The Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans

We drove down to New Orleans to visit the Audubon Insectarium which is on Canal Street near the Mississippi River.

In a display called the "Underground Gallery", visitors shrink to the size of an insect.

You wouldn't want to encounter this centipede down there if it were 3 meters long!

Ashleigh and Elyse in a cavity in the large underground habitat where even the earthworms are 20 feet long. Ashleigh and Jordan are riding one below.

There were a number of examples of insects, like this fly, captured in amber.

This spotted beetle, about 3cm long, had fluorescent spots.

Some insects, like this large cicada (4 cm) were surprisingly ugly.

And some, like this 3cm brilliant red beetle were surprisingly beautiful. Like superman of the boll weevil world.

Brenda and Rod were fascinated by the live leaf-cutter ant exhibit because of all the examples we saw in the Carara Biological Reserve in Costa Rica. They had put red flowering plants like hibiscus in with the ants so that with the red cuttings they looked like a flag corps.

This leaf-mimicing insect has my nomination for best camoflage. Brenda had to point it out to me.

There were many elaborate and kid-friendly exhibits. This one was the love-bug exhibit with the Volkswagen love-bug for the kids. Jordan and Elyse enjoy it along with several other children. I said afterward that the most beautiful thing I saw at the Insectarium was all the young families enjoying it with their children.

"Quick, Henry, the Flit!"

This piece of equipment brought back the slogan of an insect sprayer advertiser from the 1950's when we had to pump the insect sprayer like a bicycle pump. "Flit" was a popular competitor of Hudson. At the mosquito exhibit, Brenda explains to Ashleigh the kind of metal pump sprays we used when we were kids. We would pour in the liquid insecticide and pump the handle to spray an aerosol. This was before the days of pressurized aerosol cans.

Eat a bug?!! Yuk!

I can't believe I'm watching Jeff feed a bug to our youngest granddaughter! Darla does seem to have some reservations, even though Grandma seems to be buying it. But they have a whole kitchen devoted to cooking bugs!

Whoa! This bug-eating is catching on. Elyse is taking another one, and Ashleigh is considering it. Now Darla, Jordan and Elyse are in line to get some more cooked bugs!

Amazingly, a lot of people were in line to get items from the bug-cooking kitchen!

Now Grandma Brenda gets into the act, eating a chip with a waxworm dip . Darla ate some salsa with mealworms. Brenda also had waxworms with cinnamon and sugar. Ashleigh had mealworm macaroni.

Also on the menu were chocolate chirp cookies, crispy cajun crickets, grasshopper gumbo, and mealworm macadamia munch.

We entered the Louisiana Swamp Gallery which featured aquatic insects. Elyse liked the little boat in the area.

Ashleigh and Jordan also liked the boat. One of the strange insects was this walking stick with a smaller one on its back.

We went to the theater for the bug awards for special achievement, like the dung beetle and the bombadier beetle. One of the winners was Dorothy the Wasp for stinging a tarantula into dormancy and then laying her eggs inside it.

In the beetle exhibit, Ashleigh poses with a suit of armor. It made the comparison with the suits of armor or exoskeletons that the beetles wear.

Beetles with exquisite design were exhibited in a number of display cases.

There was also the most outstanding display of mounted butterflies I have ever seen.

Canal Street looks great again with no easily visible evidence of the horrors of Katrina. The red trolleys were moving smoothly up and down its middle.

Granddad and Grandma have the privilege of walking Elyse down the New Orleans streets.

To the southeast we could see the Mississippi River below New Orleans with a paddle-wheeled riverboat tied up at the dock.

Down the street to the east we could see the triple spires of St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest in North America.

Driving back across the old twinspan gave us some perspective on the new bridge that is being built alongside it. The highrise part is of similar height, but the remainder of the roadway will be much higher than the old bridge to protect against storm surge damage like that done by Katrina.