LIVING LIFE

As grandparents, many of us are able to spend time enjoying our young grandchildren on a regular basis. We experience taking them on adventures, playing with them, and helping them with anything they need.

Throughout the years, I have been lucky to have had shared many celebrations, lunches and dinners, in addition to other activities such as building leprechaun traps and numerous arts and crafts activities with my grandson.. Yesterday, however, presented a unique opportunity to assist my grandson – the care and feeding of a mealworm.

Mealworms are supposedly a good way to teach children about metamorphosis, but unlike butterfly metamorphosis, you end up with a big black beetle instead of a beautiful butterfly. The goal is to keep the mealworm alive long enough for it to become a beetle which you can release outside.

Being as there was no advance notice that a squirmy little creature was going to reside in their home, a quick scouring for information on the internet was the first step. According to the research, mealworms do best living in oatmeal with a carrot or slices of potato. The original little container “home” did not seem like the best choice, so I quickly found a medium sized disposable container with a lid. This higher level of real estate was kind of like a bug condo. With a hammer and a long nail, I created many small holes in the lid to provide adequate ventilation, and managed to only hit my thumb twice. I was beginning to feel like a landlord – minus the lease agreement.

Today I am headed over to drop off the mealworm’s upgraded home. I should probably bring a bottle of wine for my daughter, being as she is sharing space with what we are calling a “worm with an attitude” since it goes underground every time she checks on it.

I hope this creature has inherited strong survival genes. For the next few weeks, I have only one thought about this whole experience.

Don’t bug me!

The information written on this blog is for informational purposes only and does not endorse or permit any actions taken by individuals as a result of reading this information, including any and all comments received on this blog. I do not encourage any actions to be taken based on all the information on this site.