my daughter likes bugs and I bought a bug maze like thing. What bugs should we collect?

Question

The maze has pods w/tubes, all transparent to watch the bugs. We live in NYC and the only bugs I can think of I don't want in the house (read: roaches and ants). My daughter likes potato (roly poly) bugs, but it's not quite spring in NYC yet and I don't know what they like to eat and I think they prefer to hide under rocks, thus not an interesting bug. Any suggestions on what bugs, what do they eat and are they interesting?

Answer 1

I think crickets or lady bugs would be interesting. I think there are places online that would mail these to you, or you could check at your local gardening shop (for the ladybugs) or the pet store (for the crickets, which are used for frog food.) I know a number of people that keep hissing cockroaches as pets, they are quite nice and interesting to watch and don't really look like the kind of roach you'd find around NYC, plus they eat almost anything, like pet food or potato chips. Personally, I prefer ants because there is so much you can learn from them, how a society works and the division of labor and animal communication, but you will need a special ant farm for that. Roly poly bugs are fun and they don't always go under rocks, and they are quite active; I think they're very interesting. You may find some interesting links and advice here, http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/explore/bugs.htm but stay away from the "Tasty Insect Recipes".. yeecch!! Gross!! (i love the disclaimer on this one.)

Oh, I forgot about praying mantises! They are easy to take care of, very interesting and extremely cute too!!! but I'm not sure how well they'd do in a maze which sounds more like an ant/beetle sort of thing.

Answer 2

They eat little pieces of veggies,fruits or sometimes crumbs.I think that you could get some mealworms at petco as for the pets.

Answer 3

Ant s, do well in bug mazes.Fun to watch

Answer 4

lady bugz and fireflies

Answer 5

rollie pollies are cool