Science Lessons

Last week we read in our nature reader about how the mommy mud wasp (I've always called it a mud dauber) makes a mud nest, lays her egg, and fills the nest full of spiders for her baby to eat when he hatches. Then she flies away and never comes back. We talked about how God provides for the baby mud daubers through their mother. Today we found a mud dauber's nest in the barn. Ian took it out and handed it to Micaela (in my mind I'm wondering if those spiders are alive or dead...). He didn't hear our lesson, so we explained to him what we had learned. Ian decided to cut open the nest so we could see inside. We found a white grub (the baby mud dauber) and about 10 living black widow spiders. The grub was eating one when we opened it. I've decided that mud daubers are NOT pests, and we will leave their nests alone :) It was fun to get to see the science lesson. Micaela said it was so cool.