Meet the Team
Nick Wadham
Nick is the founder and owner of Bugfest.
He is an entomologist and life-long professional natural historian with forty years experience keeping and studying minibeasts, reptiles and wildlife, a published children’s nature author, holds a stage one Cert Ed, BSc Hons in accredited prior learning retail management, a qualified teacher (PGCE) and is a Fellow of The Royal Entomological Society (FRES).
When not at home he is more often than not darting around the country facilitating in schools, or presenting, and performing live wildlife shows in theatres and on stage at the UK’s leading holiday parks.
If not in the UK, he is probably leading an expedition somewhere around the world, filming for Wild and Deadly and playing with things that can eat him.
Nick covers the south west schools, and further afield if required.
Andrew Mitchell
Covering the north west and north east…
Mitch is passionate about all thing’s bugs. With a special interest in mantises, he’s been a keeper and breeder of insects and spiders for over 30 years, so you could say he’s mad about bugs!
When he’s not hanging out in his bug rooms, he loves nothing more than studying, and talking about these amazing critters to anyone who’ll listen. His specialist subjects are the vital roles that bugs play within the natural world, and, how they have evolved strategies and mechanisms allowing them to be some of the most successful classes of animals this planet has ever known.
Along with SEN experience, Mitch has an academic research background in Molecular & Cellular Biology, where he studied to PhD level, and gained many years of University lecturing experience.
Andy Watson
Based in Wrexham, covering North Wales and the north west, Andy has 20 yrs professional experience as a Youth Worker.
He delivers in a variety of locations and settings, from one to one and group sessions in Youth clubs and schools, to mountain biking through the occasional North Welsh forest.
Andy’s background is predominantly working in some of Wales’s most deprived areas and this has offered him the opportunity to work with young people of all ages and circumstances ranging from young carers, SEN schools, and NEET’s. Having started out as a hobbyist keeper over 25 yrs ago, Andy has now combined his passion with inverts and his youth work experience and becomes part of the Bugfest team, covering North Wales and the North West.
Henry Wadham
Henry is Nick’s son and a Bugfest Ranger.
He spends many days out on the road with his father helping with the shows, carrying all of the sound gear, and running the tec for the shows.
He is also one of the Bugfest Rangers, and is regularly out and about on his free weekends helping out with the handling.
Henry has had a life of nature (no choice really) but has chosen a different path and is a fully qualified motor mechanic, now training to be a master technician.
His first word as an infant was not mum, nor dad, it was car.
Leighton Margetts
Leighton is one of our Bugfest Rangers.
He has been working with us for two years and has supported so many events with handling and talking to the crowds at the large festivals we attend on a regular basis.
Leighton is also regularly on the road with Nick, travelling the country providing the all important tec support needed to put on such large scale professional performances.
He is a life-long nature lover and has amassed an ever growing collection of tarantulas.
Leighton, ably assisted by his long suffering wife Kari, look after local events and party visits in the south west.
Ben Butler
Ben is one of our younger ranger volunteers.
It is safe to say that Ben’s animal, in particular invertebrate knowledge challenges many of the older keepers out there. He has certainly won the respect of all of us here at Bugfest.
Ben is a regular animal handler for us at events around the UK, and has flourished.
It is no surprise that he is totally smashing his Level Three Animal Management studies.
Watch this space! A new Attenborough is in the making!
Lara Butler
Covering Hampshire and the surrounding areas up to London and the south east…
Lara Butler is a mum of a bug obsessed teen who’s love of all creatures is so contagious that the whole family are now pretty bug obsessed.
It is through her son (Ben) that Lara is now part of the Bugfest family.
Lara is a Forest School Leader and Nursery practitioner who works in several local schools in Surrey and Hampshire.
With nature as her classroom she says she has the best job in the world she gets to use nature everyday come rain or shine, she uses it to build on children’s learning, understanding and imagination to become confident and resilient people.
With her added love of insects there is never a dull lesson as there is always a learning opportunity if someone finds a worm or a woodlouse.
Lara keeps millipedes and armoured crickets amongst many other minibeasts.
Richard Butler
Covering Hampshire and the surrounding areas up to London and the south east…
Teaming up with Lara and Ben, Richard is a Dad of a bug obsessed teen who’s love of all creatures is so contagious that the whole family are now pretty bug obsessed.
It is through his son that Richard is now part of the Bugfest family.
Richard is a landscape gardener who loves all the British wild life.
He encourages all the people he works for to rewild areas of their gardens emphasising the importance of log piles and leaf litter wild areas.
Richard’s love of wild life has been life-long and has taken him to many places in the world, Africa holds a particular interest for him from the insects to the big cats.
He has a love of reptiles and birds. Richard keeps tarantulas even though he is very nervous of true spiders, frogs, and snakes.
Becky Telfer
Becky is one of our Bugfest Rangers.
She has been working with us for two years and has supported so many events with handling and talking to the crowds at the large festivals we attend on a regular basis.
She is a lifelong naturalist, with a love of all nature, especially exotics, which she has been keeping for years.
Greg Rose
Greg is one of our highly popular volunteer handlers.
Having come into the world of inverts at a later stage in life than most, Greg has strived to learn & pass on knowledge to those he encounters when taking part in Bugfest events.
Originally a keeper of only spiders, he has expanded to include scorpions; beetles & mantids.
Due to the amazing support of his wife Rachel he is able to attend lots of our events, where he passes on his knowledge & dispel common misconceptions to both children & adults alike. One of the best parts of these events, for Greg, is when he is able to help a nervous, or scared person to overcome their fear, see them learn more & more and maybe even hold an animal they had a fear of.
With the support of his wife Rachel, and those around him, Greg would not be able to be part of the team. Greg is very grateful for all the support and help provided, especially when it comes to getting around fields & places where wheelchair access is not the best.
Rachel Rose
Details coming soon
Leon Gill
Details coming soon
Chris Jones
Details coming soon
Kari Margetts
Details coming soon
Sarah Darwin
Details coming soon
Sav Lloyd
Details coming soon
Steve Skull
Details coming soon
Amy Rowlands
Details coming soon