Montreal Insectarium in Joliette

Truly loved it. Everything is so new and renovated. Great concepts. We really enjoyed the exhibition and the craft activity at the end was a major plus. I dont often get to do crafts with my kids and this was an excellent opportunity to share that moment. Highly recommend!

We bought the pass for all five attractions.The Insectarium shows a lot of different butterflies and other beautiful insects - living ones and dead ones.22 $ is a bit expensive but if you buy the passport and visit the other attractions its around 14 each (and its for a whole year)

what an experience if you have never been do not hesitate, its worth the detour, the exposition is not as expensive as it used to be but it is well curated and still worth the entry price...

Great place for kids that are into bugs! Would recommend getting the season pass if you plan on going more than once, it pays for itself. Worth the trip to Montreal if youre within an hours drive for sure.

A bit short, but the exhibits were nice. There was an area featuring free-roam butterflies and a workshop for the kids. Recommended for families

It is an amazing world of insects. The atmosphere is well designed for the museum. The specimens collection is charming and I have never seen such a beautiful aspect of the insects. What’s more, when you enter the open area where you can be surrounded by the flying butterflies, you can feel the kindness of nature. In a word, it is such a charming place that I would recommend anyone who goes to Montreal to visit.

It was so amazing! It was hard to take anything but a good picture! We will go back and have more time next year.

I was part of the junior entymology club in 1993 so it meant a lot to me to finally get tickets to the newly renovated Insectarium. My daughter and I brought along a friend to share the experience. The first series of exhibits explains the sensory perception of insects. The walls give the impression of being inside a large hive, with holes tunneled through the rounded walls. Each room focuses on a different part of the senses. The second section has a small walkaround exhibit of different insects such as stick bugs, cockroaches and various coleoptera. The third and most popular section was the butterfly room. The butterflies move freely around the space and the majority of people follow the rules and do not touch the butterflies. One Quebecois woman of course couldnt follow the rules and grabbed one, snapped a picture with it and clumsily placed it on a leaf while the supervisor had her back turned. We loudly reminded her that she may very have shortened the lifespan of that insect. For this reason, I would highly suggest more supervisors to prevent this type of coarse behavior, however upon entry we were reminded they were extremely shortstaffed and didnt have enough staff to man a gift shop. The fourth section was a workshop for the kids to make comics on whiteboards with magnets of bugs. The kids enjoyed it very much. Although small, the insectarium is very thought provoking albeit concise.

Great place to see insects, especially butterflies. Recommended to go with children

Ticket to the garden should include the insectarium due to the size. Whole thing takes around 25 minutes. Overall was nice.

My experience was pretty average, I thought it was rather small for the price. Aside from the butterfly vivarium, there are only like 5 displays with live insects and one (albeit large and well appointedroom with specimensThere was next to nothing written on any of the displays, but then I guess thats to get you to download the companion app. I didnt do this as I didnt want to be glued to a phone for this experience, and frankly having to have a phone app tell you what something is defeats the purpose of going at all in my opinionThe vivarium was absolutely beautiful, and pretty much made up for the trip. That said, Id still like to see more information available at the exhibits. The app should be an enhancement to the experience, but you shouldnt be losing anything without itI still think young kids or families would enjoy it, but it wasnt what I was hoping for

They dont suggest but can download the space for life app and you will find interesting info to follow your visit. It is nice but is a short visit

Beautiful exhibit, well organized and pleasant. Loved the butterfly garden at the end. Great for kids 5 and up. Not too long but long enough to feel like youve seen everything. Really lovely place.

We bought a pass to visit the Biodome, Planetarium and Insectarium. How its described on the website is a small walk between the buildings. I would disagree. The Insectarium is not near the Biodome! The Biodome and planetarium are grouped together and the botanical gardens and Insectarium are together. Not sure if we were given bad directions from the Biodome, or perhaps all the construction, but its not a 15 minute walk, more like 45 minutes. Walking with a 6 year old over various terrain - would recommend driving next time. The Insectarium is nice but its small - about 20-30 minute visit, which after the walk was a little disappointing. The highlight is watching the butterflies and Mexican leaf cutting ants.

