My niece, who is little miss nature girl, found some praying mantis when we were camping last month. Her mother told her she could not keep them so I quickly snatched them up. I had no idea praying mantis lived this far north; I always thought they were in warmer areas.

I thought this would be a good nature lesson for wingnut. We started out by watching this video about them.

Then we went on a food hunting mission in the back yard. We collected some grasshoppers and spiders to feed to the mantis. Wingnut was a bit confused, he could not understand why they would eat another animal. At first he was a bit upset but then I talked to him about how animals including us will eat different things; some eat plants, some eat other animals and some eat both. He started to warm up to the idea and now has no problems feeding the praying mantis.

Taking pictures of bugs inside mason jars is quite tough. I am going to get a little terrarium today so maybe I can get a better picture.