Raymond Mendez is an “insect wrangler.” He has tamed 25,000 roaches and trained moths to attack on command for the movie “Silence of the Lambs.” He founded a company that develops exhibits for zoos and museums.

On Feb. 20, Mendez is bringing his live ant and naked mole-rat colonies to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. They are taking part in the Southwest’s first Social Insect Science EXPO. The EXPO is sponsored by Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences.

The EXPO was designed for inquiring minds and families. It brings together some of the top scientists from Arizona State University, their favorite critters and the public. Attendees will be able to peer inside bee colonies and rub elbows-to-antennae with leaf-cutter, harvester and trap-jaw ants. Mendez will also give a talk about his work in science, film and television, design and advertising.

“Ray is a creative genius and a naturalist. He combines his artistic vision with a close knowledge of and feel for biology,” says Tate Holbrook, one of the EXPO hosts. Holbrook is a doctoral student at ASU who studies ants with Professor Jennifer Fewell.

The EXPO ant-venture begins at 6 p.m., with Mendez’s talk at 7:30 p.m. The events will be held in the garden’s Dorrance Auditorium. Entrance to the garden and events are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Seating for the talk is limited and filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Mendez’s career began with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he helped create nature dioramas. From there, he went into television and advertising. He is perhaps most well known for designing Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar for McDonalds. But he says that by combining his skill in design with his interest—maybe even obsession—for insects, he has made a career bringing the public in closer contact with the sometimes creepy, sometimes inspiring world of insects.

Currently, he rears colonies of ants for live-insect displays in museums around the world. He also raises naked mole-rats—one of the few mammal species that have a society resembling ants and bees. Mendez and his mole-rats were featured in the 1998 movie “Fast, Cheap and Out of Control.”

More information about the EXPO is at http://sols.asu.edu/news/2010/03_news_10.php. Directions to the Desert Botanical Gardens are at http://www.dbg.org.