DowAgroSciences Sponsors Nation's Largest Insect Museum

Dow AgroSciences is helping to make possible the nation’s largest museum dedicated to the insect world around us. Audubon Nature Institute will hold the grand opening for its 23,000-square-foot Insectarium on June 13 in New Orleans.

Occupying almost half the ground floor of the 19th Century U.S. Custom House on the edge of the city’s historic French Quarter, the Insectarium features displays of live and mounted insects and more than 70 exhibits. It also includes a theater, cooking demonstrations, an insects’ Hall of Fame and interactive displays. A half million visitors are expected to visit the museum each year, according to Audubon Nature Institute, and the annual economic impact to New Orleans is estimated to be about $55 million.

Through funding made available through The Dow Chemical Company Foundation, Dow AgroSciences is sponsoring the Entomologist’s Station in the Insectarium’s Field Camp gallery. The Station offers a unique educational encounter featuring a scientist complete with khakis and a jungle-style pith helmet at work in the field. The scientist will give visitors the opportunity to see and touch a variety of live insects. From the museum’s Canal Street entrance, the Field Camp is one of the first exhibits that visitors can enter.

“We are pleased to be a sponsor of Audubon Insectarium,” says Dave Morris, commercial leader of the Dow AgroSciences U.S. Pest Management Business. “The museum is an important addition to both the city of New Orleans and to Audubon Nature Institute’s family of museums and parks. The Insectarium will help visitors better appreciate and understand the role insects play in our world. We are especially pleased to be able to sponsor an interactive display. The Field Camp fits into The Human Element focus of The Dow Chemical Company with regard to the potential humans bring to their interactions with the natural world.”

Morris says Dow AgroSciences also is very familiar with the Insectarium site through a Formosan Subterranean Eradication Program it has done in conjunction with the city of New Orleans. The historic U.S. Custom House is being protected against subterranean termite damage by an Authorized Operator of the Sentricon® Termite Colony Elimination System.

Based in New Orleans, Audubon Nature Institute’s mission is celebrating the wonders of nature. Planning for the $25 million Insectarium began in 1991. In addition to the Insectarium, Audubon Nature Institute operates three parks, a zoo, an aquarium, an IMAX theatre and two centers for animal species survival.