Mealworm update

So, we pick him (meaning Brandon)up from school and he has a little vial sort of like a film canister only clear with a bit of "stuff" on the bottom. It looks like sawdust. In it are apparently 2 mealworms. One of them is obviously dead (a bit dark by on one end and not moving at all) the other looks like it isn't far behind. I shake the container on it's side to see them better and Brandon has a fit, "Don't do that! You'll kill them and if they die I'll get an F-!" Little does he know that one is already dead and when I point this out to him he says, "I think he is just changing." Into what I don't know but I humor him and say, "maybe". Then I stick the vial in my purse because "they don't like heat" and we are going to Grandma and Papa's to drop the kids off so Brent and I can go out to dinner (alone!). While we are out at dinner we discuss the worms. We decide we should go to the pet store and pick up some that are alive because I can just imagine the fallout when he realizes his worms are indeed dead.

Did you know that you can buy 100 meal worms for about $3? No guarantee that all are alive but at least 2 should be right? Yes, meal worms are used to feed lizards. I know this because Brent had a bearded dragon and used to feed these to it but he kept them in the refrigerator. While we are in line a woman is buying two betas. One because he was really pretty (which I agree - he was a yellow color that I've never seen before) and the other because her grandchildren think their beta is doing "tricks" ie floating on its back and swimming in circles. We (Brent and I) talk with her a bit as she is paying. When it is our turn we tell the cashier we are replacing a pet our child thinks is doing "tricks" as well. She looks at us a bit oddly when we hand her our little container of mealworms. I tell her it is for a school project and she says to keep them alive put them in the refrigerator. I tell her I think they are studying the metamorphosis of these things and she says - give it a potato, they turn into beetles. Oh Joy.

Home we go to hide the evidence. We dump Brandon's container and sure enough Shermie is dead. Wormie is this skinny little thing that hardly moves. We open the container of mealworms we got at the store and it is teaming with life. Gross! The sawdust type material they have put inside is moving ever so slightly as the mealworms warm up - they were refrigerated at the petstore. We pick two out that "resemble" Shermie and Wormie. Don't ask us how we know they resemble them I really just picked out two that were moving and were near the top of the container. I cut a potato piece (about the size of a pea) toss the rest of the potato in the refrigerator because you never know these guys may eat the whole thing this weekend, put the 48 other mealworms on top of the refrigerator because if Shermie2 and Wormie2 bite the dust we want replacements that are at the same point in their cycle (why? I don't know, we must be crazy) and off we go to get the kids from Grandma and Papa's.

I pull out the vial when we get there because Brandon has been telling Papa all about Shermie and Wormie again (remember he saw them yesterday and I'm sure he told them stories then too.) He was so excited that one was moving! Look it is moving! Makes me wonder how often Wormie moved before - hmmmm. He is disappointed that the potato is a regular potato and not a sweet potato because apparently a sweet potato will make the darn things lay eggs (must be magic and I'd be stupid to put one in just in case it is true!) We put them back in my purse and off we go home.

Since we have been home I haven't seen the fellows. I'm sure hoping that when I find the bottle in the morning there are two mealworms in there. I don't want to find out that he took them out to "play". Pray for me.

P.S. To the other Carolyn (yup,two Carolyn's in the same family for those who don't "know" us - this Carolyn is Brent's cousin) I don't think I'm going to tell Brandon about your experiment with the maze - I'm afraid I'll have to look for a box and some cardboard to make him one too. :)