Lisa

My son loves bugs. We have raised silkworms from eggs twice. We have raised monarchs from eggs. We have a big aquarium full of beetles, mealworms, super mealworms, and every other bug you can buy at petco. We have raised crickets and grasshoppers. We have an antfarm on order.

We are going to order tomato hornworms in the spring and raise them. We are thinking of doing vinegar eels ... whatever they are. He heard of them and wants to raise them but I need to check them out a bit more first.

In the summer we raise worms and whatever caterpillars and bugs we can find outside.

He wants to do more right now but it has to be something that I can buy the bug and the food because it's winter here ...... any more ideas or experiences? I'm out.

Thanks, Lisa

kiabrice

--- In [email protected], "Lisa" <lisa@...> wrote:
>
> My son loves bugs. We have raised silkworms from eggs twice. We have raised monarchs from eggs. We have a big aquarium full of beetles, mealworms, super mealworms, and every other bug you can buy at petco. We have raised crickets and grasshoppers. We have an antfarm on order.
>
> We are going to order tomato hornworms in the spring and raise them. We are thinking of doing vinegar eels ... whatever they are. He heard of them and wants to raise them but I need to check them out a bit more first.
>
> In the summer we raise worms and whatever caterpillars and bugs we can find outside.
>
> He wants to do more right now but it has to be something that I can buy the bug and the food because it's winter here ...... any more ideas or experiences? I'm out.
>
> Thanks, Lisa

I have a bug lover too!
You could get a "worm bin" (for composting) to keeep worms in the winter. We have one similiar to this: http://neatitems.com/worm_bins.htm and there is no smell so it can be kept indoors (ours is in the garage, but in southern AZ, so not the extreme cold of other places; when we lived in a house w/out a garage, we had it in the laundry room).

Or if you're looking for ideas outside of actually raising/keeping the bugs -- national geographic kids is good for videos - here's one of a jumping spider catching a bee: http://video.kids.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/animals-pets-kids/bugs-kids/jumping-spider-kids.html Many more will lead off of that one if you keep watching. youtube is another good source, for all sorts of things, no shortage of bug videos there. And youtube can be good for going on all sorts of tangents, when you start out watching videos of one thing you've searched for and then continue clicking on the suggestions on the side... I'm often amazed at the things my son finds on there...

Watch the Orkin website, they sometimes have posters available (free), we got one last year that shows several different spiders & gives some facts about each and spiders in general... It's a fairly nice poster too, it's big (we have it in the hallway, it's about 3' wide), color, and laminated already so it'll last.

Not available now, but there's the Great Sunflower Project in the spring, they will send you free sunflower seeds to plant, in return you observe bees that visit and send back numbers of how many. http://www.greatsunflower.org/ (looks like they have other flowers available this year too)

We got him a "Let's tackle Math" kit for Christmas which is all bugs (bought because it was on clearance, I think on Amazon, but not certain now, and because we figured he'd like playing w/ the bugs) -- it's a tackle box full of rubber spiders, worms, caterpillars, dragonflies, beetles, and frogs. Comes with a book full of patterns to make, and the worms are "inch worms" in 1, 2, 3, 4 inches - and my son does like making the patterns - but it could just be a bucket full of bugs too. Grandma also sent some plastic flies which stay in the box now.

Depending on how old he is, your son might also like the Magic School Bus video about bugs -- mine does, but he's 4, older kids might not be interested - and it is available from Netflix -- we've probably seen that video close to 100 times ('rented' it four or five different occasions over the last year or so).

Page full of free online bug games: http://www.freeonlinegames.com/tag/bug_games

You can get gel ant farms, with tunnels to attach multiple 'farms', as well. (The ant farm wasn't as much of a hit as I'd expected here though).

If you're up for it, tarantulas raised in domestication are...while not exactly "pets" in my opinion, but can be handled. My dad almost always had one or two when I was a kid, and they need to be fed other bugs. But they can be bought at pet stores too. Or through catalogs (which I was very surprised to learn, but my dad bought a blue tarantula through a catalog about a year ago, mailed to him).

Take him by the library too (if you haven't already) and talk to the librarian, see what sort of books and/or videos they have about bugs.



>

Ed Wendell

There are all kinds of games involving bugs. Puzzles and such too. Books, DVD's, probably lots of stuff on You-Tube involving bugs. Have you checked out your local library yet? Magazines - perhaps Your Big Back Yard?

What about an amber rock with an ancient insect embedded?

Does it have to be insects or could it be spiders too?

Ladybugs or Lady Birds (same insect with different name) You can buy them and raise them - we've done that. Fruit Flies?

