Magic school bus

[Emile.Wilson]

Hey guys, i have been recently thinking about the magic school bus and i think my favourite episode was the one about spiders with the giant praying mantis. I think that was the first time i was acquainted with mantids and i was so fascinated. Feel free to share your stories about when you were first acquainted with mantids.

 

[hibiscusmile]

what show is it? I havent seen it yet.

 

[Peter Clausen]

Oh, great topic!

I'm not sure I ever saw a mantis until I was maybe ten years old. My first memories of them are photos in the various bug books I had as a child (and still have in well worn condition). My earliest ones were called "A Golden Guide" (to insects, spiders, pests, trees, rocks, seashore, etc.). I really can't remember the first time I saw a live mantis, since I spent much of my childhood next to a butterfly bush in the backyard looking at ALL bugs! We have European mantises here, locally, and they are the largest bugs we encounter in the Portland, OR metro area. It's always very interesting when somebody at work finds one near the building in the summertime. Amazingly, they have often never seen one and aren't even really sure what it is. They only know that it is big and scary. Of course, they take a step forward when they see that I'm holding it and not afraid (and yet they're still so far away from the bug, I know they can hardly even see it )

 

[Rick]

I got interested very young by being outdoors and finding them. That is why to this day I have very good eye for finding them.

 

[revmdn]

I've never herd of that show either. But the new Tim Burton movie "Coriline" has a giant mantis in it, and looks pretty cool. My grandparents had a small summer house in Maryland off the bay. There was so much wild life, and a ton of bugs. That's when I decided I really like the mantis

 

[Katnapper]

I'm not sure how I acquired the very little I knew about mantids before finding an adult female Chinese mantis on the job site in the fall of 2007. I grew up on a farm (we raised feeder hogs) and was outdoors and around animals all of the time. We had horses, chickens, goats, dogs, cats, a cow, and even an ostrich at one point (it left, to my brother's chagrin, only a very short time after Mom saw it!) But I don't recall ever seeing any mantises when I was young.

When I found Lily, as she came to be called, I took her home and started with Googling about mantis care. One thing led to another... and now I'm up to my eyeballs in mantids and loving it! Some of my family thinks it's rather odd I developed this interest while in my 40's. But to me, it's better late than never!

 

[ismart]

My first encounter with a mantids was when i was very young. My parents old house used to have a huge yard! I used to find a ton of chinese mantids. I must give the chinese mantis due credit. If it was not for them, i may not be part of this awsome hobby, and great community . Even now i cant help but to keep a few chinese mantids when i come across them.

 

[nasty bugger]

For the uninitiated, the Magic School Bus is a PBS kids show, kinda like in the same vein as sesame street, but not.

The had a show on this last weekend, not sure of the name, but a show where some young guy, I suppose to get teens excited about nature stuff, but he checks out different stuff every week and he covered insects, spiders turantualas, and stuff. It was on broadcast tv, since that's all I have. I don't watch too much tv unless the weathers bad, which isn't too often around here.

Stick bugs were covered more than mantis', I won't go there I just prefer mantis' at this time as they'll protect my garden

I can imagine how much more informative the programs on mantis' would be if they read Orin's book. A bit more coverage and info would be exposed, I would imagine.

 

[The_Asa]

Lol, Ms. Frizzle :lol: I've always liked mantids just because of those awesome heads they have. Gives you a little bit more empathy with them and the other bugs. It helps that they live a fairly long time for a bug as well.

 

[Emile.Wilson]

hey guys so for any1 who wanted to see the episode i mentioned i found it on youtube these are the links

Part 1: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=vMaAlRuUjyk

Part 2: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=yqVNDnmlkr8&...feature=related

Part 3: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=CF0AfWfRtTQ&...feature=related

 

[Emile.Wilson]

I loved the show i would always watch it when i was younger, there was a few episodes on arthropods.

 

[Orin]

Maybe ten years ago I sent a mantis and some other inverts to be used in a Barney show.

I used to find Chinese mantids in the field across the street from my house when I was probably six or seven (possibly earlier since I went with my older sister and young children used to be allowed to play outside all day without ). Of course the field bacame a housing development a very long time ago and no mantids live there now. My daughters have never gone creeking or bug hunting without serious prompting; video games, better TV, homework, and all the rest I guess.