Update on our Pet Bugs

Here is an update on our pet bugs.

1.  Our hornworm turned into a cocoon, but there are about three holes in the cocoon, so I am pretty sure he didn't make it.  Courtney's teacher for her bug class on Wednesdays told us that flies probably laid their eggs in their and we should throw it away, so we did.

2. Our praying mantis finally laid her egg case! Now we don't know if the eggs really contain baby praying mantises or not, we are not sure that she got "married" as the girls say! She has it attached to the top of the terrarium.  She did not eat for about 3-4 days before she laid the egg case and now she is starving! And her abdomen is much smaller!

We thought she would die when she had her eggs, but she didn't, so we still need to feed her.  Matt wanted to let her go because he doesn't want to keep buying crickets, but then we had a crazy idea. What if praying mantises ate boxelder bugs?? We have about a million of them on the front of our house right now!  We looked it up and they eat them! YAY! Courtney and Matt collected a few and she ate them right up! That's easy enough! And free!

It sounds like if her egg case does not contain fertilized eggs, then she will continue to put them down until she dies (which is when it gets colder).  Our grasshoppers do the same thing.  I'm not sure how this will end since she is in a nice, warm house.

3.  We are now up to four grasshoppers in the other terrarium.  The katydid died, so we had a couple of tears.  Courtney continues to feed the grasshoppers grass whenever she gets the chance, she loves watching them eat and fight over the grass!  I get updates on them every so often!

Some people think bugs are gross, but I have really found an appreciation for them since there is a collection of them in my house right now. God made some amazing creatures!!!