Google "live insects" and see what you get.

Carolina Biological; Insect Lore; Nasco Science are a few sources I can think of



Lisa W.



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Kerryn LH

On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 12:27 AM, Ed Wendell <ewendell@...> wrote:

>
> Ladybugs or Lady Birds (same insect with different name) You can buy them
> and raise them - we've done that. Fruit Flies?
>
>
We've had silkworms recently, very easy and very interesting.


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Schuyler

Snails are pretty cool. Linnaea was really into them for a while. They were all
over our garden, she'd collect them and I'd just feed them on what they were
eating anyhow, lettuces and things. They have sex a lot, but cleaning the
terrarium regularly seemed to keep the population to only the found snails.
English snails use hormonally enhanced darts that increase the sperm uptake of
their partner. I used to find the darts among the lettuce and other muck when
I'd clean out their mess. That was always cool.


You could get Gerald Durrell's book The Amateur Naturalist which is ever so
slightly old fashioned in it's approach to specimen collection. But it has good
information on how to set up terrariums and aquariums for local species that you
can live with for a while and then let go. I much prefer collections of animals
that I can eventually release back into the wild.

Schuyler

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peacefuldreamers

How old is he? My younger daughter went through a bug phase between 4 1/2 and 6 in the wintertime and we collected BOOKS about BUGS. And we found some bug kits for study that came with a magnifying glass and some pretty crazy bugs in little plastic cubes (we joked that they looked like ice cubes!)

We now have a HUGE reference section on bugs... the microscope came in very handy too (looking at the dead ones.) That took up hours! Funny she is sort of over the bugs, but now she loves them and has no fear of the crazy critters we find outside! This summer we found some http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichneumonoidea) ichneumon wasps laying eggs in a downed maple in our backyard... that was crazy for days we watched!

There are just so many bugs, we never ran out of things to look for!

Good luck!

Amy

www.booksforwallsproject.org


--- In [email protected], "Lisa" <lisa@...> wrote:
>
> My son loves bugs. We have raised silkworms from eggs twice. We have raised monarchs from eggs. We have a big aquarium full of beetles, mealworms, super mealworms, and every other bug you can buy at petco. We have raised crickets and grasshoppers. We have an antfarm on order.
>
> We are going to order tomato hornworms in the spring and raise them. We are thinking of doing vinegar eels ... whatever they are. He heard of them and wants to raise them but I need to check them out a bit more first.
>
> In the summer we raise worms and whatever caterpillars and bugs we can find outside.
>
> He wants to do more right now but it has to be something that I can buy the bug and the food because it's winter here ...... any more ideas or experiences? I'm out.
>
> Thanks, Lisa
>

Jill Parmer

This site used to be have a clean and appealing look, but now they have ads; still interesting.
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/

Do you have a college near you that has an entomology department? The one near us is run by a guy that is so excited about bugs and lets people come look at all their specimens and live bugs.

Any bug museum or pavilion near you, like this one http://www.butterflies.org/ ?

Live web cams change a lot, and at quick glance on a google search for them I didn't see any, but there were some sites that have had live streaming of bugs. You may have quite a bit of searching to find one.

~Jill

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Sandra Dodd

-=-
We are going to order tomato hornworms in the spring and raise them. -=-

You can get free worms just by planting tomatoes, and they'll need the tomato plants, too, for food.

One year I planted tomatoes just to get the worm. Holly hadn't seen one. One showed up, and it was so perfect! I left it there. The next day one of our six plants was totally stripped. So I think if you have a tomato worm plan, buy some tomatoes and get them established and don't expect ever to harvest any tomatoes. :-)

If he has any interest in worms, you can buy redworms and give them garbage, and they will be happy and reproduce. They have a pellet, not quiet an egg, from which a new worm will come. Once I learned to recognize those, I saw them lots, even in the wild. I've had two batches of bought worms, and the second one I put straight into the compost pile. They survived into the next year. I dug up some dirt just recently and there were live worms. It's hard winter lately and I don't know if they're alive down there or not (in the dirt under where the compost pile was), because the ground is too hard to dig.

The good thing about worms, though, is they can "be released into the wild" without risk of danger or injury.

If you happen to be passing through Albuquerque in any warm season, come over to my house and I'll find him a black widow or two--not to hold, but to see. It's pretty easy to find them, in the cinderblock walls behind the house, or around piles of wire or bricks in the yard.

Sandra

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wtexans

===You can get free worms just by planting tomatoes, and they'll need the tomato plants, too, for food.===

We always plant extra of certain things, so that we can share with the insects and other critters that like those things.

