Bugs, Bugs and More Bugs!

What better way to learn about the world than to experience it first hand! We LOVE doing experiments and seeing how everything works. The boys especially love anything having to do with bugs and lizards and critters. Today we received our shipment of Painted Lady Caterpillars, a Praying Mantis egg case, and a tube full of fruit flies and fruit fly larva to feed the mantis when they hatch. Yea!
Here are our caterpillars. We actually have 6 but the 6th one was taking a walk across my kitchen counter when this photo was snapped. The yellow stuff in the bottom is mostly food. It comes with them when you order them from the supply company. The gross part is that the poop looks pretty much exactly like the food. Blech. Anyway, these guys are actually pretty good sized already. Usually when we get them they are really tiny. I will make sure to take pictures once they make their chrysalis and after they emerge.

 

This is a photo of the mantis egg case. It is called a ootheca. (oh-uh-THEH-kuh) It is a very light weight, almost foamy feeling case that was created by the mother sometime back in the Fall. She attaches it to a branch and lays around 100 eggs inside. They can contain up to 200 eggs! After winter, when the weather begins to warm, the nymphs emerge. They look just like the adults except for being very small and having no wings. They begin to hunt almost immediately and have a voracious appetite. As long as they are supplied enough food, they will leave each other alone. But if other insects are not available, they will quickly turn on and hunt their own kind. If nature is left to it's own design, only about a dozen of the nymphs will survive to adulthood, most having been eaten by their siblings. I used a bit of thread to hang the egg case from a small branch in the bug container. When the nymphs first emerge they will hang from the case by silken strands to allow their exoskeletons to harden before descending to the ground. I will do all I can to get pictures of the newborns and post them.

 

Pretty cool, huh? I so enjoy doing this stuff with the boys. They are so fascinated. In about 6 weeks we are going to be hatching baby chicks in an incubator. Can't wait for that. Fun, Fun, Fun!!