Thursday, September 14, 2006

No one said I had to make any sense.

I am no fan of bugs. Anyone who knows me, knows that I hate them all. And spiders? Oh my god, let's not talk about spiders.

I knew that because Jasmine was entering the 7th grade this year that she would have a Bug Collection science project due. That's why I had her and my niece collect them over the summer. My niece is not afraid to pick up anything, especially the wimpy New England bugs. She lives in the south where there are camel back crickets and tarantulas in her yard. Yes, TARANTULAS in her YARD! The two of them made a good pair, trampsing through tall grass with empty margerine tubs and cream cheese containers. They got some good stuff. They even caught a couple of butterflies without a net.

That's where this whole mess starts. See, we haven't seen any Monarch caterpillars and butterflies in our town in years. Like 10 years. I'm not sure why that is, but every year there would be a plea from the elementary school teachers for some one to bring a caterpillar in to school. We'd search all over town, but never had any luck. Then we went to my sister in law's house a town over and the girls got their butterflies. At first, we were a little disgusted. "How could you! We haven't seen one of those in years!" we proclamed. That's when my sister in law said "Oh relax, there's hundreds of them out there." Turns out, she wasn't that far from the truth.

Next to her house is a field of milkweed and when my husband went searching through it, he came back with handfuls of monarch caterpillars. Well, we took a bunch home and he eventually built a hutch for them so we could watch them transform.
It's been a cool summer project seeing the little caterpillars grow, build a chrysalis and then setting the butterfly free. Violet loves to check the "kisslis" every morning to see if there are any new butterflies. Lila was the kindergarten teacher's joy when she brought a bunch of caterpillars to school.


Which brings us back to our current problem. Remember those butterflies Jasmine and my niece caught? They went moldy. Jazz has tried to catch another one, but no luck. We even went back to the milkweed field but there were none to be had. There was, however, a chrysalis that was ready to hatch on the side of the house. "Do you want to take this one home? It should be out by tomorrow." My sister in law suggested. She got a piece of dental floss and tied it around the silk patch and we took it home. It came out this morning and looks great. No deformities and it's nice and strong.

And there's no way we can freakin' kill it.

We just can't.

We have 10 that will be ready to come out tomorrow and we won't be able to grab one of those, put it in a plastic tub and put that in the freezer either.

I feel a little ridiculous. It's a bug, after all, and I'm supposed to hate those. For some reason it doesn't seem as bad to us to catch one that's flying around and freeze it versus watch one hatch, get strong, and then thrown in the cold to it's death next to our chicken nuggets and porkchops.

So I emailed her science teacher to ask how many points she's going to lose by not having the butterfly. I explained about our summer science project and how we don't have the heart to do it. Yes, I realize what an idiot I am. The teachers probably sit around their breakroom and have group readings of my silly, idealistic emails and laugh.

I'm cool with that.


7 Comments:

Blogger darrylmasterson said...

yeah, I just can't do it. I won't go as far as to call them pets... but feeding them, watching them grow, form the chryslis waiting the weeks for them to emerge to then kill them... not for me.

4:40 PM  
Blogger Marianna said...

I'm ok with the butterfly... but anything else is giving me the willies! EEEEEK!

M~

4:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I couldn't do it either. Is it possible for her to bring a live one in one day and then set it free?

5:08 PM  
Blogger Jenn said...

I suggested that, too. Her teacher said she had caught a large moth, so that qualified. She didn't need the butterfly. Jazz set him free this morning on her walk to school so he'll probably be caught by some other middle schooler desperate to finish their collection.

6:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

PANSIES!

3:53 PM  
Blogger Jeremy said...

I agree with Tammy - I come over and grab one to throw in my freezer until it time to take to Jazzy class if you want.

9:05 PM  
Blogger Jenn said...

Stay away from our butterflies you freaky people!! She caught a big ugly moth and killed that!! We're good!!

6:32 AM  

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