Creatures of the night...

Last night when Ken and I (no scratch that), when I was watching TV and Ken was sleeping on the couch, I heard some odd sounds. It kind of sounded like rain, but different. Almost like fire crackling. I turned off the sound of the TV, but then the AC turned on. I waited until the AC shut off again. "Do you hear that?" I asked Ken. "No" he answered, but that was as effective as asking the wall, since he wasn't exactly aware...

It was a very eerie sound, kind of creepy. Finally I had to get up to see what the heck it was. It seemed to come from the corner over where the sliding glass doors are.

As soon as I reach that corner I saw what it was. On Sarah's art table in that corner we had placed her large butterfly habitat, and in it had for the last several weeks been an egg sack. This egg sack had now finally burst open! The habitat was shock full of hundreds of baby praying mantises! (Bönsyrsors).

Sooo coool! I kept watching as the little nymphs poured out of the egg sack, a pretty amazing thing to behold! I failed to excite the husband, he just kept on sleeping, missing the "birth" completely...

I know praying mantises are very ferocious carnivores, and if not fed they will turn on their own. The recommendation had been to free most of them and just keep a few. So I went outside in the dark and freed them, keeping about 5 for Sarah to see in the morning.

They were jumping all over the place! We didn't get the egg sack to keep them as pets, I actually got them for my garden, since they tend to stay within the area where they are born, and eat a lot of aphids and other harmful insects. So they are my pesticide system, since I don't want to use real pesticides.

This morning Sarah was delighted to see the jumping critters in the habitat, and we just let the last once go outside. They can grow up to 5 inches long when they are adults, but right now they just look like large mosquitoes. It was a lot of fun to see them, and I now know my hibiscus can be a bit safer too. A win win situation.

I took some cool pictures of the egg sack, but my camera has decided it is time to retire, so only a picture of one of the babies wanted to upload to my computer...

Baby Praying Mantis

An adult Praying Mantis

Sarah is home from school today, both she and I had a fever yesterday and still are. Nothing major it seems, just a bit of a temperature and coughing/congestion for her.