Last weekend we became the proud parents of a little praying mantis. The lucky little guy (or girl- who knows?) has 2 mommies and 3 daddies all second guessing each other on the proper care and keeping of a carnivorous bug. After a couple of habitat changes and a few shouting matches over diet (do you think earwigs will give it a tummy ache?).... I googled it tonight.
Seems we are doing okay instinctively. Okay, to be perfectly honest... I married Mr. National Geographic. HE knew what he was doing, and the rest of us were just guessing. Only thing we missed was a water source. Two choices here. 1) the spritz the jar daily method; or 2) the wet sponge method.
Given the fact that I don't want the lid off the jar any more often than necessary, I was leaning toward the sponge method... except that I don't use them and have none laying around. Fortunately, Hannah and Jeff got those little capsules of compressed sponge (add water and watch it grow!!) from Jack's 4th birthday party Friday night. Perfect bug-watering-devices! It's head is buried so deeply I can't tell if it's thirsty or trying to kill the blue shark sponge.
We haven't actually witnessed a kill, but the grasshopper carcasses are piling up. Now the hard part- breaking the news to the kids that the life expectancy of a praying mantis is only 12 months.
1 comment:
The bug died this morning. :(
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