This place wasn’t part of our trip but im glad we went. It was a surprising experience, especially the part that we can interact with butterflies in the upper green house, where we entered their tropical habitat. And there were also a entire ant colony that shows you their process of retrieving foods. And did i mention the massive collection of bugs they had, It was just a nice little place to go to, loved it!

Even people who hate insects will love the rainbow room display, especially if its not as busy as the photo shows here. Every step shows an exquisitely arranged box of specimens of the same hue, like pink, or purple or chartreuse.

Awesome exhibit if you have the passport.Very short wouldnt be worth doing without the passport.

I cant rave about this place enough. It is beautiful. However, I took one star because there was not much alive insects to see. Still, I recommend this place as it was informative especially for kids and adults alike who are interested. The place is clean and organized. I love how they displayed taxidermy of the insects, it was very picturesque. At the end of their exposition is a butterfly garden. There was a staff showing a stick insect to the kids and my son held it like a pro. He enjoyed this visit very much. Wonderful place!

This is an amazing place for bug lovers. My kids and I enjoyed a lot here. The kids also have an activity room where they can create short comic strips.

This is a fine place for the kids but much more could be done to make it more interesting for all ages. The insects collection hall was amazing.

Do not rush through the museum. This is a museum that requires some time to take it all in. Besides the amazing exhibits, I was especially impressed by the staffs.When I signed up for the multi-pass passport (a must have if you are visiting Montreal), I forgot to provide my email address, which is important because the passport is delivered through email. One of the staff members went inside the museum to look for me and asked for the info. I was very impressed by her thoughtfulness and consideration. Thank you very much.

We had a great visit here with the family. The staff managed to get us in despite some confusion with our purchased passport. The butterflies 🦋 were amazing!

Beautiful space. Visited with a 18 month and a 4 year old, we spent 50 minutes there total. Only negative I would say is its very small, only 3 different spaces to visit. If you walk fast you can easily be done in 20 minutes.

A superb set up. Not too crowded as the entrance tickets are timed (so book ahead). Even when it is "fully booked" it is still worth trying to see if there are late tickets available - we did and were very lucky. Great access for wheelchairs too. Well worth the money.

Love the new place,very interesting for everybody and the new place for butterflies is awesome.You can visit any time.🙂

The first section is for kids, there are a few cases with living insects but I was hoping for more, the selection of mounted insects is amazing and need to be seen to be believed, and the conservatory is magical and has leaf cutter ants as well as butterflies. A bit short but still worth it!

Less of a museum and more of an immersive insect experience. Staff really cared about insects and patrons questions. Quite a short experience, so I would recommend getting a ticket that lets you visit all the nearby museums as well.

Signage to Insectatarium is horrible, took a long time to find the place on foot. Actual insectatarium was quite small, some interesting insects to look at but only a few were alive. It was quite crowded and most time slots were sold out early, would recommend buying tickets in advance.

Next to the botanical garden, buy tickets separately, you can see the butterflies up close

Wonderful display! Hard to get a ticket though. It always seems to be booked solid. We got lucky and went at a time where they had 2 cancelations. Definitely worth a visit.

Totally worth it! It has an amazing categorization of the insect world!

Had an amazing visit here. The displays of the mounted bugs were so artfully and thoughtfully designed. It was stunning. The live insects were beautiful too, especially the leaf cutter ants. I would go back again and again.

The insectarium is lovely! There is a lot of information about how insects experience the world, including a camera that shows how insects with compound eyes would see you!The insect and butterfly/moth room was amazing, I have ALWAYS wanted to see leaf-cutter ants. I could have stayed all day watching them take little bits of leaf off a plant, fall, and make a trip back with the plant bit. They were adorable!

Very nice and wellmade place. There is a big room with hundreds of butterflies. At the end there is a big section with living butterflies to enjoy.

Newly renovated but felt very underwhelming. We didnt know there was an app and there were no written descriptions or information. I dont know if this is for the welfare of the insects, but there was no ant farm!! My son left and asked why we didnt see a fly. That being said the butterfly room was very nice and it was fun to be so close to them. Just felt that after waiting so long for it to open that that was all they did with it. Getting there was also very complicated.

