Insectarium354

My family made the mistake of visiting the Insectarium based on the reviews from this site, which are from 2006. We just visited in Dec 2009, and were really disappointed. The museum technically still has two floors of exhibits, but everything has clearly deteriorated since 2006. First of all, there are no longer any guides at the museum. One buys tickets at the neughboring insect extermination services and supplies store, and then enters the museum, which has no heat at all. The first floor still has some impressive exhibits of preserved bugs, but they are all really showing wear -- everything is dusty, dirty, and many exhibits are broken. At one time this museum apparently had an impressive collection of live bugs on the second floor, but now one mostly sees empty exhibits, sometimes featuring disintegrated bugs inside. Most of the exhibits are lined up against the wall on the floor. This floor was clearly sadly neglected and pretty sad to see.

This place is not worth visiting, especially for $7.00 per admission ticket. Even worse is the owner who claims that all the bugs are not dead, and will come back to life when the heat is somehow restored to the museum. What appears to have once been a really unique place has clearly been neglected for a lot longer than since the weather turned cold this year.

My 7-year-old really enjoyed it. The place is relatively small; it won't take more than a couple hours to see the whole thing. Ground floor is a little gift shop, second floor is all mounted specimens (except for the beehive and the model kitchen/bathroom crawling with cockroaches), third floor is live specimens. We got to touch a giant cockroach, a giant millipede and a whip scorpion. We also got an interesting look at some stick insects and the employees were very friendly and knowledgeable.

We had our daughter's third birhtday here and were pleasantly surprised. The tour guides were friendly and helpful, the party room is a great size and very clean. The kids (ranging in age from 1-10) really liked the bug tour. The price is right also!! I highly recommend having your child's party here.

It's definitely a different experience. It's fun and educational at the same time. Groups really benefit from the experience.