Girl Loves Bugs So Much That She’s Making Her Own Insect Museum

Jessica Szabo is very passionate about bugs. In fact, she’s so passionate about them that she wants to share this love with the entire country. Szabo is using crowdsourcing to raise $5,000 that will go towards funding the Portland Insectarium, a 20 foot RV that Szabo plans on turning into a traveling insect museum. Her museum will include educational spider and insect displays, interactive bug-discovery exhibits featuring live insects and arachnids, natural history specimens, as well as bug-themed art.

Szabo is a gradient student in biology at Portland State University, and plans on working to change the way the public views spiders and insects. She says that most of our negative views of different insects, and especially spiders, are due to misconceptions we have because of their bad rap and association with Halloween.

Szabo is also trying to get nonprofit status for the project and the museum itself, claiming she only plans on charging a low affordable rate for individual entry and special appearances at schools and other learning centers. Her main focus is to share her love of insects with curious and more open-minded kids. “I think the Insectarium is great because kids are by nature interested in everything,” she says. “Seeing something like the Insectarium and being able to walk inside and interact with the exhibits will really open up the world to them.” Sounds like fun to me!

Would you bring your child to this bug museum? Do you think it’s important for children to learn about insects and understand how they contribute to our world?