Itching for Science Part 2

The mosquitoes have been busy doing their thing.  This afternoon we checked in on them and they have really been busy.  There are 7 total, 4 males and 3 females.  Things have definitely been changing.

 
We investigated a bit more in our reading and discovered a few new interesting things.  There are both larva and pupa stages in our jar and we might be able to see some of the mosquitoes emerge if we are patient enough.

In our reading it called the long slender larva "wiggletails" and the curled up things (which we found out was the 2nd stage, the pupa stage) were "tumblers".  We read that the pupa stage is about 48 hours, so we could see the difference and could figure out what ones were going to emerge next by observing our jar a little closer.

In anticipation, all day, we checked in on the jar, waiting and watching, and sure enough, our patience was rewarded by something very interesting!  I noticed that the largest pupa was starting to uncurl... and then we watched it begin to emerge right before our eyes!  Crazy!

After we watched it emerge, and seeing how large of a female it was, I was slightly more creeped out.  Earlier that day we had read that minnow fish can eat up to 100 larva per hour, so we stopped at the bait store and stocked up.  Dropping them into the pond as soon as we got home.  We decided that we had seen all we needed to see (besides watch one eat... and that was something I wasn't interested in sacrificing for science), so we carefully cut open the plastic covering and dropped in minnow to eat the swimming larvae and pupae in our jar and then I destroyed the flying insects in our jar and called the experiment/observation a success.

It was fun learning about the different stages of development, the differences between male and female and also being able to watch everything up-close.  I'm thankful for the time we have, to be able to slow down and enjoy all the creatures, great and small.

Ethan was very excited to put the fish into our pond.

The bait guy gave us some that were full of eggs in hopes they would reproduce = more mosquito prevention.

Hungry, Hungry!

I made a collage of photos so you can see the stages of development.  Interesting, huh?

This s a photo collage of the mosquito going from pupa to adult.

Watching this was very exciting and didn't take long at all.

Almost out!