Hypothesis Proven and Other Sad Tales

Yesterday, when I went to check on "that thing in our holly bush" that we hypothesized was a Praying Mantis egg case, I got the surprise of my life. I picked up the jar containing the "thing" (we have been keeping it in our garage) while the kids were riding around on their bikes, and thought, "Where the heck did all of those thorns come from?"

I quickly realized that those "thorns" were baby praying mantises. They look remarkably like the grown-up versions, but only a quarter inch long. The egg case was probably a quarter hatched, and it still looked like there were a hundred of those little guys in the jar.

The kids were ecstatic. Xavier did his little happy dance, which consists of leaping from foot to foot like Rumplestiltskin, while Gwen proudly carried the jar down to the "hazelnut island" (formerly the Weed Garden), babbling all the time about how she knew from the beginning that it was a Praying Mantis egg case, and it was her idea, no one else's, the whole nine yards (none of which was true, but no point in kicking a kid during her moment of glory.)

We put the Praying Mantises and their egg case next to an old tree stump in the middle of the Hazelnut Island, and the baby Praying Mantises -- evidently short on instinct at this point -- were crawling all over the kids' arms, much to their delight.

Suddenly, Gwen's eyes were filling with tears, and Xavier was wrapping his little arms around her, trying to comfort her. "Gwen, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I don't want them to go!" she cried. "I love them so!"

At this rate, she would be in no condition to go to karate, so I suggested we get the Bug Catcher and take one of them to karate class to show the instructors. As luck would have it, there was a small beetle lounging sedately inside the jar -- all the better. Baby Praying Mantis could go on a whirlwind tour of the karate school, have a quick bite to eat, then return to his new home in Hazelnut Island. Gwen and Xavier were excited again.

The Kempo Karate instructors did an appropriate amount of ooh-ing and ah-ing, but the funny thing was, the baby Praying Mantis would not go anywhere near that beetle. The beetle, on the other hand, was not wild about having that Praying Mantis in there, and was making a whirlwind tour around the bug catcher.

So, as it turns out, no beetles were harmed in the making of this blog. We got home from karate, and we took the praying mantis out to the backyard. Tears streaming down her face, Gwen released the little praying mantis -- and the beetle. The praying mantis rapidly climbed back onto her arm, and lingered there until a stray breeze happened by and it either flew or was swept away. Gwen was hysterical, and cried all the way back to our house (I'm sure the neighbor -- who was mowing his lawn -- thinks one of our cats has gone to that giant scratching post in the sky.) She cried through her bath, and made me late for karate.

And the whole time, I couldn't help but think, "That'll be me in twelve years, sending you off to college."

We went out to the Hazelnut Island today in search of baby praying mantises. We found one (or possibly two), but they had no interest in crawling on the kids' arms today, much to Gwen's disappointment. At least this time there were no tears.

Well, not until a bee flew too close to Gwen and she was afraid to go into the garage.