martinzoo

On Tuesday, GB had a nature class at the park again. The subject was insects…….. bugs…. yippee! <sarcasm> Bugs and I do not have a working relationship. I think most of my most severe nightmares had to do with bugs. Like the one where I am trapped in the bed and a hole in the ceiling is pouring crickets onto my body while I thrash and scream. Yeah, my dreams are kinda like that.

But GB does not have those fears. He has been eagerly anticipating this class because the kids were going to help Miss Christen start a new bug habitat for the nature center. She had it all set up and ready for new inhabitants.

After learning the insect characteristics, the kids were eager to get outside, and get on with the bug hunt. Here they have rolled a log towards them carefully, that way a snake or other critter can escape if it is hiding underneath. They are inspected the rotted wood debris.

Hopefully you can see ALL the disgusting beetles that they found under this log.  There is a visible one just above the leaves on the left side of the picture. But there were at least 20 of them hiding under there. And each child wanted to bring one back for the new habitat.

GB is checking out his finds: a HUGE ground beetle and a stinkbug.

Did I say, ewwww?

Here you’ll see a very enthusiastic Miss Christen flanked by her adoring flock. They are looking up the beetle in her insect guide. She called it a Best Beetle, but I couldn’t find that online. It looked just like a Ground Beetle to me.

And no, that is not fear on that little girl’s face. It is just plain old fascination. Christen is unnaturally fascinated also.

And GB has no fear of bugs, either. Here he is holding out the stinkbug for all to view.

Can you see it on his sleeve?

This is the beetle…….. Once again, I must……… Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!

Sorry. I feel better now.

Look at how large that sucker is!

Miss Christen told GB that she could use his stinkbug for her insect collection and that it would be humanely killed for display, OR he could let it go outside, whichever he was most comfortable with. Guess what he chose?