Insectarium grand opening report and photos

Our friend and blogger extraordinaire Alison Heller attended today's grand opening of the Wildwood Insectarium and was kind enough to share the following report and photos...

The Insectarium has three parts: a drink and snack bar called Butterfly Cafe, a gift shop featuring all kinds of bug themed gifts from butterfly nets to hermit crabs to candy made with insects and the rest of the building is filled with terrariums of live insects.

We saw centipedes, millipedes, giant crickets and cockroaches, water-dwelling insects, giant scorpions and I even got to play with a live tarantula and a stick bug, which seemed to stare at me curiously as it crawled up my arm.

I was truly impressed by the variety and number of live insects there. There's an enclosed gazebo filled with butterflies and cocoons waiting to open. Cases of mounted insects from all over the world lined the walls. The staff knew everything about their insects.

They handled them for us and demonstrated their special talents- like the Blue Death Feigning Beetles which were a beautiful shade of grey-blue and the second our guide picked one up, the beetle played dead! It rolled on its back and curled up its legs just like it was dead. It "came back to life" after a few minutes of being left in the terrarium.

I don't like bugs at all and I got a total kick out of the place. It's a fun, educational, interesting and weird new addition to Wildwood.

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Thanks again to Alison for the great report!

Be sure to check out her blogs at Superalzy.com and alisonheller.wordpress.com.