Praying Matises are good bugs... right?!

This is a story you would have to had seen to believe.. okay maybe you would have not wanted to see this. Audrey loves playing in the dirt, searching for worms, making homes for them and keeping them in her room. I have never had a problem with this. On a constant basis there is a whole shelf full of plastic containers with bugs in them. Normally they die or we chuck them out before the worms dry out no biggie. I love this about her that she loves to get dirty, she is not afraid of bugs but still likes the girlie princesses, putting nail polish over her dirty toenails (which I scrub but can not get them clean). I've learned nail polish is the best solution for dirty toenails for the summer lol anyways she loves bugs. So a few weeks ago while Chris was clearing some brush from the yard to burn he came across a cocoon on a small stick. Audrey was thrilled, Chris wanted to burn it but she HAD to keep it! So she ran it up to her room and put it in a plastic container (no lid I might add). She was ecstatic. So the weeks went on I kinda forgot about it and at most I thought a moth or something might come out of it. She had waved it around on the stick nearly smacking it on the wall, it sat on her window sill through cold nights, I honestly figured whatever was in there was never coming out. She on the other hand insisted a beautiful butterfly would emerge and then she would let it free. Okay, Audrey that is what we will do. But that is not what happened...

Audrey came running downstairs one evening, "Dad! There is a centipede on my bed!" Now I must say she does not like those although never do I... the legs creep me out. Anyways I sent Chris up there to do the dirty work and I figured it was the end of the story. As he slowly walks downstairs with a confused look on his face he says, "it wasn't a centipede... there were 3 baby praying mantises on her bed..." And he even did the short arm impression of them lol Suddenly the light bulb went off in both of our heads "OMG where is the cocoon?!!" As we went running up there it was a sight I was not prepared for. The beautiful butterfly cocoon that Audrey thought she had was actually a praying mantis cocoon!! And within minutes hundreds of these baby praying mantises were swarming out of their home and all over Audrey's room! They were about an inch long and kind of translucent and did look similar to those centipedes you get in your basement. I am not terribly afraid of bugs but I started to freak out. Chris just stood there almost in shock also I think. By now she had an infestation of praying mantises in her room! My first thought was to get the cocoon that continued to produce the mantises out the window so with a quick throw the cocoon went flying down two stories. The slow ones who hadn't made it out of their home probably survived the fall but everyone else was not so lucky. Chris immediately grabbed a can of bug killer and at least had enough sense to grab the bunny and guinea pig cage out of her room and began spraying. After unleashing an entire bottle all over her room we just shut the window and door and hoped that we got them all. 

Now, let me throw this disclaimer in there. I feel really bad about this. I would have never wanted to kill that many praying mantises I know they are good bugs and they are very cool when then are grown up there was no other option. There was no way that I could safely get them all out of her room I had no option. Next time we will be much more cautious about the bugs and cocoons being brought into the house. Never would I have imagined that small cocoon would have been a home to so many bugs.

Then the clean up process started... Luckily for Chris he left the next morning for training for two weeks so of course I was left to deal with it. After making Audrey a cozy bed on the couch for the night I have to evenutally go back in there. If you can imagine unleashing an entire bottle of bug killer on your 4 year olds room without regard you can imagine that everything had to be cleaned, washed, bleached, shaken out (the dead bodies were everywhere) and swept. So with my hazmat attire on I proceeded to begin the painstaking process of cleaning her room. And by the next day she was hoarding in roley poleys and worms again which is fine but another cocoon will have to pass through me before it comes into the house. Or maybe I should have paid a little more attention to my entomology (study of insects) class in college... I was a science major for petes sake!