Mantis ootheca hatching

The beginning of an extremely difficult journey ahead.......


Being able to catch a glimpse of a hatching ootheca is always a wonderful sight. Although i must admit it is a nightmare for all the fruit flies!!

Creoberoter gemmatus is a nice looking flower mantis originally live in South eastern and East Asia. This species is easy to breed and care for. The mated female produces egg cases called ootheca (Pronounce as "Ooh"-"T"-"Ka"). The ootheca could contain about 40-100 eggs depending on the ootheca size and usually hatch out in the morning around 7-9 AM. Recently, it has been a usual sight for me to see hundreds of the mantis babies greeting me every morning as I have plenty of oothecae incubating. Last Sunday, I have decided to wake up early to photograph the moment of hatching. I was not dissappointed when one decided to hatch right at about 8 AM.

Watching each of them squeezing the body out like a grub and immediately molt out into first instar takes only few minutes, but that is probably the most crucial moment in their life. In captivity, few might not strong enough to even emerge from the ootheca and die hanging on the ootheca. Some may be able to wiggle out but fail to molt and perish. in the wild, there is also the danger of being attacked by ants, birds, spiders, wasps, or even their own kind as cannibalism is common for mantids. From there on, the hatchling will feed on the fruit flies until they are large enough to handle larger prey like house fly or blow fly. The mantis will continue to molt for another 6-8 times - depending on gender and species - before reaching adult when wings are observed, and the mantis stop to molt. With TLC, a large portion of mantis can achieve adulthood in captivity, but i cannot imagine how they are able to survive the tough condition in the wild. Probably only 1 out of 100 managed to survive and mature in the wild. Sometimes i think human are just like the praying mantis in the wild. Each trying hard to survive, and although we do not practice cannibalism, people do not hesitate to even sabotage each other to come out top. Unless you are born with silver spoon in your mouth you will always need to work hard, and those lucky one are just like the mantis being kept in captivity. Ha... how ironic.

1, 2, 3 say cheese........ *snap*

If it wasn't for keeping mantis as pet, i would have never thought of owning a SLR camera............

Ever since taking up mantis breeding seriously, i have been taking lot of insect photos. By the end of 2008, after many years of using the "point and shoot" digital camera (Canon PowerShot SD500), i have decided to take photographing into another level. Yep, the wonderful macro photos! So the process of looking for one starts right away.

Shopping for a reliable SLR camera was not as easy as I thought. There are so many type of cameras in the market good for macro photos. So i begin to narrow down the option by picking up a good and reliable brand I am familiar with, which would be Canon! probably the easiest part of my entire process of getting the camera ha! Now there are still a good dozen of SLR to chose from. I was checking the high end Mark series and realized it was way out of my budget (Mark III is more than $4,000 while Mark II is about $2,500) although it has a sophisticated full-frame sensor feature where the camera will automatically pick up the four corner within the viewing path. The next option I had was the newest release of Rebel series. The Rebel SLR cameras are "affordable", ranging from $500-$900, but it does not have the solid build, less interesting features, and poor camera grip so I gave it a pass and move on to the EOS 20-50D option. After some dicussion with friends, I was told to take either 40D or 50D for its superior build, solid operation, quality images, and very easy to use. With the type of camera in mind, I started to shop around. I went to several camera stores, even looking for any used one but finally found the camera I like in Ritz Camera in West Houston. There was a deal for Canon EOS camera. For $1,399 the package would include a new EOS 50D, a lens (EF 28-135 mm IS), 10-class photographing course, portable Canon photo printer, printing packages, etc. It was right before my birthday trip to California so i bought the bundle.

After getting the "body", the next thing is to look for a macro lens. It is amazing how expensive some lenses get, but i am all interested in macro lens and starting to check out few Canon macro lenses. There were macro EF 50 mm, 60 mm, 100 mm, and 180 mm lenses, and also A unique manual-focus lens designed exclusively for macro shooting call MP-E 65 mm. I couldn't decide which one but a camera "guru" of mine (Thanks Chris!) suggested Sigma 100 mm macro lens which cost about $600, so I took the advice. But Chris was also kind enough to let me know a tripod is almost compulsary as the lens is heavy. Well he was right!! The Sigma lens was abour half a kilogram heavier than the 100 m Canon macro lens. But I like the Sigma lens because it gives me a longer shooting range which allow me to shoot a macro photo of a wild insect from a distance.

