August 24th, 2024
08/24/24 Today we do more bug pinning. More label making, and more updating. The walking stick died, unfortunately. This was kind of a crazy scenario because I had finally found the oak that she would eat and she died anyway after only a couple of weeks. Sometimes they die once they’ve laid eggs but I didn’t see any eggs. I do some youtube research to determine how to best preserve her (should I put her in the freezer so that I can get to pinning her over the weekend?) Turns out that if it’s a female then the eggs in her abdomen are viable. Mind you, this is Tuesday of a very busy rotation and I’m basically just home for hygiene and sleep so I don’t have any time to pin this bug. Cut to me doing an emergency c-section on this bug once I get home on Wednesday. Got about 30 eggs out of her abdominal cavity and put them onto a moist paper towel, hoping for the best. I’m writing this entry about a month later and there’s no signs of hatching so I think it’s safe to say we...