Insectarium de Montréal

[Professor T]

I was on vacation in Lake George, NY with my family and we decided to drive into Montréal for the day...glad we did. We visited the Insectarium de Montréal, billed as the largest bug dome in North America and it was a blast. Besides having preserved specimens, they had a huge collection of live specimens. Not just insects, but tarantulas , true spiders, millipedes, centipedes, and other lesser know arthropods.

The diversity of insects was amazing, especially beetles. They had colorful species of beetles with males sparing, and males and females mating. Their live beetle collection was the best I've ever seen.

Many of you have more extensive tarantula collections, but I was far from disappointed. They had pokies, Mexican redknees, Mexican redlegs, rosies, and a few scientific names I didn't recognize that were obscure.

I saw the largest centipede I have ever seen in both length and widith. I also so the longest walkingstick insects I have ever seen. The walkingsticks were in a live display the size of a wall, hidden among the plants. I asked my sons if they could see all 8 that I had located, and they found nine.

If you think about it, since over 70% of all animals on this planet are Arthropods, they deserve their own zoo.

PS- The French Canadians were extremely friendly, contrary to popular opinion.

Insectarium de Montréal

 

[Cooper]

about how long was the centipede?

 

[Professor T]

I'm no expert on centipedes, and unlike the preserved species that were labeled with scientific names, this giant live centipede was unlabeled. With my limited centipede knowledge it looked like a blown up Scolopendra sp..

They had rulers in with some species so you could tell the exact size. This specimen had no rulers in the tank. I once owned a wild caught Scolopendra that grew to 10" before it died.

I would say the centipede at the Insectarium was at least 12", and was obviously on display because of its size. I saw pictures on the Internet of centipedes this big on someone's hand, but I thought they were fake. This is the largest live centipede I have ever seen.

 

[vulpina]

Sounds like a very interesting place, I might have to go there when I go to Toronto next summer.

Andy

 

[TheDon]

I was just there recently and it was fun except for all the rude french people who have no manners and just step right in front of you while your looking at something. This was honestly the truth we would be looking at a certain bug and some french person would just come walk in front and stand there totally blocking your view and didnt say anything like excuse me. Grr... that really pissed me off. And there was a guy there showing a large tarantula that they didnt have display and I wanted to talk to him but he was too busy talking to the other french people in french so unfortunately I didnt understand anything he was saying about it. Another thing that was kind of upsetting was that the tarantulas in particular werent well taken care of and had very tiny enclusures except for a couple like the B.Smithi that had a nice setup. But other than that they did have a nice selection of specimens to view. I did enjoy myself and was glad I went there but there were some downsides to it. Mainly the french lol... no disrepect to any french people on this site.

peace

TheDon

 

[Malhavoc's]

Hey Im canadian! and Im am soo bummedo ut I never went there before I moved down here to cali.. this so sux Oh well guess I will have to go back up to see it lol

 

[Professor T]

Originally posted by TheDon
I was just there recently and it was fun except for all the rude french people who have no manners and just step right in front of you while your looking at something. This was honestly the truth we would be looking at a certain bug and some french person would just come walk in front and stand there totally blocking your view and didnt say anything like excuse me. Grr... that really pissed me off. And there was a guy there showing a large tarantula that they didnt have display and I wanted to talk to him but he was too busy talking to the other french people in french so unfortunately I didnt understand anything he was saying about it. Another thing that was kind of upsetting was that the tarantulas in particular werent well taken care of and had very tiny enclusures except for a couple like the B.Smithi that had a nice setup. But other than that they did have a nice selection of specimens to view. I did enjoy myself and was glad I went there but there were some downsides to it. Mainly the french lol... no disrepect to any french people on this site.

TheDon,

I was just there and had a very different experience. I thought the T enclosures were fine, much larger than most people keep their pets. The pokie enclosure had to be the size of a 30 gallon tank. I think the animals were well taken care of: clean enclosures, some small, but some quite large.

The lectures were given in FRENCH and ENGLISH while I was there. If you ask questions in English, answers were given cheerfully in English.

