London for kids: Too scared to sleep - my night with the creepy crawlies, London Zoo

By SIMON HEPTINSTALL

Can we keep the lights on? Another sleepover party prepares for a night in London Zoo insect house


I climbed into my sleeping bag on the hard floor and they turned out the lights. It was going to be a long night. Alongside me was a teeming mass of locusts, a deadly black widow spider and a busy family of black rats. My 'bedroom' was also shared with snakes, ants, giant millipedes, frogs and poisonous jellyfish. I lay in the dark listening to the faint scratching of hundreds of giant cockroaches.

You may think I was on an Indiana Jones adventure in remote Borneo, braving the dangers of sleeping in the rainforest. But I was discovering that the world's creepiest-crawliest after-dark experience is now on offer right in the heart of London.

I was sampling the new 'BedBUGS sleepover' at London Zoo. The idea of this insect-infested experience is simple: you turn up at the dark and empty zoo in Regent's Park at 7pm and spend the night sleeping in the 'BUGS' insect house.

It's the animal world's answer to A Night At The Museum. Unlike the film, you won't see dinosaurs and old statues come to life - you'll see real deadly creatures instead.

The zoo night includes a tour of the insect house, animal party games, animal-themed bedtime stories and, best of all, a torchlight tour of the whole zoo.

It's a chance to see what goes on after all the other visitors have left. When I go during the day, the animals always seem to be asleep or hiding. I found that many of them, such as the lions and gorillas, are more active after dark.

As the BedBUGS night is aimed at youngsters, adults must normally bring between three and six children. The sleepover is ideal for groups such as birthday parties, cubs, scouts or school visits.

I took my nine-year-old son Harry and his schoolfriend Archie. Small boys seem to like anything to do with torches and there was lots of excited whooping as we stumbled along in the dark trying to keep up with the keepers. We saw lots of creatures that seemed as interested in their unexpected night-time visitors as we were in them. We decided that the cutest were the baby otters, the oddest the anteaters and the scariest the grumpy camels.

Girls and boys are segregated among the corridors and display cases. Adults just have to fit in where they can. By the time keepers turned off the lights at 11pm, I'd noted that all the snakes, spiders and scorpions were safely behind glass in their cases. But it still feels as if you are sleeping among them.


Careful where you put your hands: Exhibits on show include tarantulas


One scary moment came just before bedtime, when zookeeper Kate Pearce had lifted a giant poisonous tarantula spider called Polly right up to our faces. The zookeepers also pointed out another creature sharing the BUGS building with us: a black widow spider in its case just along the corridor.

Her bite is so deadly that they've installed an alarm button if a careless keeper gets bitten. A bottle of antidote is kept on site too. Just in case.


Travel Facts
London Zoo BedBUGS sleepovers will run on Saturday nights between March and October 2011, with separate dates for children aged eight to 11, and 11 to 14.
Cost is £50 for children, £50 for adults, including a small breakfast box.
Visit www.zsl.org/bedbugs.


source: dailymail