{"id":57280,"date":"2015-08-08T00:09:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-08T07:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=57280"},"modified":"2015-08-08T00:09:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-08T07:09:24","slug":"young-cultivators-merit-badge-get-buggy-beginner-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/57280","title":{"rendered":"Young Cultivators Merit Badge: Get Buggy, Beginner Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThe adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/span><\/span><\/a>, now with\u00a06,571 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20149,327 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> former life<\/span><\/span><\/a> \u2026\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

To help my sweetie-pie neighbor, Piper, earn her Beginner Level Garden Gate\/Get Buggy Merit Badge<\/u><\/a>, I devised a sneaky plan.<\/p>\n

Well, maybe it wasn\u2019t sneaky, but it sure was clever (if I do say so myself … and I do).<\/p>\n

You see, like a lot of little ones\u2014especially the female ones\u2014Piper wasn\u2019t overly fond of insects. Maybe it was their spindly little legs; maybe it was their ability to appear when they\u2019re least wanted; maybe it\u2019s because her brother, Joey, likes to toss them on her head \u2026 well, whatever the reason, I was bound and determined to change Piper\u2019s outlook on all things buggy.<\/p>\n

\"\"

photo by Dominik Stodulski via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

We started with a scavenger hunt (the ones we can\u2019t find in our area, we simply looked up online). That\u2019s right, a scavenger hunt of the bug variety! No little kiddo can resist a scavenger hunt. Golly, I can\u2019t resist one either, actually \u2026 which explains why I was up in an oak tree chasing a fuzzy caterpillar earlier this afternoon.<\/p>\n

MBA\u00a0Jane\u2019s Buggy Hunt<\/p>\n

A. Ladybug<\/p>\n

B. Bumblebee<\/p>\n

C. Dung beetle<\/p>\n

D. Silkworm<\/p>\n

E. Cochineal<\/p>\n

F. Blowflies<\/p>\n

G. Honeybee<\/p>\n

H. Fruit flies<\/p>\n

Next, we matched the bugs to their helpful qualities:<\/p>\n

1. Let\u2019s hear it for pollinators!<\/p>\n

2. Eats \u2026 um, poop. Well, somebody\u2019s gotta do it, right?!<\/p>\n

3. This guy helps scientists in the laboratory with genetics and biology, though they don\u2019t make white lab coats small enough for him.<\/p>\n

4. Can you say \u2018honey,\u2019 and \u2018beeswax?\u2019<\/p>\n

5. We appreciate these bugaboos for producing red dye for clothing, lipstick, and food. Although we really only appreciate the cloth part \u2026 ugh for the other two!<\/p>\n

6. Eats aphids. Better them than us!<\/p>\n

7. Makes silk for cloth. Gotta love a set of decadent silk pillowcases on a hot summer\u2019s night. Thanks, buggies.<\/p>\n

8. Doctors use these handy bugs\u2014that are members of the maggot family\u2014to help stop infections. Wow!<\/p>\n

At the end of our little hunt and educational bonding time, Piper and I felt like real entomologists. We had a brand-new love and gratitude for the tiniest members of the animal kingdom (although we couldn\u2019t find a good reason for the existence of cockroaches or mosquitoes, no matter how hard we tried).<\/p>\n

And we barely jumped at all when Joey flicked a few Daddy Long Legs at us.<\/p>\n

\"\"

photo by James Petts via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n


\n*Answers to Jane and Piper\u2019s Entomology Hunt<\/strong><\/p>\n

A\/6<\/p>\n

B\/1<\/p>\n

C\/2<\/p>\n

D\/7<\/p>\n

E\/5<\/p>\n

F\/8<\/p>\n

G\/4<\/p>\n

H\/3\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with\u00a06,571 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20149,327 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ\u00a0 Wondering who … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}