When we plant tomatoes, we plant dill nearby. Hornworms love the dill and gravitate to it, and it's much easier to spot the hornworms on the dill plants than on the tomato plants. Plus the dill is yummy to cook with! I've read that fennel works like dill for attracting hornworms, but haven't tried that yet.

If you plant squash, you'll get squash bugs. They're interesting to watch (although they destroy squash plants like nobody's business, so we don't much enjoy having them show up in our garden!). You have to flip over the leaf of the squash plant to find the bugs -- they lay their eggs on the underside of the leaf and the babies tend to hang out there.

Glenda

m_aduhene

stick insects....we have two species....indian ones and some other species that is big and spiky and likes brambles (i forget the name). they grow quite big and are impressive.

--- In [email protected], "wtexans" <wtexans@...> wrote:
>
> ===You can get free worms just by planting tomatoes, and they'll need the tomato plants, too, for food.===
>
> We always plant extra of certain things, so that we can share with the insects and other critters that like those things.
>
> When we plant tomatoes, we plant dill nearby. Hornworms love the dill and gravitate to it, and it's much easier to spot the hornworms on the dill plants than on the tomato plants. Plus the dill is yummy to cook with! I've read that fennel works like dill for attracting hornworms, but haven't tried that yet.
>
> If you plant squash, you'll get squash bugs. They're interesting to watch (although they destroy squash plants like nobody's business, so we don't much enjoy having them show up in our garden!). You have to flip over the leaf of the squash plant to find the bugs -- they lay their eggs on the underside of the leaf and the babies tend to hang out there.
>
> Glenda
>

riasplace3

--- In [email protected], "sheeboo2" <brmino@...> wrote:
>
> Praying Mantis eggs? Usually you order them in the winter so they'll be ready for your garden by spring:
>
>


But don't keep them inside unless they're in a cage with no holes, because 300 or so teensy-tiny preying mantis' are almost impossible to catch and relocate. ;) They flip themselves upside down and fold their legs straight and look like little bits of dried grass.

I speak from experience.....

;)
Ria

riasplace3

--- In [email protected], Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>> You can get free worms just by planting tomatoes, and they'll need the tomato plants, too, for food.
>
> One year I planted tomatoes just to get the worm. Holly hadn't >seen one. One showed up, and it was so perfect! I left it there. >The next day one of our six plants was totally stripped.


We had three last summer on our tomato plants, and it was my first time seeing them, after 15 or so years of gardening. The first two we put in a cage with tomato plants and dirt, because they dig down into the dirt to pupate, and one came out and became a moth, and the other never came out, so we now have a moth and a pupa for our nature shelf.

The third one had parasitic wasp eggs which was fascinating, too. After the wasps hatched we kept the shell of caterpillar for the nature shelf, also.


If you have baby food jars you can preserve some insects in alcohol for further study. We've done that with "fat" ones that stink before they dry out.

If we find ones that are already dead and dry (around supermarkets and ball fields where there are bright lights are good places to look) we put them in a glass-topped case so they will stay clean and safe.

And Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches are easy and interesting.

Ria

Renee Boisvert

Our family attended a session of pond-dipping while we were camping. We all
loved it! My daughters were 7 and 9 years old at the time. They loved it so
much we have gathered our own equipment and we go pond or stream dipping
several times a year. It is hilarious watching the faces of adults who ask
what we are doing... and a young child tells them we are looking for aquatic
invertebrates. Here are some good websites:

http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/educational/pond_resources/Ponds_dipping.php
(How to do it)

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/pond/
(diagrams of different pond life)

http://www.pondconservation.org.uk/bigponddip/animalsinyourpond
(photos of some common aquatic invertebrates)

Cheers,
Renee


On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 1:08 AM, Lisa <lisa@...> wrote:

>
>
> My son loves bugs. We have raised silkworms from eggs twice. We have raised
> monarchs from eggs. We have a big aquarium full of beetles, mealworms, super
> mealworms, and every other bug you can buy at petco. We have raised crickets
> and grasshoppers. We have an antfarm on order.
>
> We are going to order tomato hornworms in the spring and raise them. We are
> thinking of doing vinegar eels ... whatever they are. He heard of them and
> wants to raise them but I need to check them out a bit more first.
>
> In the summer we raise worms and whatever caterpillars and bugs we can find
> outside.
>
> He wants to do more right now but it has to be something that I can buy the
> bug and the food because it's winter here ...... any more ideas or
> experiences? I'm out.
>
> Thanks, Lisa
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

andrea catalano

a worm composter can be kept inside in the winter and, if it's working properly,
doesn't smell at all. Its simple to maintain and very interesting to see the
worms process all the vegetable and fruit peelings. A side benefit is that
you'll have lovely compost for your garden come springtime.

andrea





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Heather

Being new to the group and seeing this post, I had to toss in a neat resource. We are taking part in this with our BUG LOVER:

https://www.mos.org/fireflywatch/

It is done with the Museum of Science in Boston.

