Portland's first zoo and museum dedicated entirely to insects and arachnids!
PDX INSECTARIUM MASTERPOST:
The PDX Insectarium began, coincidentally, the same year that I moved to Oregon, initially a traveling popup for a few years before establishing is first permanent location. Unfortunately they are now in their third different location, and will likely have to move again by next year! They also recently applied for a state grant as an educational facility so they could afford to expand and upgrade, but they were passed over, so they're always in need of more visitors and funds! The more money they make, the cooler the things they can exhibit.
LOCATED at 5429 N Moore Ave in Portland, Oregon
OPEN 11-5 pm Wednesday, 12-6 pm on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. CLOSED only Monday and Tuesday!
$5 per person every Thursday! All other days are $10 per adult or $7 per child, discounts given for EBT recipients
WALK-INS WELCOME, but you can book ahead to avoid any potential wait times if we're at maximum capacity.
There isn't really a time limit. 30 minutes is what you officially pay for, but it's only a loose guideline for those times when we're full! You can chill out and take your time! Seeing and appreciating everything is much more likely to take an hour or more.
-100+ live species including tarantulas, jumping spiders, black widows, the only brown recluse you can normally see in Oregon, various scorpions, an amblypigid, a vinegaroon, giant millipedes, phasmids, mantids, beetles, true bugs, a mosquito fishbowl, lots of temporary/rotating specimens and a native crawfish named Zoidberg who is still very small for his species but he clearly does not know that.
-An assortment of exotic pinned specimens including some of the world's largest insects. Come see the corpse of one of the largest of all weevils!
-A free touch area for handling desert beetles, giant roaches, isopods and superworms. Some of the main display animals like mantids and millipedes can be touched and held for an additional $5 each!
-Play area with bug toys, costumes and art supplies as well as a collection of books and games.
-Gift shop with toys, plushes, jewelry, accessories, specimens, art, and supplies for collecting or keeping arthropods.
All ages are encouraged to draw us something, which will be displayed on the walls until the walls get full, at which point some artwork gets cycled into an album you can also check out!
I work there Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday at 1-4 pm! The gift shop also includes some stuff made by me and @revretch (pins, stickers, etc). If you come by while I'm there, I'll give you a couple little free bonus rubber bugs by request. On the down-low. Our little secret.
MOST VISITORS sadly just kind of breeze right through and miss a lot of specifics, so please ask all the questions you can, everyone who works there badly wants to get to talk about everything, and we all want to show you the smaller things we keep behind the counter like the orchid mantises and jumping spiders!
