Releasing the butterflies and praying mantises

You know how much we love Insect Lore. (This post is totally Not Sponsored by the way.) For what I think is the 3rd year in a row, we sent away for the caterpillars for the boys. And for the 2nd year in a row, we had the praying mantis egg come at the same time. With the crazy cool weather we have been having I started to worry if any of them would hatch before the weather really took a turn. I usually order them earlier in the summer.

The caterpillars turned into their cocoons in no time, but 3 out of the 5 fell to the bottom of the jar. We had never had that happen before. We looked it up and saw that they were in danger of their wings not forming right. Al attached each one carefully to a cotton ball with a bobby pin (a true MacGyver move) and hung them back at the top of the enclosure to be sure they would be OK.

A few days later? We had 5 beautiful butterflies. And we didn't get to see a single one hatch. It happened overnight with the first 3, and then later the next day with the second 2.  We gathered some flowers at the park and put sugar water on them so we could keep them at home for a few days.

Yesterday the praying mantises started hatching. And the boys missed that too. Huge difference from last time where we were able to watch everything and video it all. We ended up getting lucky though, because it took a full two days for the pretty mantises (as the boys still call them) to finish hatching, so they were able to catch some of it.

We decided that today was the day to let everyone go. The boys carefully transported everyone to their Nonno and Lita's house because they felt they would like those gardens and flowers the best. They were all able to hold the last butterfly who stuck around for a few minutes with us.

 

Then we went to the vegetable garden and started to let the praying mantises go in several different places. Even my niece G held some of them. The boys loved how they slowly crawled on their hands and decided it must be because the praying mantises knew that they had raised them. 

 

 

Here is a quick video of the butterfly release I took. We definitely can't wait to do this again next summer.

  

 

Praying Mantis egg hatching

Mom of Boys here

I was just telling one of my friends last week at the beach that as much as I think I once tried to fight the title, I am clearly a Mom of Boys. All boys. That's me. Not that I don't love my guys more than anything ... but once I saw myself with girls too.

Now? After being a seasoned all boy mom? This is how we roll.

These are the 'pretty mantis' ... as the boys call them. No matter how many times I have said Praying Mantis. It has been 'pretty' since they were small. We ordered two egg sacs a few weeks ago from Insect Lore. Last night one of the eggs started hatching.

Did I mention each sac should hatch between 75 to 200 of these tiny guys?

A mere hours later, the boys were horrified to find they had started eating each other after they woke up this morning. I warned them it would happen, that we would have to release them ... but I didn't think it would happen in just hours ... before they all finished hatching.

The boys said goodbye before we hit the beach today and we released them into our front bushes.

I am so proud of this photo below. I didn't even realize what I had captured until I went to Instagram it. Look closely. They are walking around the top of the container and hopping out!

And of course we have a video...



After the great pretty mantis release, Al went to work and the boys and I hit the beach (for the third time in six days). The waves were so rough this morning that we walked the beach for awhile because I didn't want the kids in the water until it was calmer. The Bunny Bee ran down half the beach clearing out all the seagulls and laughing.

Once we finally picked up the camera I left behind - as we went to walk the other half of the beach - the Bunny Bee decided he was over chasing the birds but the Big Guy and the Doodlebop jumped right in.

Today we had a turn around. Before the boys pulled out their boogie boards, the Big Guy started finding Atlantic Sand Crabs (which now have a name thanks to Liz and her research) on his own. Huge. Since the boys have been small they have me find them and put them in buckets. I'm the girl always digging up the beach on her hands and knees, to fill buckets with sand crabs. But this time the Bunny Bee jumped in with a bucket and the Doodle Bop actually held some for the first time ever.

Except for this one that is. The Big Guy wanted to know what all this 'orange stuff' was.

 

Babies my friend. Eggs that will be babies.

 

 

Shrieks and a round of Ewwwww!s from everyone.

 

That's right. I'm not afraid. Mom of Boys here. I wear that badge proudly.

The Butterflies

Last summer my brother gave the Bunny Bee one of those grow your own butterfly kits.  By the time I got around to ordering them it was getting too cold so we decided to wait for warmer weather.  Just as school was ending he reminded me (for the millionth time) to order the butterflies. 

They shipped out pretty fast and before we knew it we had 5 caterpillars in a jar on our doorstep.  The boys were amazed getting to watch them every day and before I knew it they became our pets.  In just a little over a week we had 5 chrysalids.

We made Al place them from the jar into the mesh habitat.  The boys and I didn't want anything to do with the stink that would surely come from opening the jar and taking them out.  The boys liked to watch the chrysalids shake from time to time and could not wait for them to start hatching.

The timing could not have been planned better if we tried.  Tuesday morning (the twins fifth birthday), we checked the habitat before we took a trip to the dairy farm and we still didn't have any butterflies.  We came back from the farm later that morning and the boys started screaming.  Which scared the hell out of me.  I ran over and realized they were screaming with excitement.

The first baby butterfly had hatched ... on their birthday.  The Bunny Bee was so proud he made me take a photo immediately of him standing next to it.  Look at that cute grin.

That afternoon the boys were again yelling.  They swore a butterfly was about to hatch.  Best decision I think I ever made was to place that habitat in the living room next to the couch.  Had they not been watching TV at that moment we would have missed it.  In fact, this is the only one we actually got to watch 'be born' right in front of our eyes.

And you know the boys made me take a video.  For the blog.


Four of the five became butterflies that day, with the fifth making his debut two days later.  We have been adding some flowers and changing the sugar water.  I had to have the conversation with the boys that this morning will be the day we have to let them go.  We can not keep them in the habitat forever, they need to fly free.  Which was met with tears all around.

We decided that before the Bunny Bee and Doodle Bop's birthday party today, we will take the habitat with us to my inlaw's house.  They have a giant back yard full of trees, flowers, fruit trees and an amazing garden.  We will release them there so they can live and maybe the boys will be able to see them from time to time.

I pray I am not going to have three heartbroken kids.  Hopefully they will say goodbye, get distracted by the party... and it will be OK.  I'm also hoping that from now on whenever they see a butterfly at Nonno and Lita's house, they will think it is one of theirs and be happy.