We'll be honest: if you're not a fan of bugs and creepy-crawlies, you may be happier elsewhere. Because at this lively museum, you'll do more than stare at insects: you'll listen to them, touch them and, if you dare, even taste them. It's a multisensory adventure that’s especially fun for kids. The eight-minute 4-D film Awards Night: The Tiniest Show on Earth spotlights the world’s most amazing insects. Our favorite exhibit? The mesmerizing leaf-cutter ants, working hard!
Adventurous visitors can munch on chocolate chirp cookies (topped with crickets) or mango chutney with waxworms in the Bug Appetit room, or pet an exotic insect, such as the thumb-sized Madagascar roach, in the Metamorphosis Gallery. The Louisiana Swamp Gallery and Insects of New Orleans display highlight regional creepy crawlies. The latter exhibit examines yellow fever, a mosquito-borne virus that killed more than 40,000 people in the city between 1805 and 1905. For a more tranquil setting, wander the butterfly garden, an Asian-themed walk-though exhibit where colorful butterflies flicker past with abandon. The insectarium’s retail shop, The Flea Market , sells bug-related gifts, from huggable stuffed bumble bees to a start-your-own-ant-colony kit.
The museum is located inside the carriageway of the city’s historic US Custom House. Construction of the building began in 1848, but it took 33 years and nine architects to complete it. Confederate soldiers were imprisoned on the site when Union forces occupied New Orleans during the Civil War. Today, because it is a federal building, visitors’ bags will be searched.
