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.
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