Well, our patience started to run out about a week ago, and since we have been watching Mr. Monarch caterpillar, the container that was holding the egg case was needing a new purpose. So, I took the egg case, still attached to the stick, and sat it in the corner of our porch while I used the container it was in for Mr. Monarch caterpillar. I didn't dare bring the egg case inside, for fear that it could still hatch... so I figured outside was fine until I decided what to put it in to store it long term.
Today, while cleaning up outside... I thought I would find a home for the egg case, and when I picked it up, I noticed it had hatched!!
Ethan was sitting inside at the table, coloring a picture, and I yelled for him to come outside and see what I found. I was unsure if it was done hatching, so I didn't want to bring it inside, so we sat on the porch and examined the egg case. He was disappointed and a little upset with me that I removed it from the container, but just then something small caught my eye. Moving behind one of our planters, was a VERY small praying mantis. I had a glass jar sitting on the porch from releasing some sort of bug earlier that day, so I quickly scooped up the mantis (who was very quick and hard to catch) and brought it inside for observation.
I removed Mr. Monarch from the netted container, and dropped the mantis in so we could decide what to do with him.
Now, I had a lot going on over the next few weeks, and feeding a baby mantis was not in my schedule. Ethan and I discussed what to do with it, and although it would be fun to keep it and see it grow, we decided to let it go at our Nature Playdate with Polk County Conservation later in the week or even possibly donate it to their program if they had a need.
I am disappointed we didn't get to see the actual event of the mantis babies hatching, but I am very thankful that we got the opportunity to see one of the mantis babies! God sees me and my children!
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