Spiders and monarchs and bees, oh my!

Exploring the world of insects and spiders can replace children's fear with fascination.

By Linda Dow

A spider waits for prey. (Click the photo for a closer view.) Whether they're big or tiny, ugly or beautiful, insects and spiders offer a fascinating look at nature on a new level! (More about the photograph)

Learn more

• The Journey North An excellent website for the study of the monarch butterfly migration. It is rich with information, lesson plans, classroom activities and real opportunities for enriching, real life activities.
• BugBios “The shameless promotion of insect appreciation.” Awesome photos of any insect you can imagine. This site also has a few spiders thrown in for good measure.
• Koday's Kids Amazing Insects This website features wonderful photos and excellent information on fifty different insects.
• Insect Printouts from AllAboutNature.com Wow! This site could just be all you need! It includes printable diagrams, photos, and worksheets, galore!
• Using Live Insects at Home The University of Arizona has developed this website to help and encourage elementary teachers who would like to use insects as a focus of study in their classrooms.

Related pages

• Museum of Life and Science: Packed with highly interactive exhibits, the Museum of Life and Science showcases aerospace, weather, geology, Carolina wildlife, farmyard, train rides, traveling exhibits, gift shops, café and more culminating with the tropical Magic Wings Butterfly House and Bayer Crop Science Insectarium.
• Camp Don Lee: Check out the programs available to classroom students at this beautiful camp located near Arapahoe, North Carolina.
• YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly: Learn about the wildlife of the mountains and practice using a compass at this Center located outside of Asheville, North Carolina.

Related topics

• Learn more about biology, butterflies, experiential learning, insects, mud daubers, pets, praying mantis, science, and spiders.

Legal

I have to admit that as a young person, I was terrified of insects and arachnids. Like most people, I was upset by a close encounter with a wasp, a bee, or a spider. As an adult, however, I felt a responsibility to my children and my students to overcome what I knew was an unreasonable fear.

We call them “creepy crawlers” or “bugs,” but like anything, the more we learn about them, the less likely we are to be afraid. Children’s fears can be cultivated and encouraged by the adults in their lives. Alternatively, their natural curiosity can be tapped, in a fascinating exploration of the tiny creatures that crawl and fly.

Safety, first

Always use a field guide before you handle anything or get real close. Even some caterpillars can give you a good sting.

With a little effort, you can easily separate the aggressive insects and spiders from the gentle ones. Then, you can observe the good guys without being so nervous.

For example, the mud dauber is a gentle, non-aggressive wasp. You can get right up close to one as she fashions her nest and she will just ignore you. She carries the mud in a tiny ball and applies in deftly — one small row at a time. It’s really quite fascinating!

Her nest is tubular — a hollow structure of rooms — one on top of the other. She lays each egg in a single cell made of mud. Before she seals it off completely, she captures and paralyzes spiders and/or insects, and packs the nursery room with them. When her larva hatches, there is a ready supply of food waiting. Once it has eaten its fill, the larva goes into the pupa stage, where it looks not unlike a small brown bean.

The winged adult emerges and chews its way out. You can tell which chambers have produced an adult by the flute-like opening it makes on its exit.

Once you learn to distinguish the mud dauber from other, aggressive wasps, you won’t be nearly as nervous around them and you might just begin to enjoy observing them with your students.

Go on a spider hunt

Several years ago, someone at our school had the brilliant insight to apply for the “UTOTES” program from the Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh. This stands for “Using the Outdoors for Experiential Science.” The experience changed my life. A museum facilitator came to our school, once a month. We explored the campus and designed ways to integrate nature into the curriculum.

Among the countless quality activities I took away from that experience, was the practice of going on a spider hunt. The idea is to use a fine mist of water to reveal and then better observe spiders’ webs.

There are several kinds and they can be found, literally, everywhere. Look along the base of a building. You may find a funnel weaver. These spiders wait at the bottom of a cone-shaped web for their victims to run across the opening. They rush out and capture their prey.

You might try spraying a shrub, small bushy tree or hedge to expose the work of a sheet web weaver. It is often surprising how many of these webs are revealed.

Of course, the Charlotte’s Web-like orb weaver is a favorite to observe. The web, itself, can be collected and preserved. Spray it with a light colored paint. Bring a dark colored poster board up behind it. When the web is positioned on the board, cut the main connecting lines. Spray the web with hair spray to help keep it intact.

Many spiders eat their webs and spin a new one each evening; so as long as you’ve been careful not to spray the spider, it will just spin a new one.

Classroom pets

Children find chrysalises and cocoons and often bring them to school. There is probably no real harm done to the insect population as a result. However, a few words to the wise may be in order.

Beware the foamy ootheca. This is the egg sac of the Carolina or Chinese mantid — commonly known as the “Praying Mantis.” When you bring their egg sacs inside, the heat from the room might cause the young to emerge, prematurely. There may be 200 of them and they are difficult to raise. If they don’t have enough readily available food, they will cannibalize each other. Try explaining that in a note home to the parents.

Just as the warmth of a classroom causes the mantid young to emerge, it will also accelerate the development of the moth or butterfly inside a pupa. You might want to keep the cocoon or chrysalis outside, in a secure container; or otherwise, discourage their collection until the spring.

The practice of ordering butterflies — typically the Painted Lady — from a supplier, raising and then releasing them, makes some experts a little uncomfortable. Entomologists have suggested that we may unknowingly be doing harm with this practice. The theory is that the butterflies you release are completely unnatural to the area. They may carry some strain of insect virus or disease for which the local population has no tolerance. A better practice is to freeze or otherwise dispose of the adults, but not release them into the wild.

If you just love to release butterflies (and who doesn’t?) consider keeping local larvae. There are many species of caterpillar living right outside your door. Once you have captured them, it’s just a matter of discovering which tree or shrub is their food plant. A field guide will help. You often have to keep offering various leaves until you find the one that they’ll eat. There will be no mistaking the right one. Once they are offered their favorite food, they do little else but chew.

As mentioned earlier, make sure you aren’t altering their natural calendar. Once they pupate and emerge as adults, you can release them into their natural habitat without regret or worry.

There are several good techniques for bringing insects and spiders inside. One of the most amazing that I’ve seen was a functioning beehive. The hive was encased in clear plastic and the bees entered and excited through PVC pipe that extended from the hive to the outside of the building.

You might consider investigating and growing host and food plants on your campus. For example, there are several forms of milkweed on which the monarch larvae feed. You can then encourage specific species and observe their life cycles first hand.

Food for thought

• The migration of the monarch butterfly is incredible; it is one of nature’s great mysteries. They appear to know more than they should. The butterflies that fly to Mexico in the fall have never been there before. Unlike birds, there are no seasoned veterans in their ranks. Hundreds of monarchs have been observed along the northern shores of the great lakes. They seemed to be waiting for the right weather conditions before attempting to cross. How do they know they are at the brink of a vast expanse of water?
• A male spider can determine the sex, age, and species of another spider just by touching a strand of the other spider’s web.
• There are certain ants in a colony whose job is to take care of the larvae. They bathe them, feed them, and will even take them outside on a nice day for some sun. Ants sleep in a ball like a cat and when they wake up, they’ll stretch and yawn like one, too.

Do it for the children

Studies have shown that frequent and regular exposure to the natural world promotes a sense of awe, facilitates the imagination and fosters a healthy attitude towards the environment.

As you and your students explore the world of insects and spiders, you might just develop a new fascination to replace your former fears.