Mantis show and tell.

[lancaster1313]

Today was show and tell day for my daughter's Pre-k class. We brought in some L1 Stagmomantis carolina nymphs along with some subsub and subadults of the same species. We also brought our last living Tenodera sinensis adult female and some hatched oothecae from both species. The children got to see the Chinese girl eat a Surinam roach up close, and some of the Carolinas eat some fruit flys.

We passed around the hatched oothecae so the children could feel them. To end the presentation, I passed out some mantis coloring sheets that show a Chinese mantis and her ootheca.

Most of the children really loved the mantids and were willing to gently touch the Chinese mantid's wings while she was busy eating the roach.

I hope that some of the children can become interested in nature and the things that they can find when they play outdoors. Maybe some of them won't want to watch TV or play video games all day after school. <_<

 

[Ntsees]

...I hope that some of the children can become interested in nature and the things that they can find when they play outdoors...

From what I've seen, some kids tend to be very interested in nature at a young age. However, when they hit the teens or mid-teens, it somehow just goes away and they become interested in other things. I've watched that happen to my nephews as they grew up. But for me, my interest in nature has never changed (does that mean I didn't grow up lol?).

 

[Krissim Klaw]

Lol when I was in 1st grade I brought in some of Chinese nymphs that had hatched from the wild girl I had caught. They were a real hit. Good times, good times. :wheelchair:

 

[GreenOasis]

I never outgrew my love for nature & in fact, have made it my job/business!

However, for some reason, most of my children don't share my enthusiasm...maybe because I wasn't able to actually HAVE many animals for them earlier on in their childhood...or maybe they're just sick of my "hobby". :blink:

 

[lancaster1313]

I never got enough of nature when I was a kid. It didn't stop me from doing what I could to find creatures. I instantly fell in love with reptiles when I saw a large snake at the zoo when I was 6 and I got into trouble for jumping the gate to get closer to the display. As soon as I was old enough to roam around, all I did was hunt for anything that I could find. I wasn't allowed to keep anything that I caught for very long. My kid has it made now because I like the same things as she does and I am happy to take care of most of the things that she finds, if I don't find them first. :lol: I just recently got into inverts because my daughter showed an interest, and I guess I won't be bored for a while because I am always finding something new to me.

 

[Ricardo]

As an actual 15 year old, I can tell you folks that I never lost interest in nature, but probably because I'm the only one among my peers who was ever interested in the first place. When I was 8 me and my brother would harvest and raise frogs from tadpoles to adulthood. Unfortunately the forest and pond was destroyed and replaced by ugly grey houses. The frogs we raised were the only survivors and every year a new generation could be heard in the garden.

Sadly, the frogs are now completely diminished here. This is why I got into mantids.

I lost touch with animals and nature because in a sense it was taken away from me , but thanks to breeders and other people who love nature, some of it's beauty can be preserved and interacted with for years to come !

 

[sporeworld]

I gave my 1st grade teacher an ooth I found and she put it in her desk in one of her old "lEggs" nylon cases (you have to be really old to remember them). We went on Eaaster break and 1st day back she opened her drawer and said "Ooooo, a little spider". Then "Oh, may - a whole LOT of spiders!".

Every kid in the room ran to the back except me and one girl - we raced forward. I KNEW it was from the egg (somehow), but the other girl must have just been curious (or maybe liked spiders). It was stunning how quickly and definitively the room was divided.

 

[PeterF]

When we do outreach with the bugzoo it amazes me how many kids don't know anything about bugs. I mean, that's what kids are supposed to know about (and dinosaurs).

They do like to handle them. But they get totally freaked out by like, superworms. Then they want to hold the scorpion.

 

[dgerndt]

I was always a nature-freak. I played in ponds and creeks and caught turtles and frogs with my older brother all summer, every summer when I was a little kid. I used to catch all kinds of bugs, and I always wanted to keep them, but my mom never let me. When I got a little older, I kept them turtles and frogs and lizards as pets. Now I've moved from reptiles and amphibians to mantids.

 

[Entomo-logic]

At the zoo where I work we have free ranging Nephila madagascariensis that live in the trees and the rafters of the insectarium. After getting hate mail from several zoo patrons about being afraid of spiders we had to post signs alerting people to the spiders on the ceiling above them. Now we have a lot of people who yell and scream and throw tantrums in the hallway between the butterfly wing of the building and the "Insect side" where the spiders live. When people do get up the courage to enter they run with their hands over their head like they are in a hailstorm. This upsets me because kids see this and then once interested children immediately become scared and stay scared because their parents, grandparents, and/or older siblings are scared. This is bad but not as bad as when the people come back in to see the butterflies after the incident the children 9 times out of 10 are scared of butterflies too because of the message their elders have sent them. This is a troubling issue of uneducated people just perpetuating stereotypes on harmless, amazing, and very necessary creatures.