Super cool, loved it! Brought my 3 year old and she also loved it. The rooms are all engaging, and the butterfly area is so pretty.I like that they take some insects out for display so you can see them up close, and the areas in the open area specifics for certain insects, very cool.Its a little on the small side, but totally worth. Its a little expensive the larger your family, and Id highly recommend getting a pass for Al the facilities if you live in the area.

Its way better this time. My child had a very good impression about the place. He made another good memories after visiting the place. A must visit, highly recommended.

Last time I went to the insectarium was 10 years ago so I was excited to see the new one! While we enjoyed our visit, there was basically only 2 rooms with live insects, the small observation room with like 5-6 species + the butterfly garden thing. While both where interesting and gorgeous, we found it lacked content, the visit was a short one and there wasn’t much informations available on the species, I wanted to see big spiders crawling around, I remember there was also a live beehive display at the time and it was really neat but it lacked any of that. So in all and all, a really interesting place but kinda expensive for the actual content you get.

Was amazing! So many different species to look at and the butterfly atrium was incredible. Fun for all ages!

Really nice!.They opened again the butterfly garden and is amazing, also the staff is really nice and they are always willing to answer your questions.The entry is a little bit tricky if you dont have tickets for the botanical garden too or the "espace pour la vie passport".Overall really worth the visit.

Pretty amazing building with a ton of insects to look at (most of them are displayed in cases). Has a butterfly 🦋 room you can walk around as they flutter by, tons of different species and you can see them hatching which is super neat. Kids would find this awesome as long as they are not scared of butterflies.

What an amazing museum. They redid the insectarium and it is worth a visit. The staff are exceptional and the museum and beautifully laid out.The butterfly room is beautiful and a joy to walk through. At the end they have a room for kids to draw comics which was filled with happy kids.The centre room with specimens was clean and well laid out. It’s worth taking the time to read the information about the specimen. I recommend downloading the app.

It will be really great to visit with friends or children! Fantastic!

What a wonderful, wonderful place! Absolutely fascinating, and a marvelous way to appreciate these little creatures we are often very dismissive of.

The new installation is shorter but much more modern and interactive!

Mix feelings regarding the new insectarium, beautiful and modern architecture, but it lacks of so many things, is smaller than the old one, kind of pricy, there is not information at all, yes they have an app but not all kids have a cellphone, info should be next to the insects there is literally no information, zero. No cafeteria or place to have a drink, they have a place with seats and a microwave

So....after a long wait we finally visited the insectarium today. We were 2 adults and 2 children age: 11 and 6. The entrance was very interesting it like a ant nest, children really enjoyed it. Then we went to another place not to big with Terrariums with insects, stuff members where there to tell interesting facts etc. Afterwards round room whith magical butterflies, camouflage bugs etc...then the last stop, greenhouse with butterflies.For children there is a cool place with bugs magnets to play. Spend 1 hour, pricewise.....pricey

I have no reason to refuse this place. Magnificent is the word I can describe about the insects here. Kids gonna love this plafe for sure! They are doing some renovations now, I hope it will be finish for summer. I would like to go there with my kid again. We bought a pass for family its cost 150$ for 2 adults and 3 kids under 17. Then you can go anywhere you want in the list of Space of Montreal on the website. It become cheaper and save lots of money for family activities. Highly recommend!!!

Very beautiful place to visit , kids enjoyed it , excellent costumer service and flexible , i will comeback for sure

We went to the pre-opening event of the Insectarium. First time visitor to the Insectarium with my friends. Some highlights were the gorgeous building, insect enclosures with a lot of butterflies. Definitely a soothing experience to give a treat to your eyes with the color and beauty of nature.Though we did have a great time, there are a few things I would recommend to make the experience even better, which is why I did not rate it higher. There is not enough signage throughout the insect collection. It would be easy to know a bit of information about an insect if you put a digital monitor or information card in front of each collection. There were a few times where we were not sure where to go or what insects we were looking at/for. The app is helpful, but we don’t want to have our phones out the entire time since we’re trying to enjoy the nature and animals.