This beautiful June Beetle flew into our car this morning just as we were leaving for zoo camp. Spontaneous critter encounters are the best! It was a great reminder to have handy a safe and secure critter catcher for up close viewing. These encounters are exciting and you want to be able to take advantage of such a wonderful moment with your children.
A mason jar with a screen lid, a jar with its lid punched with nail holes, or a small pet store critter carrier are all great standby's for safely catching, securing and viewing unexpected visitors before releasing. Having more than one on hand is sometimes useful as we have all three but this plastic one was perfect for taking with us for sharing. Why not keep one in your car for the park, the trail, or when camping, or at a friend’s house—you never know when a critter may stop by to say hello for a short visit!
We recommend releasing critters after a few hours of viewing—so get those field guides out, take some photos, and identify it while you can. Use a hand lens to get up close viewing that you wouldn’t normally be able to do. It’s fascinating! Even though you are being VERY careful with them by not moving the container around or tapping on it, you can imagine it is likely a stressful situation for your critter. This can affect their health very, very quickly as it is not an ideal environment for them (being enclosed, experiencing unnatural temperature variations and being away from their natural resources and cycles they rely on throughout the day or night). Just keep that in mind but be sure to enjoy this spontaneous gift from nature, then release your critter near where you found it.
Three cheers for cool, green, metallic beetles! Bugs--bugs--bugs!
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