Boys & Bugs
So, despite the fact that some of my boys are hilariously squeamish about creepy crawly creatures, they have all been enamored with some of the very interesting creatures in our backyard. Burke wanted to catch this gigantic praying mantis, I tried to get him close to it for a scale picture, but it didn’t turn out all that well. You can kind of see a brownish line on the window to his left. He wouldn’t get any closer because he thought the bug might eat him. At least you get to see his cute smiling face! We didn’t get to capture it for closer examination primarily because even our largest mason jars were not large enough for this big guy!
Neils later captured this fuzzy-looking caterpillar, though he couldn’t tell me if it were prickly or furry because he opted to just scoop the thing up into the jar rather than (ugh!) touch it with his hands… who raised this pansy, anyway? (Remember, you’re talking to the girl who used to eat live grasshoppers just to gross out the boys down the street…) Anyway, we have learned some rather fascinating things about caterpillars, primarily that when fed on beet greens, they get these groovy red stripes and produce rather large quantities of poop.
Did you really say you used to eat grasshoppers just for the reaction you got?? Why does that not surprise me? ha!
We found a praying mantis right by our back door the other day! I’ve never seen one except at like zoos and museums. It was pretty cool to watch it move around and just sit there.
Um, yup. That was me. “Tomboy” doesn’t quite begin to describe it, does it?
How cool, Rachel! I love bugs. I just think they’re so cool.