Toms River, New Jersey: Insectropolis

Bugs and pest control made more fun than they already are, in "the bugseum of New Jersey."

Went with my family (husband and 2 boys, aged 9 and 13). We had heard about it from a friend and it exceeded our expectations. The theme was an insect city, hence Insectropolis! Centered around Central Park in the middle, was Caterpillar Cafe with touch screen computers, WBUG which talked about insect communication, The Rock, which housed the bad bugs, Bug U (school room!) and others. The staff were very friendly. The boys even got to touch some of the live insects!

My husband and I spent 2 1/2 hours at this wonderful museum. It has fantastic displays of insects from around the world. The butterfly displays are beautiful. They also have some live insects, many of which are brought out for school tours. We're in our 60's, but sort of "crashed" a school tour and got to hold a large tarantula and a hissing cockroach. There are usually several school tours each day.

Don't know much, but from a mailbox-stuffing flyer it appears to be a new insect museum affiliated with a pest control business. "Insectropolis is an insect learning center featuring educational touch screen computer games, hands-on exhibits, hundreds of live insects and other arthropods, thousands of beautiful and bizarre dried insect specimens, a bug store and much more."