After getting the Tripod and the head. i proceed to get a Kenko extension tube too for the purpose of adding my macro capability. So next is the flash light (yeah i know when it is going to end!), i was pretty much burn up by now and decided to get a used Speedlite 580-EX, but the result was not very satisfying. Later I was told that the best flash for macro shot would be Macro Twin or Macro Ring flashlight that cost a bomd (they are around $700-$1000). I am currently looking for camera bracket or other cheaper type of ring flash (such as Orbis Ring Flash) for a better result.

There are always more to learn in camera. Diffuser, focus point, focal length, shutter speed, etc these are the terms i will get familiarize with pretty soon. The worst part is probably the class. It starts at 8:00 Am every Saturday!!! Nevertheless, i love photographing.

Hug a Bug in Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS)

A different kind of experience on Valentine's day ...........

This event took place back in Valentine's day this year. A week before the event, I brought some species of praying mantids to Erin who is the insect zoo manager in HMNS as the event features mainly beneficial insects so there will be a table for mantids too.

Kenny and I woke up early that day at around 7:30AM.... well that's early for Saturday ha! After breakfast, we drove to Brookshire to pick up Dustin. By the time we reached HMNS, it was already 10:30 AM. After picking up my volunteer badge, we went straight to The Cockrell Butterfly Center where all the exhibits were presented. As soon as we walked in the butterfly center, we were told to pick up a free flower on our way out as it was held on Valentine's day.

The first table that greeted us was actually the Praying mantis! Erin was there busy entertaining visitors. We decided to start exploring the event from the second floor. There was actually not many people so we must have been early, although the even starts from 9AM and ends at 1PM. We went through couple of tables which were basically kids stuff (insect face painting and craft work). Then we checked out some live insects (Tarantulas, stick/leaf insects, orchid mantis, Carolina mantis, centipedes, spiders, milipedes, beetles, etc). We also saw worker removing butterflies hatching out from the cocoon to be release into the butterfly center. Then we finally saw the first live beneficial insects - lady bugs! right before entering the live butterfly compound. Laurie was the one hosting the table and kids are allowed to bring home some free lady bugs. There was a tree full of aphids and ladybugs were having a great time chowing on the aphids. I took some photos and we proceed to the butterfly center. We went around checking out some butterflies and a volunteer show us a large catepillar too.

After a while i decided to take some photos of the landscape until someone tapped me on my shoulder. That person was Dinora who I have invited for this event too. We took a group photo and we exited the butterfly center into the insects exhibits section. We looked at some pinned/dried specimen inside a few cabinets where some of those bugs were pretty impressive. I am sure some of the bugs there must have seen better days! We then proceed to another table showing us a few more beneficial insects that helps control mealybugs population. The mealybug destroyer ladybeetle (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri) and mealybugs parasitic wasp (Encyrtids and aphelinids) appear to be effective as bio-control for this pest too.
Kenny decided to try out a bug food from the vending machine. After some discussion where Dustin promises to try one if Kenny do the same, Kenny bought a small packet of bug food that looks like mealworms and crickets coated with chocolate. It looks nasty at first but i gave it a try and it was not all that bad, though i would prefer the cricket rather than mealworms! Dustin had a tough time swallowing it and kenny did not fare any better either. Their expression probably freak out Dinora who decided it was too nasty to try. We move passed several insect crafting tables and finally end up in the mantids table once more. I was sitting there and have little chat with Erin while showing some mantis to the visitors too.


By noon, we all decided to make a move as I don't wanna leave my "boss" alone on Valentine's day. Before we left, I gave Dinora couple of adult female Creobroter gemmatus I promised to. She was happy to see her new pet which is a good thing! The event was nice and I hope to see more events like this one in the future in HMNS.

Hurricane Ike 2008

This is probably the most damaging storm in the history for the Greater Houston area.

September 10 - To the fear of Texas and Louisiana coastal residents, a huge storm name Ike has finally entered Gulf of mexico. Just two days ago, Ike was projected to hit Corpus Christi - a southern Texas city which was affected by another storm (Hurricane Dolly) just a month ago - and only bring bad weather to Houston. But that quickly change as the projected path shifted to the East.