I found the French Canadians very friendly in the Insectarium, as well as on the street. In my opinion, I think they get a bad rap. I'm sure they have there fair share of aholes, but I didn't meet any the day I spent in Montréal.

Overall, I give the Insectarium my highest recommendation.

 

[TheDon]

I agree the pokie was in a decent tank, but im talking about the chaco golden knee that was in a home about 7" by 4" and had a waterdish the size of beercap. Maybe it was just a bad day and the cleaner hadnt gone and cleaned the tanks that day yet or something. And the guy who was talking was only speaking in french but unfortuanately I couldnt get up to ask him a question as all the French Canadians were butting in front. As I said before the Insectarium was great and im glad i went. But it must have been a bad day as there were some very rude people there.

peace

TheDon

and im not dissing all french canadians as I do know some really nice ones. Just the rude ones.

 

[leiurus]

I was just there recently and it was fun except for all the rude french people who have no manners and just step right in front of you while your looking at something. This was honestly the truth we would be looking at a certain bug and some french person would just come walk in front and stand there totally blocking your view and didnt say anything like excuse me. Grr... that really pissed me off. And there was a guy there showing a large tarantula that they didnt have display and I wanted to talk to him but he was too busy talking to the other french people in french so unfortunately I didnt understand anything he was saying about it. Another thing that was kind of upsetting was that the tarantulas in particular werent well taken care of and had very tiny enclusures except for a couple like the B.Smithi that had a nice setup. But other than that they did have a nice selection of specimens to view. I did enjoy myself and was glad I went there but there were some downsides to it. Mainly the french lol... no disrepect to any french people on this site.







peace

TheDon

Maybe they said "Pardon" or "excusez-moi". You don't speak French and the french people don't know you speak only english, so be nice with the French Canadien LIKE ME! This is a racial message! Watch out!

I go to the Insectarium de Montréal once per year. This is a very interesting place



Dom

 

[moricollins]

wow, i didn't know this place even existed, now I HAVE to take a trip to Montreal, to see this place (and maybe get some T's from Martin at TarantulaCanada), hm... now if I can only convince my Girlfriend......

oh, and all the French Canadians I've met (quite a few) were all extremely pleasant.

Mori

 

[firefox2]

That looks like an amazing place. I have also found French Canadians to be friendly.

 

[leiurus]

wow, i didn't know this place even existed, now I HAVE to take a trip to Montreal, to see this place (and maybe get some T's from Martin at TarantulaCanada), hm... now if I can only convince my Girlfriend......

oh, and all the French Canadians I've met (quite a few) were all extremely pleasant.

Mori

Thanks.

You should go there. This is very very nice place. There's a lot of scorpions, centipedes, beetles, tarantulas and walking sticks.


Dom

 

[leiurus]

I'm very very very angry!
Theres a picture of an Androctonus australis in their site and its labelled as "Hadurus arizonensis"!!!

 

[frankinthecity]

i am also french canadian and you will find f**kers all over the world. The same situation could happen anywhere. If you dont beleive this, i will consider you a racist (im sorry to have an opinion and for not being politically correct!!!!)

concerning the insectarium of montreal, it is a great place to visit! they always have new expositions (to keep the local peple visiting it) and now i beleive it is the insects that live in colonies, like ants, bees and termites, i will go see it soon and post a report

no offence to anyone please except the racists :?

Francois

 

[Scorpiove]

Racism is attacking ones race. As far as I know French canadian is not a race. just wanted to point that out. Discrimination is the word you are looking for if in fact you were being discriminated against. there are aholes all around the world but afaik "Pardon" is also an english word and "excusez-moi" is so close to "excuse me" its not even funny. Any english speaking person would understand those words. I doubt you were being discriminated against as there are lots of rude people in this world. Look at New York. You can find EVERY race and ethnic group in New York and there are some nice people there and A LOT of rude people there. You have people in New York admitting this. To keep on topic though.... I would love to go to an insect zoo but I fear the only one closest to me is in San Diego. Any one in California know where there might be some closer ones to the High Desert?