They’ve called him many things over the years, but these days up in Gold Run, they call him Kenny the Bug Man.

“I’ve done automotive work since I was 13. I’m 60 now, and I want to get out of it,” says Kenneth Weatherwax, who also goes by “Kenny the Bug Man.”

He wants to sell yard art – ants, snails, dragonflies, ladybugs, even angels – made out of river rock and recycled iron.

He says he got the idea of making ants out of river stone and old telephone wire, couch springs and other scrap iron about six months ago.

“People just started buying them,” he says with bemused amazement. “I can’t seem to keep them in my shop.”

“It’s been strictly word-of-mouth,” he reports, saying the only marketing he’s doing is placing samples at TJ’s Roadhouse in Colfax and at Monte Vista Inn in Dutch Flat.

Otherwise, most of his customers see the whimsical critters when they pick up their mail at the Gold Run Post Office. His shop is next door.

An artist at heart, Kenny soon branched out to other garden denizens like his heavier-air-dragonflies or tough little ladybugs with sheet metal wings.

And when he found an unusual striped rock, he made a bumblebee.

He’s even made a stone angel for the Monte Vista Inn.

“I’ll make you anything you want,” he laughs, as he sees ever-new ways to blend iron and rock to his own or his customer’s whims.

“I’ve already got 10 to 15 orders to fill for Christmas,” he says.

Asked if he would have to hire people to help him keep up with his orders if he gets too busy, Kenny thought a moment, then said, “But then it wouldn’t be my art.”

For more information, call The Bug Man at 320-9725.