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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion (Closed)

RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report

Directions:
Northeast edge of the city. I-95 exit 32. Take Academy Rd west a half-mile, then turn left (south) onto Frankford Ave./US-13 for a little over a mile. The Insectarium is on the southbound side, between Welsh Rd and Rhawn St.
Hours:
Reported closed in Nov. 2023.
Status:
Closed

Hissing cockroach at the Insectarium.

Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion

The largest bug museum in the northeast claims to have the world's largest centipedes -- so big that they eat bats. Reported closed in November 2023.

Roadsideamerica.com Report...

Model Cockroach Kitchen.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Model Cockroach Kitchen
Insectarium:

The centerpiece of this insect education museum was a kitchen filled with live cockroaches.

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Visitor Tips and News About Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion

Reports and tips from RoadsideAmerica.com visitors and Roadside America mobile tipsters. Some tips may not be verified. Submit your own tip.

Insectarium

Alas, the roach kitchen is no more. I saw it 25 years ago. A few years back, a non-profit purchased the building and expanded the museum. All three floors have exhibits now. A butterfly garden was added and many more live creepies -- scorpions, lizards and such. The staff is super nice and will let all kinds of wildlife crawl all over you, if you ask. Great for kids, too.

With a small cafe now on the first floor, the City of Philadelphia nixed the whole roach kitchen idea. There's a small, but very inexpensive gift display where most things are only a few bucks.

[Randy Hoopes, 02/18/2020]

Tarantula!

Insectarium

At first I thought I was in the wrong place because it has an insect extermination sign by the front entrance! I'm glad I still went in to check it out anyway. I enjoyed my trip here. The staff are very informative and super helpful. I got to hold a gecko and a tarantula, which was pretty cool! Right now they are renovating the exhibits, but it's still a pretty cute place if you like insects, arachnids, reptiles, and other critters.

[Sam P., 06/06/2016]
Insectarium

You may want to add the insect museum in Philadelphia, which features a large number of both live and dead insects and spiders. It is housed in a former firehouse; on the first floor is the exterminating business and the second floor is the insect museum. (The museum is owned and operated by the exterminating business). It's a great place. Phone number is 215 338-3000. Address: 8046 Frankford Avenue.

[Joel Chaiken, 12/12/1998]

Created by the Bug Off Exterminating Company, the Insectarium opened in 1992 and offers 6,500 square feet of fun, including a kitchen and bathroom filled with roaches, a tank of glow-in-the-dark scorpions, Mexican Red Leg tarantulas, Goliath beetles, Thorny Devils, Human Face Stink Bugs, and all manner of insectoid horrors.


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