September 11 - When many still in mourning on the 7th anniversary of 9/11 incident. Hurricane Ike gained strength as it entered the warm gulf. It grew into Cat 3 pretty quick after leaving Cuba. Now it is almost certain it will hit Galveston, a coastal city just 40 minutes drive away from Houston. The Mayor in Galveston requested Galveston residents to seek higher ground inland and imposed mandatory evacuation. Unfortunately, not many residents living near the coast take the word seriously, especially when the Hurricane Edouard that just hit the island few weeks ago only brought minimal damages (it was only a Cat 1 storm). Besides, the change of Ike's path came too sudden and abrupt that many people still believed the path would shift further East and decided to stay put.

September 12 - It looks like Houston get a direct hit this time and the eye of the path appears to get right on the West of Harris county which is where I live in Katy.... bummer! The projected path hitting Galveston directly has not changed. The news came a litle too late for me and by now all the plywood for window protection are gone. However, we managed to stock up the food and water, then hoping for the best! by now the storm has grown into a monster of 450 miles across. The storm was predicted to remain at Cat 3 due to the cooler weather near the coast and the news did not help people from evacuating from their own house. The hurricane's eye was supposed to hit us at midnight but by 7 PM - right after our dinner - the wind packed up to 30-50 mph and we have already lost the power. The storm was predicted to hit the coast at 110 mph, a Cat 3 sotrm. Surging waves has also been spotted across the beach at Galveston by that time. Trying to ignore the storm (Almost an impossible thing to do) we played card games until about 10 PM and my son went to bed. The storm has started to pummel Houston left and right by then, and from the radio we could hear the eye of Ike has made landfall in Galveston. The entire city has been getting hit badly with wave surge up to 15 ft washing away homes, houses submerged completely under water, and house blown off leaving only columns. We could only hope the wind force reduces as it reached inland.

September 13- By midnight, the storm has reached its peak. We must have experienced wind force of close to 100 mph as I could hear my roof shingles falling and window vibrating. I was wondering how long could the glass stand, and worst, how much longer can the roof remain intact! It was so difficult to sleep when worrying the house may collapse! The deafening thunder, howling winds, and eye-blinding lightning basically kept me awake the entire night. My wife managed to get few hours of sleep but we keep each other aware of the situation in the dark. due to the massive Ike rings the wind remain strong for the entire night, peaking at midninght and continues till 6 in the morning. To my surprise, we get our electricity back at 6 in the morning when the wind was still pounding at us! I ran to the front of the house and managed to take a pic of outside from inside the house but it was difficult to capture the windy condition (see 1st pic above). I ran upstair and was relieved to see the ceilling remain dry, that's the sign that roof is still intact! The wind finally losing its punch after 7 AM with dwindling rain. I went outside with my camera planning to take photos of any damages on the house. There were shingles everywhere (see pics below) in the front and backyard. Almost 40% of the wooden fences collapsed. One part of the fences fell directly on my favorite peach and "Kum Kuat" trees bummer! but that was not the worst. Too my horror, I could see some part of my roof were completely lack of shingle which mean rain water must have penetrated the roof. I rushed back home and went stright to the second floor. I could see water dripping through ceiling and air-condition vents in my theater room, Kenny's room, and office room. My wife and I immediately move any electrical appliances away from the wet area. We also promptly removed the 110" movie screen frame, amplifier, surrounding audio systems, DVD, etc. Water continued to drip and we were starting to run out of buckets, and have to use any bowls we could find in the kitchen. By noon, we spotted more leaks in bug room, kitchen, masterbed room, and living room. I have no choice now but to climb up the attics and looked for the main leaking point (why didn't I thought of that earlier!!). Then i used whatever bucket i could find to hold water dripping through the roof on attics. The rain continue on and off for the rest of the day from the outer band of Ike but fortunately we did not see any further damaging wind.

