Closed Mondays:
Open 7 days a week Memorial Day - Labor Day

 

Tuesday through Saturday:
10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

 

Thursday: 5 - 8 p.m.
Free Family Nights are offered every Thursday!

 

Sunday: noon - 6 p.m.

 

 
Event Rental
Admission

$9: Adults and children 1+
$8: Seniors (65+)
Free: Children under 1 and Museum Members

View more about the Children's Museum Admission

 
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ATTACK OF THE BLOODSUCKERS!

Attack of the Bloodsuckers opens this fall at the Museum!September 24 – January 22

Learn about the beasties that bite you and why!

Stinky feet can make you more attractive… to a hungry mosquito, that is!  Take cover because the invasion has begun.  Bloodsuckers are lurking everywhere for a chance to take a bite of you. Explore the science of what’s eating you with Attack of the Bloodsuckers!, a new, skin-crawling exhibit open through Jan. 22, 2012. You’re invited to discover the biological wonders of sanguinivores (creatures that eat blood) through encounters with live species and interactive exhibits.

• Look at live loathsome leeches and their mouths.

• Feel a giant tick “grow” on you.

• Get in the diver’s seat and cruise the skies in search of dinner in the “mosquito cockpit.”

• Pull off your socks and test your bug-appealing foot odor.

• Get itchy and knotty with the life-size game of "Twitcher" — a buggy variation on Twister™!

 
Attack of the Bloodsuckers! zooms in on the famished critters that raid your personal space when you’re not looking.  It offers
 
fascinating facts about creatures most of us never take a second look at, even if we do take a second swat.  The exhibit also provides you with helpful hints for avoiding these sometimes annoying creatures.  
With about 20 grams of protein in every drop, human blood is high-energy fuel for the animals who’ve adapted to eating it—and they have adapted in some pretty amazing ways: Our regional black fly, for example, uses its scissor-like jaws to create a wound in the skin, then licks up the resulting pool of blood.  Ticks, also native to our area, can swell up to 600 times their original size!
 
The incredible biodiversity of bloodsuckers is sure to amaze and impress. While we can’t guarantee you’ll want to make friends with these critters, you’re sure to respect them after surviving the Attack of the Bloodsuckers!
 See a real medical leech feeding by Mr. O!
 

ABOUT ATTACK OF THE BLOODSUCKERS!
Attack of the Bloodsuckers! is produced by EEC—the Environmental Exhibit Collaborative (ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, Burlington, Vermont; EcoTarium, Worcester, Massachusetts; and the Children’s Museum of Maine, Portland, Maine)—and made possible by grants from Jane's Trust, Cabot Family Charitable Trust, and the U.S. Institute for Museum and Library Services.