Happy Bugging-
Heather

--- In [email protected], "Lisa" <lisa@...> wrote:
>
> My son loves bugs. We have raised silkworms from eggs twice. We have raised monarchs from eggs. We have a big aquarium full of beetles, mealworms, super mealworms, and every other bug you can buy at petco. We have raised crickets and grasshoppers. We have an antfarm on order.
>
> We are going to order tomato hornworms in the spring and raise them. We are thinking of doing vinegar eels ... whatever they are. He heard of them and wants to raise them but I need to check them out a bit more first.
>
> In the summer we raise worms and whatever caterpillars and bugs we can find outside.
>
> He wants to do more right now but it has to be something that I can buy the bug and the food because it's winter here ...... any more ideas or experiences? I'm out.
>
> Thanks, Lisa
>

Tori

Ah bugs! We love 'em too. I recommend composting. Even in a small apartment one can compost with manure worms in a rubbermaid (lots of youtube demos). And you need only a small outdoor space for a small compost pile which will attract wonderful living creatures--insect, arachnid, worms and reptile (depending on your climate) and mammal (if you don't cover)! Even our compost bowl (a stainless mixing bowl that holds food scraps awaiting the trip to the outdoor pile) has attracted some very busy resident ants. BUT that was only after we worked so hard to keep the dishes washed that they left our sink.

Also check out nearby science museum and university biology depts for more intellectual insect pursuits.

--- In [email protected], "Lisa" <lisa@...> wrote:
>
> My son loves bugs. We have raised silkworms from eggs twice. We have raised monarchs from eggs. We have a big aquarium full of beetles, mealworms, super mealworms, and every other bug you can buy at petco. We have raised crickets and grasshoppers. We have an antfarm on order.
>
> We are going to order tomato hornworms in the spring and raise them. We are thinking of doing vinegar eels ... whatever they are. He heard of them and wants to raise them but I need to check them out a bit more first.
>
> In the summer we raise worms and whatever caterpillars and bugs we can find outside.
>
> He wants to do more right now but it has to be something that I can buy the bug and the food because it's winter here ...... any more ideas or experiences? I'm out.
>
> Thanks, Lisa
>

Lisa

What wonderful ideas! Thank you. We have a whole list of things that Joe is very excited about doing now. And the search for a madagascar hissing cockroach led us to Ken the Bug Guy who sells *Giant Millipedes*. As soon as we can we are going to get one, and my son is SO SUPER EXCITED about the giant millipede he can hardly stand it. We even wrote Ken the Big Guy a letter last night :)

Sandra Dodd

I like this.

-=-Ah bugs! We love 'em too. I recommend composting. Even in a small apartment one can compost with manure worms in a rubbermaid (lots of youtube demos). And you need only a small outdoor space for a small compost pile which will attract wonderful living creatures--insect, arachnid, worms and reptile (depending on your climate) and mammal (if you don't cover)! -=-

This is less ideal:

-=-Also check out nearby science museum and university biology depts for more intellectual insect pursuits.-=-

Seeing "intellectual" as something that happens in science museums and biology departments is problematical, unschoolingwise.

Children can think and learn anywhere, about anything.
The main purpose of unschooling is so that those whose schooling crushed that out of them can regain the ability to think and learn anywhere, about anything.

Sandra

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Kelly Lovejoy

There used to be an amazing set of photographs of a mantis impaling and eating a hummingbird. They don't seem to be around any more---not the set I was looking for, anyway.


It's not for the sensitive! But there are a large number of photos/videos, so apparently it's not all that uncommon. Just google "hummingbird and praying mantis."


If he's at all squeamish, I'd view them privately first. But I find it amazing!


~Kelly

Kelly Lovejoy
"There is no single effort more radical in its potential for saving the world than a transformation of the way we raise our children." Marianne Williamson



-----Original Message-----
From: sheeboo2 <brmino@...>
Subject: [AlwaysLearning] Re: loves bugs ... any ideas?


Praying Mantis eggs? Usually you order them in the winter so they'll be ready
for your garden by spring:

http://www.insectlore.com/xinsectucational_stuff/instructions/mantis_egg_case.html

http://www.praying-mantis-eggs.com/

Brie




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