The Mantises Have Hatched!

There's always a science experiment going on in my house. It might be a chemisty experiment to see how baking soda, vinegar, and alka-seltzer react when mixed. It might be a crystal growing experiment. Today, our "see how Praying Mantis babies come out of their egg case" experiment, happened. About three months ago we ordered a praying mantis egg case. We attached it to a twig with a paper clip and waited for the little bugs to appear. And oh, yes, we ordered fruit flies for food. So we have watched three generations of fruit flies hatch in a test tube as well.

So when I looked in the pagoda today and saw about twenty of these little things crawling around, I was actually surprised. I didn't think those little buggers were ever going to hatch. Then the feeding fun began. I had to dump fruit flies into the pagoda. Well of course, I managed to dump fruit flies everywhere except in the pagoda. There I was, trying to round up fruit flies while my kids were laughing like hyenas. I think I got them all in (I hope!)

Now we'll see if we can manage to raise the mantises to adulthood without me completely losing my sanity or ending up with a fruit-fly infested house!