Wild Kingdom

It was like something off the Discovery Channel on our porch yesterday. First, the girls spotted a tarantua. We caught it and kept it in a jar for the day and learned all about tarantula anatomy, behavior, and feeding habits. Did you know that there is a species of wasps that preys on tarantulas? They sting the poor critter to paralyze it, drag it back to their lair, and lay an egg on the still-living spider. The tarantula stays alive, but the developing larva feeds off it, finally sucking the life out of it just as the wasp reaches maturity. Apparently this is a popular activity in the wasp world, because there is a species that does the exact same thing with cockroaches. Speaking of cockroaches, something, no idea what, appears to be disassembling cockroaches under out bed every night. We constantly sweet up antennae, wings, and legs. I suspect ants, but whatever it is isn't bothering me, so I'm actually quite pleased about it.

Anyway, after photographing and studying our arachnid friend, the girls turned it loose out in the yard a little ways from our house, only to return to the porch to find one of the higantor cockroaches that occasionally show up around here. Unlike the tarantula, this one had to die, but not before a picture with Guildy's hand for size comparison. We moved the toy box to kill the roach, and who should we find but a crab. They are pretty harmless as well, so it got swept off the porch along with the remains of the roach. Hopefully the former made a good meal out of the latter. I swear I do things other than wrangle kids and manage the wildlife population in and around my house....but these make for the best blogging!