Be warned! Cal Poly Pomona will soon be invaded by hordes of swarming insects and arachnids. None shall be spared their wrath.

OK, maybe that's being overly dramatic.

On Oct. 17 and 18, the university will host its annual Insect Fair in the Bronco Student Center. Aficionados and collectors of exotic arthropods will be treated to hundreds of live and preserved specimens to browse through.

"We've got a little bit of everything," says Dick Kaae, a plant sciences professor who helps organize the event. "There are about 60 tables full of live bugs, dead bugs, spiders and hissing cockroaches."

Attendees will be afforded the opportunity to purchase books, pet tarantulas, giant millipedes or framed items for their collections.

"Bug collectors compete to have the biggest and prettiest bug," Kaae says. "One of the amazing things about it is that some of the people have hundreds of thousands of dollars in their collections and they choose to show them there."

Proceeds from the event will be used to fund student trips to arthropod-rich locations such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Costa Rica and New Zealand, Kaae says.

Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for children and students (with ID), and free for children younger than 2. Discount rates are available for senior citizens and large groups.

The Insect Fair will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. A shuttle will be running from Parking Lot C to the Bronco Student Center.

For more information - or to beg for mercy from the arthropod apocalypse - call (714)960-8022.