The Cook Family Science Lab

Our mini-science lab includes a terrarium and a ladybug habitat.

Both of my boys love science and nature and all things creepy-crawly. Through the years, we have hatched butterflies (once with a kit, and several times by finding caterpillars to bring home and watch), planted butterfly-friendly plants, examined worms, and experimented with all sorts of God's creatures including ants, grasshoppers, and pill bugs (roly-polies to us Southerners!).

Our current science lab includes a terrarium made from a 2 liter bottle (which is ready to be transplanted) and a ladybug habitat. The jar contains several caterpillars, roly-polies, and a group of ladybug eggs. Joshua found a ladybug in the backyard this week and added it to his jar. She escaped when he opened it to peer in at some point, but he later found a cluster of bright yellow eggs. We assumed they were ladybug eggs but Googled it to be sure. Here is what we found:

This photo confirmed for us that our bright yellow eggs were ladybug eggs.

Yep, that's definitely what we had in the jar! So now Joshua is super-excited. We found out that eggs hatch within 4-10 days and get darker when they are ready to hatch. His bright yellow eggs are now dark and starting show signs of little bugs ready to enter the world.

The ladybugs eggs are now dark and showing signs of ladybug larvae!

We'll post again when we get to the next stage. In the meantime, we're enjoying our little experiment and amazed to God's handiwork in these little bugs.

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