Tourism in Pangandaran, West Java, is not only about visiting various beaches and enjoying the beauty of nature. There are educational tour options in this region. One option, the Pangandaran Mosquito Museum. This museum is located in Babakan Village, Pangandaran District. From the direction of Ciamis or Banjar, the location is not far before the Marlin Roundabout, which is the entrance gate to the Pangandaran Beach tourist attraction. At the front of this museum there is an icon, namely a statue of a giant mosquito.
Mosquito Museum is located in the Scientific Tourism Complex. The Health Research and Development Workshop. The museum is managed by the Pangandaran Health Research and Development Center under the Health Research and Development Agency of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia. The location is on Jalan Raya Pangandaran KM3 Kamurang Village, Babakan Village.
This museum is used as an educational and scientific tourism destination to change people’s perception that research results are too heavy. They only see research from its scientific nature. The researchers at the Pangandaran Research and Development Center hope that the results of their research can be conveyed to the public without going through seminars or journals. The method of delivery is through educational tours. “This is the main goal. Educating the community, the researchers don’t want the results of the research to just be in the library. They are trying to visualize anything that can be conveyed. Usually people see mosquitoes as normal. We want after coming here people know there are many types of mosquitoes. It turns out cause disease A, disease B. Then how to avoid getting infected by mosquitoes. That’s what we want to educate. Seminars are sometimes different from the visuals. In this museum complex there are insectariums, laboratories, mini cinemas, libraries, tompen (plants for malaria medicine). and mosquito repellant).
In the cinema there is a dukomentary film (about mosquitoes) for junior high school students (tourists) and above. Elementary and Kindergarten students have cartoons about dengue transmission. The capacity is around 100 people. In the insectarium, he said, they keep Aedes and Culex mosquitoes. Apart from that, there are also eggs, larvae, mosquito pupae that can be known by tourists who come.
Meanwhile, in this 8×8 meter museum, there are various types of collections of mosquitoes from Indonesia. In addition, there are equipment related to catching mosquitoes, mosquito repellents, and others. For the collection of mosquitoes in this museum, there are about 25 species. This collection comes from a number of regions in Indonesia, such as Sumatra and Sulawesi. Some of the plants in Tompen include lavender, zodia, eucalyptus, vetiver, and neem. Neem has long been known as a cure for malaria. Then there are several types of plants that can be extracted and are known as mosquito repellents.
Museum managers offer a number of tour packages including short tour packages, 2-3 day packages, one week and even one month packages. Because it is a government agency, each tourist is subject to an entry fee as part of Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP). TK, SD, SMP students are charged IDR 5,000 per person. For high school students Rp. 7500. Students and the general public Rp. 15 thousand. “(Tariffs) For tourists who do the training, we adjust the material requested. The material is starting from looking for larvae to catching mosquitoes in breeding areas such as abandoned ponds.
The afternoon follows the larvae. It should be night until dawn, because while studying it is enough until 23.00 WIB to catch mosquitoes. Described how to catch it. Initially, this museum was only open Monday-Friday during working hours. The Mosquito Museum is open Monday to Friday at 07.30 – 16.00 also Saturday – Sunday at 09.00 – 15.00 WIB.