Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Lovers of all things BUGS!

Around here if you aren't into bugs you are in trouble. I can't say that I am quite as "into" them as Pierson and Maylin, but they sure are fun to watch discover nature and God's creatures. When I first bought their bug catchers (from the dollar spot at Target) I had no idea what I was in for. I thought maybe we'll catch a dollars worth of "shiny hineys" (aka lightning bugs). We have certainly surpassed all of my expectations!

The following is a sample of one days worth of bugs.

Please anyone tell me what in the world this thing is! I can't tell if it is coming or going. It appears to have eyes all over it's body with one pointy red horn at the... front or back... I am not sure. And of the three we have seen they all have funny white things attached to it?


A large brown praying mantis. (not to be confused with the green goggles around Maylin's neck.)

Butterflies we couldn't catch.

Caterpillars who are still in a captivity.
Apparently children's books are educational because I knew exactly what this Very Hungry Caterpillar would want to eat! We haven't released him back into the wild yet because, "her* not hungwy**". Sorry little caterpillar!
*According to M&P everything that breaths and eats is a "her". Man, woman, dog, cat or bug.
**At our house when bugs get 'hungry' it is time to be released.
And another smaller praying mantis.
I think this one is 'prayin' for an escape route! :)
Happy crawly dreams!

6 comments:

Kristi said...

So have you offered the caterpillar the five day fruit diet or the one day junk food binge? ;)
Do you think the white things are eggs? Better not keep them in the house...

Amy Murphy said...

That is awesome! You sure do have a lot of neat bugs in your yard! And it is amazing how explorative your kiddos are! I wish Ewen was as a little more in to bugs. He likes the idea of bugs, but in practice is scared to death of them! Happy bug catching!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Kristi. I think those are eggs! Great photos!
~Kate

Anonymous said...

Just google searched the green caterpillar. Looks like it is a tomato horn worn. It buries into the ground and forms a shell-like cocoon and then emerges as a moth.
~Kate

Anonymous said...

I killed several of those crazy things in my garden. They were on my tomato plants. The next day, Clay got his copy of Ranger Rick and that caterpillar was in the magazine. The white things are wasp eggs. They grow on the caterpillar and kill it. The eggs hatch and the wasp fly away to find more caterpillars to lay their eggs on. I love looking at all of the pictures. I miss seeing you at school.: ) Linda

Anonymous said...

Oh wow! i think I need to go kill some wasp eggs! :0
Traci