pets, prey, & corn skewers

continuing with the letter p usually results in a cute title. in this case; pets, prey, & porn pkewers; would have left you disappointed in the end.

what began as a quiet family day, turned into homeschool adventure extraordinaire! we discovered a ladybug larva walking on the patio, so put her on aphid-infested potted plant to see what would happen. watching her eat was wild! she would walk up to an aphid, grab it with her front legs, & hold it as if it were a little aphid sandwich. when she was done, she'd move on to the next aphid, then the next, & on, & on... ad aphiditum. i crack me up.

i left the menfolk to look for more larvae, & went to do a bit of peaceful gardening. whilst tending one of the beds, i noticed huge holes in some brussels sprouts leaves! gone was my inner peace, & i set about cursing calmly searching through the leaves. it didn't take long to find the offender:

photo :: property of whatsthatbug.com

reader, meet lunch. this harlequin bug, & his friends, were captured by manlyman, & fed to foul & loathsome (black widows.) normally i get angry at manlyman for feeding his horrid pets; but today lunch was my idea. i had mentioned the spiders to a lovely blogger earlier in the day, so i suppose they were in the back of my mind. taunting me. threatening to figure out how to unscrew their lids, & come after thehobbit & me. besides... the bugs were quickly destroying my food. so they became food. it's the circle of life. song now stuck in your head too? you're welcome :-)

checking the sprouts again; just to make sure we hadn't missed any harlequins; i found 2 cabbage white caterpillars happily eating away! what the?! these i couldn't give to manlyman, as they morph into thehobbit's favorite butterfly. we grabbed a clean jar, poked the lid full of holes with a trusty corn skewer, & now have two more pets to care for. i mean - yippee! more pets!

go here for all your bug identifying needs. i know many who are addicted to the site. you have been warned.

~peace.