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TUCSON, Ariz. – During his final semester at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tony Gustin and friends were pondering their career paths, when he asked himself a question most of us ask: “How can I make a career out of one of my passions?” For Gustin, whose family owns Milwaukee-based Unico Spray Products, his passion is insects, and while chatting with friends an idea began to crystallize. “It started over a couple of beers in my last semester at UW Madison,” Gustin recalls. “Someone blurted out ‘I don't want to work 9 - 5 the rest of my life! My parents were teachers and they had their summers off. I want my summers off! I want to talk about bugs and get paid to do it!” What started out as a joke soon took the shape of a business plan. What if we could make a living by traveling with exotic insects and giving hands-on, interactive presentations, the group pondered. Originally, Gustin and his college friends talked about pooling their resources to launch a traveling exhibit, but ultimately Gustin was the only one to follow through. In the Spring of 1995, Gustin officially launched the Creepy Crawly Zoo. The centerpiece of exhibit is, of course, the insects. Gustin says children are given the opportunity to handle bugs such as millipedes, walking sticks, beetles, cockroaches and praying mantids. “It’s great to see the reaction on the kids’ faces when they are holding an insect,” Gustin says. “Hopefully, they will gain a respect or at least an admiration for insects.” A real grass-roots effort went into this venture. Gustin said he distributed 600 fliers and, to his surprise, he received about 20 phone calls. From these 20 calls Gustin was able to book four exhibits. “On my first-ever presentation, which was to a class of first-graders, I died a slow and miserable death,” Gustin recalls. “I think my information was good, but I really needed to polish up my routine and make it exciting.” Specifically, Gustin added humor to his routine and found that kids responded. The second important addition to his routine was a question and answer session with the kids. After honing his presentation skills, Gustin’s shows started growing in popularity. Still, figuring out a way to finance the shows was a challenge. “After my fourth show I was getting a little bummed because I really didn’t have a future plan,” Gustin said. “At this show, a TV reporter came along and broadcast a really enthusiastic segment.” TV news stations then began calling Gustin and booking him for appearances. This publicity grabbed the attention of local schools, which began booking him. In two semesters, Gustin went from giving presentations at four schools to giving presentations at 25 schools to 13,000 students by the fourth semester. Gustin says the bookings have increased steadily throughout the years to where now he gives about 75 live shows per year at schools and another 50 at libraries. The number of students who have seen has presentation averages about 40,000 per year. The majority of his presentations are in his hometown region (Greater Milwaukee) and in his current city of residence – Tucson, Ariz. Gustin also has become a regular guest on the TV program Good Morning Arizona and has appeared as a guest at the Jack Hanna Insect Zoo. Gustin says he is excited about the future of the Creep Crawly Zoo. He recently launched the second phase of the Creepy Crawly Zoo, which is the Web site www.creepycrawlyzoo.com. Included on the site are reference materials that kids can use to re-enforce what was presented, such as more information about all the animals in the zoo and some of the best videos of arthropods and other creepies on the Internet. Over the next year the Web site will feature monthly featured videos, other interactive multi-media and downloadable reference material. The third phase is the video series which will be coming out next year and is directly related to the Web site. In addition, the T-Rex Museum in Tucson has added a permanent Creepy Crawly Zoo exhibit.