Audubon Insectarium & Rearing Facilities
Sunday, March 9, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Cost per person: $70
Round-trip transportation and guided tours included. Lunch is on your own.
Maximum of 30 people (two groups of 15)
Locations: Audubon Insectarium, 1 Canal Street, New Orlean, LA 70130 and Audubon Insect Rearing Facility, 14001 Patterson Road, New Orleans, LA 70131
Participants will receive a behind-the-scenes tour of the Insectarium's rearing facilities along with a guided tour of the Insectarium. One hour will be spent at each location, with time for lunch on your own in downtown New Orleans.
Insectarium: Walk through a museum with over 50 live arthropod exhibits, an edible insect area, and a garden with over 500 free-flight tropical butterflies, accompanied by a staff entomologist along the way. Selected stops and exhibits to discuss everything from acquisitions, graphic content, and exhibit design to husbandry protocols, public programs, and species-specific natural history notes. There is also a small USDA Containment Room to visit that houses presentation arthropods and the pupae processing room.
Rearing Facilities: This 2-part tour includes a visit to the Insectarium’s roughly 1,400 sq. ft. lab space where a living collection of arthropods is kept. Species being bred include various beetles, millipedes, roaches, phasmids, orthoptera, and mantises, and other long-lived species on site include leafcutter and trap-jaw ants, various native aquatic beetles and true bugs, and several arachnids. Separately, participants will spend an hour walking the grounds around the lab, which sits on over 1,000 acres of bottomland hardwood forest, much of which is undisturbed green space.
Advance registration is required. Registration opens in early November.
Light Trapping with the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum
Sunday, March 9, 6:30 PM - 10:30 PM
Cost per person: Free
Round-trip transportation and supplies included.
Maximum of 30 people
Location: Doyle Chamges Central Research Station, 2310 Ben Hur Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70820
Do you need more insects for that taxonomy course collection or just a hobbyist collector who wants more specimens? This is the tour for you! Dr. Stephen Baca (LSAM Director) and Ms. Victoria Bayliss (LSAM Curator) have agreed to host an insect light trapping event on Sunday night. Stephen and Victoria have plenty of supplies for all. Bring a headlamp if you have one.
Advance registration is required. Registration opens in early November.
5K Levee Run/Walk
Tuesday, March 11, 6:30 AM
Cost per person: Free
Location: Mississippi River Levee Trail
Work off those crawfish calories! Join Dr. Rodrigo Diaz for an early morning run/walk from the hotel along the Mississippi River levee.
Advance registration is preferred. Registration opens in early November.
USDA Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics, and Physiology Unit Tour
Tuesday, March 11, 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Cost per person: Free
Round-trip transportation included.
Maximum of 30 people
Location: USDA Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics, and Physiology Unit, 157 Ben Hur Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70820
Scientists at the USDA-ARS Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics & Physiology Laboratory are tasked with improving honey bee resilience to biotic and abiotic factors. Participants will have a chance to tour the facility, visit with the scientists, and have their most pressing pollinator questions answered.
Advance registration is required. Registration opens in early November.