May Cloverbud 4 H Meeting

Last year, our 4 H club did a really fun meeting on Entomology.  We heard a talk, made some cute bug jars, and ate some yummy ladybug cookies.  During that meeting, the children said that they wanted to have a meeting that we got to catch bugs.  So, before it got too hot, I thought we should have a bug catching meeting.

We found bug nets at Target for $1 a piece.  I thought our city park would be a great place to have the meeting and catch bugs.  I had 11 children at the meeting.  We started out talking about insects and what makes an insect an insect, labeled insect parts and talked about identifying insects using a field guide.  Then we talked about different ways we could observe live insects going through metamorphosis.  After that Alex did a talk on the life cycle of a Painted Lady Butterfly and a Ladybug.  Then finally it was time to try and catch some insects!

Can you believe they hardly caught anything?  We only saw one butterfly the whole time we were out there.  We saw and caught a few ants, a beetle, and one moth.  I couldn't believe it!  I thought the park would be crawling with insects (literally!)  We did see a honey bee hive (but I told them to stay away from it), and of course many fire ant mounds, but not many other insects.  But, hopefully they will get to use their bug nets for the rest of the spring and summer and find some insects in their own back yards.