane site - the home of the former Norfolk Wildlife Park in Lenwade - over the next decade.

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The refurb so far has cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, with estimations that a total of £4million will be spent over the next 10 years.

BugzUK will provide a hands-on experience to visitors (Image: Archant 2022)

"Keeping insects is a great way to teach children about life and death," he explained.

Martin French of BugzUK shows off a praying mantis at BugzUK (Image: Archant 2022)

He said: "25 years ago I had a dream to build a zoo.

"I started off with six praying mantis. I've been doing stuff since I was knee-high to a grasshopper.

BugzUK is home to more than 200 live species of insects (Image: Archant 2022)

"We want to educate kids more than anything else.

"With bees and butterflies on the decline, our mission is getting people interested in something they probably never have been before.

Martin French, founder of Bugz UK (Image: Archant 2022)

"Conservation is also part of what we do. We're going to especially work on bees and what visitors can do to slow their disappearance.

"There are more arthropods in the world than any other thing, yet we're one of the only parks solely dedicated to them."

BugzUK in Lenwade has more than 1,000 butterflies on display (Image: Archant 2022)

As well as the 200 live species in the park, Martin's collection boasts more than 1,000 taxidermy butterflies.

And those captivated by the creatures can even take an insect home.

There's a dedicated section of the gift shop where visitors can pick their critter and all necessary foods and equipment, or orders can be placed via BugzUK's website.

Martin French of BugzUK with a stick insect (Image: Archant 2022)

One of the main attractions is the ant colony, kitted out with a liana - or climbing vine - and plastic tubes so visitors can watch the tiny insects in action.

Mr French added: "The colony started off with around 3,000 ants, and needs to get to about half a million before we open it up on May 28."

More than 250,000 ants will climb up and down the liana vine at BugzUK (Image: Archant 2022)

The up-and-coming trend of eating creepy crawlies

Entomophagy - humans eating insects - is a practice that goes back tens of thousands of years, and many cultures still actively eat bugs as part of their diets.

But the convention is growing in popularity in the Western world as a way to tackle the climate crisis.

BugzUK houses insects from all continents (Image: Archant 2022)

Packed full of proteins, they can also alleviate malnutrition and ease food insecurity.

Martin said: "Entomophagy is a big thing in other countries but not so much here.

"But you can create far more protein from growing bugs than you can from farming beef and cattle.

"I've eaten them myself, and they're usually seasoned with different flavourings."

BugzUK is set to expand over the next 10 years (Image: Archant 2022)

The UN says that consuming the right kinds of critters can help address the pressing issues of food security and the growing human population, which is set to hit 9.8 billion by 2050.