Bet you didn't know that bees have hairy eyes. You read right; hairy eyes. Invisible to the naked human eye, there are hundreds of hairs sprouting from the multi-lensed eyes of bees. They grow from between the hexagonal tiles that make up the convex surface of the eye. Each hair tapers at the tip like a human eyelash.

But just because we can't see bee eye hair doesn't mean it is a detail to be overlooked in the new $4.6 million Bug Lab exhibition which opens at Melbourne Museum on June 23. Melbourne is the first stop on an international tour for the Wellington-designed and made exhibition.

Pitched as being "designed by bugs for humans", the exhibition shows off the genius traits that often overlooked insects and spiders perform every day. From mind control, to swarm intelligence and precision flight.

Created by New Zealand's national museum Te Papa Tongarewa and Weta Workshop, the group behind the sets, costumes, weapons and creatures for Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, Bug Lab is big on getting the smallest of details right.

Amongst the challenges in the year-long design and construction phase was to make bees the size of beagles scientifically accurate. To do this, model makers from Wellington's Oscar and BAFTA-winning Weta Workshop found themselves shaving bees – with a very sharp blade, magnification glasses and a steady pair hands.

"James Doyle from our 3D department even tried shaving cream as he had to test different ways to shave bees," says Weta Workshop's Bug Lab project supervisor Mona Peters. "It's not something we've ever found ourselves doing before."

Shaving the bees was part of the model-making process as it allowed the insects to be photographed without distortion. More than 600 images were taken, ensuring the bees were captured from all angles. The photographs were then combined to create a 3D image, which was used to make the lifelike bees on display. Weta workers weren't expecting it to be so labour intensive.

Model makers reportedly breathed a collective sigh of relief when told bugs would be their next assignment.

Having just completed eight giant human figures for a Gallipoli exhibition, the team was ready to take a break from hand stitching individual hairs onto larger-than-life models. But Phil Sirvid, Te Papa's resident entomologist, knew better.

Relaying the story he gives a knowing laugh, so quick to surface it can't be suppressed. This is a man who has spent decades observing spiders and insects down the barrel of a microscope.

"Every day I see bugs in a way that most people don't and believe me, they are very hairy," he says. "But I think the hair was a surprise for Weta. After Gallipoli they thought 'Oh great, bugs. They won't be hairy'."

But sure enough, Weta workers again found themselves hand stitching hair. This time hog hair was selected as it best replicated bee hair when magnified 66 times. It was time consuming work. Each of the 20 Japanese honeybees in the exhibition has 2500 hairs on its body. It took model makers four days to "hair" a single bee.

But it's not just bees that have microscopic hair. More than 40,000 hours of work went into creating the bug models: from a giant orchid mantis, a ranger dragonfly and a glistening jewel wasp to a four-metre-long bombardier beetle that doubles as a slide and katipo spider – a relative of the Australian redback.

These six "hero species" have been selected to show off a "genius trait" that catches the imagination of both child and adult. Some superpowers make you stop in your tracks: the accuracy of a dragonfly's flight when hunting prey is 95 per cent. A lion meanwhile has a strike rate of just 20 per cent.

Then there is the ability of the beautiful but evil jewel wasp, which can turn a cockroach into a zombie. It does this by paralysing the roach with an initial sting, then a second dose of venom targets the area of the brain that controls the escape reflex. Enslaved to the jewel wasp, the poor cockroach is led to the wasp's lair, where the wasp lays an egg on the roach's abdomen. The roach is now the incubator and pantry for the wasp's offspring, which slowly eats its host's internal organs before emerging fully-grown. If you don't feel sorry for the cockroach after this, you have no heart.

Other less lethal talents on show at Bug Lab include the striking metallic iridescence of the blue morpho butterfly, of which there is a real specimen on display. Here is an example of science copying nature – iridescence as seen on the butterfly wings is used as a security measure on bank notes and event tickets.

Dr Sirvid says even "bugnostic" visitors have been converted. Among those who now think twice before stepping on a spider is Te Papa's head of design Ben Barraud who admits to being afraid of spiders.

"I go out of my way to avoid touching them if I can," he says.

But after working with the Bug Lab researchers and entomologist Dr Sirvid, he found himself marvelling at jumping spiders.

"I've been swayed," he enthuses. "These guys are charismatic creatures. They don't make webs but use their excellent eyesight to hunt by day, so they are not nighttime creepy crawlies."

Bug Lab: Little Bugs, Super Powers will be at Melbourne Museum from June 23-October 15.

Bridie Smith travelled to Wellington, New Zealand, to tour the Bug Lab exhibition courtesy of Melbourne Museum.