Last summer, we did our butterfly metamorphosis project that was fun and educational to do.
Beginning of this week, I impulsively decided to start a praying mantis metamorphosis project. It wasn’t on our radar since they’re only available for a limited time. But Insect Lore, the company where we usually purchase our bug experiments’ supplies, announced they’re selling egg pouches for only a few days. This is a new one for us, so without hesitation, I ordered them right away.
It arrived this morning: a small netted habitat, egg pouches (2) called ootheca, instruction leaflet, and life cycle figurines. According to the hatching instructions, it’ll take 12 weeks for the nymphs to hatch. That timing depends for each egg case: some customer reviews said their nymphs hatched in a matter of days. 1 egg pouch hatches 75-200 hatchling. We have 2 egg cases, so if they’re both successful, we’re going to have hundreds of them.
Really we want to have a cuddly pet, but with our allergies, sporadic hospital experiences, and Chris’ staunch opposition, we play around with insects and fish. Maybe when the kiddos get older, we could reconsider!
In the meantime, we love our crawling critters and swimming lovelies.
Categories: Random Thoughts
singlikewildflowers
Welcome to my blog! My name is Esther and I'm so happy you are here. I'm an avid nature photographer and a daydreaming thinker. My posts revolve around photos of nature's beauty, homeschooling adventures with my 2 kids, sporadic reflections on my child's heart condition, Bible reading reflections, gardening feats, and other mish mash things. Hopefully you'll leave encouraged, pensive, or smiling at the simple things of life. Thank you for stopping by and hope you'll find some interesting posts to read!
sing like wildflowers 
Insect lore is the best! So much fun!
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We love them too! I think this is the last insect project we haven’t done with Insect Lore. Been their customer for years.
Will you do a bug project this year with them?
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I’d forgotten about it until your post! Thanks for the reminder. I’ll wait until the end of May just in case we get another freeze!
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Good idea to wait till it gets warmer for you guys! The praying mantis egg pouches are dormant; very dry looking so we spritzed some water on it today (recommended to do 1x a week). We’re waiting and maybe one morning we’ll be surprised with little bugs.
Have a great start to a new week. 🙂
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Interesting – do you have hummingbird feeders Esther? You’ve not mentioned it so I’m thinking not … just so you know praying mantises prey on hummingbirds and decapitate ’em. Don’t share that with the kids – they won’t like Aunt Linda anymore, but it is true.
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OMG! Had no idea.
I was reading the comment with the kids, so I didn’t get a chance to censor. All of us were horrified at the thought and jaws dropped.
They appreciate Aunt Linda’s knowledge and understand that nature does crazy things. They chuckled when I read the last sentence. lol
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Sorry – I was horrified to find that out. When I first got the feeders, I read up on it and it said not to put the feeders too close to greenery where praying mantises might hide and prey on the hummingbirds. Having never seen a praying mantis, I can’t imagine a bug doing that. Nature is wonderful, but brutal at the same time. Glad to spread the knowledge over 3,000 miles away. 🙂
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