NICOLE CLARK Some lucky youngster gets the opportunity to pet Rosie, a rose-haired tarantula.

The latest buzz from the Insectarium

BY NICOLE CLARK
Staff Writer

Steve Kanya asked Santa for termites this Christmas. They should arrive by March.

After all, termites are the bread and butter of the Insectarium, 8046 Frankford Avenue. Kanya even has a termite season countdown clock in the office: nine days, three hours, six seconds to go.

Upstairs, the swarming wood-munchers are as popular with 8-year-old Jessica Wunsch as they are with Steve’s eager staff.

NICOLE CLARK Close up of Rosie, a rose-haired tarantula.

Just across from the termite tunnels on the second floor (the first floor houses the Insectarium gift shop), 4-year-old Tommy Sheehan shrieks in delight as he tugs his mother from the honey beehive to get a closer look at a crop of American cockroaches inching their way out of a dingy toilet bowl.

In the kitchen, back-to-back with the bathroom, more roaches crawl inside an even dingier stainless steel sink or lie dead, scattered on the tile. Some furiously kick their legs in the air in a desperate struggle to roll upright.

It’s disgusting and kids love it. Adults tend to watch weak-kneed while their young counterparts press their noses to the Plexiglas surrounding the cockroach display, which, thankfully, is surrounded at the top by Teflon strips and electrified wire line. These roaches are kept in line.

The third floor is a different story. Here, children gleefully shout "Look, Dad!" as Madasgar Hissing Cockroaches the size of field mice tickle their arms.

Glass cages are everywhere, some filled with familiar insects, some with creatures you hope to never lay eyes on again. The 6,500-square-foot Insectarium is home to more than 40,000 bugs and their kin, living and dead, with fierce-sounding names like death-feigning beetles, Australian walking sticks, thorny devils, whiptail scorpions and assassin bugs. The beautiful butterflies adorning the walls do little to allay the feeling that human-face stinkbugs are gnawing the back of your neck.

DENNIS FINK Even the outside is crawling with creepy critters!

It all started with the "catch of the day." Kanya, an ex-Philadelphia police officer, began displaying rats, roaches, and whatever else the exterminators snagged, in the front windows of his exterminating business.

"People were really grossed out, but people love stuff that grosses them out," said Jeanette A’Psis, museum educator. "Steve noticed the window attracted a crowd and decided to make it into something bigger."

Eight years later, tourists come from all over the world to be grossed out, and to learn tons of new facts. Special events are held usually on Saturdays but the museum is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. At the termite workshop, kids became queen termite for the day by creating their own crown during an arts and crafts portion.

Last month, visitors taste-tested barbecue larvae and took home other delicious insect recipes.

In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, the Insectarium will introduce you to the Celtic bugs of Ireland.

Meanwhile, Kanya will be happily tracking down those wood-munchers in your walls.

One day, your own queen termite could be exhibited at the Insectarium, a source of wonder and education for all who meet her.