Portland Insectarium — Attraction in Portland

Three word summary: Friendly, Funky, Tiny!

I appreciate this place! But it was smaller than we thought…we felt rather cramped in there, even with just 4-5 other visitors present. It’s one small room, no bigger than 16’ square roughly, with low ceilings. If there was an extra room (or two) and the outside entrance was spruced up, I think that would improve the visitor experience and would make it much more inviting. Perhaps a window on the entrance door would also help. Adjusting the address on Google maps would also help…it took us a minute or two to actually find the entrance.

Perhaps being able to book the whole place would be good?

There was a plate of dried grasshoppers for visitors to snack on…nice idea, but the sad little plate looked really picked-over and like it had sat out a couple of nights.

Also, I hesitate to mention, but they say masks required at the door (and on the website) but one of the friendly staff people wasn’t wearing one and was sorta breathing on our baby. Not a huge deal, but I found this a bit perplexing.

If you are an insect & arachnid fan or need an easy activity for your kid, and you live very nearby, try it out, but you might not want to take your grandparent here. Unless they like insects & arachnids.

But a neat little area, and a library across the street! And the attached gift shop was nice. I believe it’s an artist collective with people...

Wow. What an experience. This place is just so beautiful. I love how attentive the Insectarium community is with everyone. I’ve learned so much about insects, and as being an insect lover already, this space is such a gift. I’ve been here NUMEROUS times and have even seen various folks overcoming their fear of insects, learning about them and holding them as a whole interwoven process here. I can’t emphasize how much they do. There are community Bug Walks, where you can get out to a buggy space out in the Portland local wilds and 🔍 look for bugs and identify them. There’s bug catchin’ kits, bug pinning classes, buggy movie nights, drink n draws. They have a kidzone, events for kids, events for adults, and my my my… the photo shoots with bugs are sooo cool! You can have a full shoot session with insects. 🕷️ I love it. There are multiple tarantula, so beautiful. Some of the biggest praying mantis I’ve ever seen, so healthy. And I can’t get enough of the wondrously beautiful hissing cockroaches. They are actually the coolest littles ever. DON’T KNOCK IT TIL YOU TRY IT — it’s a...

My son volunteers at the Insectarium and he loves it. I think Jessica is a wonderful bug keeper and a smart business owner. I personally don't know much about bugs, only from what my son knows and what I've learned coming to the "bug house," but I love that my son has a place to geek out over arthropods with like-minded people. Even if my son couldn't volunteer here, I'm sure he would be talking me into coming all the time! I've seen so many different people here, from young children to older adults, people of all ages; anyone can enjoy this place. There is so much to learn and so much to look at. You can also touch some of the bugs too. If you homeschool like I do, this is a great place to learn science-based subjects, and also to get a lot of social opportunities. I can't say enough good things about the insectarium! I'm so glad my son found it, randomly online while he was looking for...