 

[dgerndt]

Parents really do have a big impact on children, and it's so sad that adults have to be so afraid of these wonderful creatures. I have a young niece who, out of nowhere, became very afraid of bugs. So my sister (her mother) took her into their yard and gave her a jar and went looking for insects together. She caught some pill bugs and cute little beetles and showed her that bugs aren't scary--they're wonderful. My niece was no longer afraid. Shortly afterward, my sister caught an adult Chinese mantis ouside her work, and kept her as a pet. Then I got the mantis a few months later, and here I am. We are a family of insect lovers (not including my mom).

 

[lancaster1313]

I was surprised at how open minded most of the children were about my bugs. Then again, I am talking about very young children, (4 and 5 years old). This wasn't the first time I brought a bug for them to see. I brought in an old Chinese female before that. I brought her for my daughters class to see, but it turned out that after the first showing, the other 2 Pre-k teachers requested that I show their classes as well. It took me quite a while to get out of there. :lol:

There were about 4 children that were afraid,(all boys) 1 in particular was shaking and trying to push himself into the wall. <_< In my experience, the younger children are more open minded to bugs. Many of the girls in the class were reaching out to touch the mantis, most of the boys were satisfied just observing. I think that at that young age,most of the parents haven't yet discouraged their kids from the creatures.

 

[dgerndt]

When I was a little kid my father always encouraged me to explore and find bugs. My mother wasn't so eager, as she HATES almost all insects. But still she tried not to cringe too much when I caught handfulls of rolly pollies and let daddy long-legs walk all over my arms. She just never let me keep them, which is better anyway. I know I wouldn't be able to keep them alive and healthy for very long at that age. But I do remember I used to catch wasps and they would become used to me and I could hold them without ever being stung.

 

[lancaster1313]

When I was a little kid my father always encouraged me to explore and find bugs. My mother wasn't so eager, as she HATES almost all insects. But still she tried not to cringe too much when I caught handfulls of rolly pollies and let daddy long-legs walk all over my arms. She just never let me keep them, which is better anyway. I know I wouldn't be able to keep them alive and healthy for very long at that age. But I do remember I used to catch wasps and they would become used to me and I could hold them without ever being stung.

:lol: My daughter loves handling wasps and bees. She can't seem to leave any creatures alone, <_< I am afraid that she stresses and hurts them. When I was young I handled many creatures, it took me a long time before I learned empathy for them. I like to gently pet bees sometimes, but I am wary of grabbing them.

 

[dgerndt]

:lol: My daughter loves handling wasps and bees. She can't seem to leave any creatures alone, <_< I am afraid that she stresses and hurts them. When I was young I handled many creatures, it took me a long time before I learned empathy for them. I like to gently pet bees sometimes, but I am wary of grabbing them.

I never grabbed the wasps or bees. I always let them crawl out of the jar and onto my hand. I was always wary of the stinger... but I've only been stung by a bee once. I was running on a beach and stepped on one that got washed up along the water's edge. As for the other creatures I handled, I wasn't nearly as careful. It's just a kid thing. Younger minds haven't developed the ability to think about how their actions affect others. As we grow older, we learn and we become more careful.

 

[lancaster1313]

My daughter got stung the first couple of times she grabbed bees, she was lucky because she wiped the stinger out before it got a chance to pump out anything. After an hour I couldn't find the mark where she was stung. I find it admirable that she wasn't mad at, or afraid of the bees after being stung. Now she does what we do with the mantids, putting her hand in front of them and letting them walk on. We have never trapped them on purpose. I accidentally net bees and wasps when I am sweeping it around, looking for "food". I am always surprised when they don't seem defensive about being trapped in the net. :huh:

 

[dgerndt]

I think they can feel it when we're nervous. Kinda like dogs. If you just stay calm and don't act threatening, they usually won't sting you. (As long as it's not an aggressive species)

 

[Entomo-logic]

When trying to ID species of bees and wasps in the feild I will gently pinch them around the lower thorax and upper abdomen thus restricting the range of the stinger and making them safer to handle. this method takes practice and does not work on Mutillidae wasps (Velvet ants/cow killers) because their abdomens are extremely flexable and their stinger is realy long.

 

[dgerndt]

When trying to ID species of bees and wasps in the feild I will gently pinch them around the lower thorax and upper abdomen thus restricting the range of the stinger and making them safer to handle. this method takes practice and does not work on Mutillidae wasps (Velvet ants/cow killers) because their abdomens are extremely flexable and their stinger is realy long.

The same sort of concept is applied with some turtle species. You have to hold snapping turtles and soft shell turtles by the shell near their rear legs to keep them from biting you, as they have really long necks. But they still have those sharp claws and powerful legs which can really do some damage.