September 14 on after - The full damage assessment did not start until the next day. When i found more leaking spots, although not severed. Fortunately my guest room and game room were undamaged. However, the condition in master bedroom/bath/closet, Kenny's room, office room, theater room, and bug room deteriorate with paints falling from ceiling due to the water damage. I had a chance to talk to my neighbors. It was unfortunate that one of our neighbour had damages so sever he has to move out entirely with his family. According to his wife the entire ceilings on the second floor caved in and it was really unsafe to remain on second floor. The rain continued to pour for the next two days with occasion gusting wind which i am sure further deteriorate the situation on some houses that have roof damages. The entire greater Houston area was in curfew from 9 PM till 6 in the morning for the following week in order to clean up the road and avoid any looting incidents like the one happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The company I work for was kind enough to let us stay home and help each other for the following week. It was definitely the worst storm I have ever been through and I never ever want to experience it again.

There is large field for the elementary school right behind my house. The only thing separating us from the school is the fence which explain why my house was hit pretty bad as there was no building blocking the wind coming from the Northwest direction which is at the back of my house. Most shingles lost were mainly concentrate on the west side of the roof which contributed to the damages on all rooms facing West.

As of today, we are pretty close to have the entire damages on the house fixed. It took longer than expected due to the extend of damage and time consumed dealing with insurance (We been through 3 adjustors to finally settled the claim!). I am thinking, it is probably the best time to stock up some plywoods and a generator now before the next storm hit!

2009 TAMU Insect Collection open house

It is fun to check out bugs... even when they are dead!

Once a year - right at the winter break weekend - Texas A&M holds the insect open house for public viewing. This is the 21st consecutive annual meeting. Every year, the event attracts a diverse group of people -professional and amateur - with a broad range of interests. The event was held in January 10th 2009. This year my son Kenneth, Dustin, and I decided to take a 70-minute drive to College Station for the open house. It was windy and cold just like last year, but that does not stop us at all from going forward.


We arrived early at around 10 AM. It appears that we have less attendance this year but the collection are pretty much the same. I have a chance to meet up with my other bug friend David too apparently he was a little late this time. There was a free breakfast section but we skipped it as we had ours earlier and are definitely more interested in the bugs than fruits and donuts. My interest has always been on Mantodea section so I went straight up that cabinet storing trays of different mantids species from around the world. I also have a chance to take some macro shots with my new camera. It was awsome! After couple of hour we decided to take care of our stomach and went for a BBQ grill restaurant nearby. Later we went back and realized we had our lunch too soon as the entire group was just about ready to leave for lunch. We took a group photo and they went on with lunch. Now we have the entire building just for ourselves!


We spent more time viewing collection of other insects like beetles, butterflies, moths, ants, etc which were stored in trays while some other insects like centipedes, scorpians, tarantulas, milipedes, etc were kept in bottles with preservatives (alcohol). We had lot of fun going through each specimen checking out some cool bugs. Finally at around 3 PM we decided to hit the road going back home. Eventhough all the bugs were dead, it was still educational and kept in pretty good condition. Barvo to the curator in TAMU!!

Transportation

Car is a necessity in Houston..............

Living in Houston Texas, it is almost impossible without owning a car. There is at least 2 cars per each household in my area. Public transportation is mainly limited to the city center and Metrobus is still not frequent enough; Therefore, having a car becomes a necessity here. Ever since working in Houston, I have had 5 cars carrying my family and I around the city since 2001. Currently both my cars been providing me plenty of mileage over the past 2-3 yrs without breaking down. Not many people appreciate the kind of convenient our car is providing us. In fact many people abused their own car. But from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank my own vehicles and I look forward to keep them for at least 3 more years.

A trip i am looking forward to.....

Time flies............ (please do!)

Is it really March 09 now? Well what happened to Jan and Feb? I hope time flies as fast as possible i am looking forward to the end of May. Yes... it is the trip back to Malaysia (and Hong Kong) since 2001!!! Lets forget about 2008, a miserable year where i missed the trip and got really sick, and worst of all the world economy crashed. Come on year of OX.. give us the bull market we all looking forward to. Anyway, the one species of mantis i am hoping to photograph in Malaysia this coming Summer is the Orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus) (pic). The only species where my wife think is a beautiful insect. I have to agree!

Ready, Set, Go.........

So this is how it starts...........


March 03, 09. 3 x 3 = 9 (Ha!) A day i will remember as this is the day i start my own blog. Kind of old to start writing things on the net but it is better late than never right!


Pic is one of my favorite pet. The idolomantis diabolica, which I no longer keep.