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June 30, 2015

The Insects of New Orleans

New Orleans Insects

I’ve always wanted to fly into fun!

Luckily the insects were caged, and not loose. That would have been pretty horrible. These particular insects were housed at an insect museum on Canal Street. I went inside, paid my $17 admission fee, and it quickly became obvious that this was a museum intended for children.

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A “Free Candy” van picture would probably be in poor taste, but I did consider including it.

Whatevas, I can enjoy it just the same! I’ll show those children how to properly enjoy a museum! At once, my maturity was apparent over the children.

EWW HE'S TOUCHING IT!

EWW HE’S TOUCHING IT!

That snake with legs is called a millipede, and they are apparently harmless, much like rolly-pollies. The employer assigned with holding the creature seemed quite fond of it, passionately defending it to the museum patrons that were grossed out by it. I’m nearly sure I heard him whispering sweet nothings to it as I walked away.

I then found my new favorite shellfish (at least in the list of top 5 all time favorite shellfish):

I love creatures with little beady eyes.

I love creatures with little beady eyes.

And then it’s monstrous giant plastic representation:

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AHH!! THIS WILL HAUNT MY DREAMS

There were those ants that are always featured in Nat Geo shows that carry leaves.

They were the busiest insects in the museum by far.

They were the busiest insects in the museum by far, really putting those other free loading insects to shame.

Termites are a problem in this area, or so I surmised by the section completely devoted to them.

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Comes with free termites to take home!

My favorite part was the section devoted to swamp life. WP_20150625_026 It was there I ran into (one of) my sworn enemy(s), a 1 foot long alligator. WP_20150625_031 Our encounter came as a surprise. I next to the aquarium, snapping pictures, when I turned to look at the aquarium. The alligator was floating there, watching me. I let out a scream of surprise, and the alligator jumped and swam away. It reminded me of a story that my brother-in-law just told me. One day, he arrived home earlier than usual and his wife was taking a shower. He was purposely being loud so she’d know he was there, and then he headed into the bathroom for some reason. She pushed open the curtain to get out and spotted him, and screamed in surprise. My brother-in-law thought she saw something he didn’t, and (in surprise) started screaming as well, which scared her, so she screamed more, so for a moment, both of them just stood there, screaming. That’s how my encounter with the alligator felt.

There’s a couple other sections showing spiders, and scorpions and all sorts of creepy gross insects, so I moved on to a slightly less creepy section, the butterflies.

Display of real butterflies emerging from their cocoons.

Display of real butterflies emerging from their cocoons.

Frankly, I don’t know why people like butterflies (well, no, I do have an idea of why), I think they are creepy and weird. They are basically flying, gross worms. Seeing their little faces up close gives me the creeps.

Just cropping this photo down grosses me out.

Just cropping this photo down gives me the heeby jeebies.

There was an area where you go in and walk around with the butterflies loose. There was also a koi pond, where I witnessed the attempted murder of a butterfly that had landed in the water. Three koi swam up and grabbed at the thing, trying to rip it to shreds. I felt almost like I should cover the nearby childrens’ eyes. How it managed to escape I do not understand, but somehow it may it to the edge of the pond where it disappeared into the foliage.

Who's bright idea was it to put butterflies in with these ruthless killers??

Who’s bright idea was it to put butterflies in with these ruthless killers??

There was a tank of moths in the butterfly room, as apparently moths are lesser creatures and not allowed to socialize with the butterflies.

Probably because they look like a tank of vampires and/or bats.

Probably because they look like a tank of vampires and/or bats.

They were huge, bigger than my hand. I should have held up my hand to show the contrast, but you can just imagine my monster hand next to this monster insect.

It gazes out of the glass, yearning to be free like the butterflies.

It gazes out of the glass, yearning to be free like the butterflies.

I made my way to the exit and saw the single most beautiful flying worm.

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I admired it for a moment and then pressed the button to leave. There’s either some kind of bug (hehe) with the door release, or they like to make you wait before it opens. So as I stood there, a giant ugly butterfly started hovering over me.

“It must like you!” laughed the attendent watching.

“Well isn’t that sweet!” I started to say, before it turned into a yelp cause the gross thing landed on me. “AHH!!! GET IT OFF!!”

And then the doors released and I ran through to escape the clutches of the giant butterfly. You are actually supposed to shake all butterflies off before leaving the area, so as soon as I ran through the doors I wondered if I had released a butterfly plague upon humanity. But a check in the mirrors showed it had not come through the door with me. Probably got scared when I screamed, much like the alligator and my brother-in-law/sister-in-law.

And that was the end of the museum.

Still to come, ghosts of the French Quarter! I know everyone’s on the edge of their seat!

TAGS:animalsattractionbutterfliesinsectskoimothsmuseumNew Orleans
12 Comments
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  • hellomylivia
    June 30, 2015

    Oh my god I was just LOLing my way through this entire post hahaha. Losing it.

    Reply
    • Courtney
      hellomylivia
      June 30, 2015

      That’s how I felt too, except I was about to lose my lunch with looking at all their creepy little faces!

      Reply
  • emma
    June 30, 2015

    um so this actually looks awesome! given your impression that it was mostly intended for children, would you recommend to an adult? and, if so, do you recommend any particular # of hurricanes consumed prior to entering this weird little museum for maximum effect? lol

    Reply
    • Courtney
      emma
      June 30, 2015

      It was pretty awesome, if you like gross bugs, or alligators, which I love to stare at, just a little jarring at first that I entered what seemed to be a daycare center. The precise number of hurricanes is under debate, but if you figure you need one hurricane before entering, and if you can bring them in (I am not sure if they allow it) you can figure that it will take approximately 45 minutes to an hour to go through the museum, stopping at every exhibit, and the rate of consumption is 1 drink per hour, you’ll want to maximize your consumption to really get the most out of it, so you’d probably want 1.5 drinks going through, or one really big drink, so the overall consumption could be 2.5 drinks.
      Enjoy!!

      Reply
      • emma
        Courtney
        July 1, 2015

        exxxxcelllllent haha. this is totally going on my list. keep the ideas coming bc my trip is 3 wks out – woo hoo!!

        Reply
        • Courtney
          emma
          July 1, 2015

          Nice!!! You’re going to have a great time. Go on a swamp tour if you have time, that’s one I wish I could have done and other people said it was great.

          Reply
  • Nicole Sharpe
    July 1, 2015

    This sounds like the most rad museum!! I think butterflies are beautiful as long as you don’t look TOO closely. Then they are creepy aliens.

    Reply
    • Courtney
      Nicole Sharpe
      July 1, 2015

      Yes they are… like many things, best viewed from a distance!

      Reply
  • Erin
    July 8, 2015

    OMG this makes me want to visit New Orleans even more. Insects are so cool! A couple years ago I took an entomology course and started an insect collection.

    Reply
    • Courtney
      Erin
      July 9, 2015

      oh wow, you’d definitely like it then! I couldn’t get photos of it because the lights would go wonky (related to ghosts maybe?) but they had a huge collection of pinned insects, all placed like they were art. It was stunning!

      Reply
      • Erin
        Courtney
        July 9, 2015

        Definitely the ghosts! Lol!!!

        Reply
  • Lackluster 2015 Overview | Vintage Virginia
    December 30, 2015

    […] took advantage of being in such a neat place. I explored the city, tried to find some ghosts, and felt like a super mature adult. I also drank a bunch on Bourbon St. […]

    Reply

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