The Praying Mantises Have Hatched!

Wow! That was quick! I just posted yesterday that I expected the mantis egg sacks to hatch any day now...I didn't expect it to be the very next day. Here are a few of the pictures of them thus far. It appears that only one sack has hatched. You can tell in the second picture that some "strings" or "threads" are hanging. This apparently is from when they first come out of the sack and hang until they have "dried" out.

We have about 100 or more praying mantis babies right now. Today, we released some wingless flies into their cage. We haven't seen them catch one, yet, but the pet store assured us that these will feed them well. Once we get some warmer weather, we may consider letting some of them go near our garden so we don't have as many to feed. I don't think many would survive if we do it right now.

Our buggy adventure is just beginning. We now have wingless flies and praying mantis babies. The things we endure for our children! I keep telling myself : This, too, shall pass. This, too, shall pass. They are cool to watch, but they bug me. I keep worrying they'll escape. I think I'm going to have nightmares tonight.

T is enjoying himself and really learning quite a bit. It has been a great motivator for him to learn even more about insects and their life cycles. This all coordinates very well with his recent enrollment is the 4-H entomology program and the activites he is doing in his science book.

I'll try to post more pictures as they grow.

Going Batty!

The latest Young Adventurers program was on the topic of bats. Miss Cyndi did a fantastic job of dispelling the myths surrounding bats and educating the kids about their unique traits. She made some great models to help the kids visualize the largest and smallest bat species. We then watched and discussed a very informative video on bats. Afterwards, we took a short walk and saw some of the places where bats had recently spent the night, as evidence from their bat droppings. The kids then did a follow-up craft of a bat with movable wings which they could take home to remind them of what they had learned.

After the program, the kids had an adventure of their own in the dry creek bed. It is one of their favorite places in the park.

Rescued Skink

Truly, I screamed while doing laundry! Not that I am afraid of laundry, but simply because I never expected to find a skink in my basement under a pile of laundry. T was a brave lad and rescued it in his mason "bug" jar that has holes in the lid. We inspected it for a few minutes and did some research on skinks using the Internet and our animal encyclopedia. After finding out that they are helpful in gardens, T set it free near our garden in hopes it will stick around and eat up all the bad bug.

If you are wondering about our praying mantis egg cases, here is an update: they haven't hatched yet. We are hoping any day now, but it could still be another week or two according to the instructions that came with the egg cases. I'll post pictures when anything happens.