we have a budding entymologist in our house. everyday we wakes up and tells me in a semi-awake way, "today looks like a great day for bug collecting." it doesn't matter if the sun is shining or you can't see 6 inches in front of your face for the fog: it's a good day for capturing insects. actually, as it turns out, it's always a good time for others to catch bugs: parents, friends, brothers, etc. still, he loves the idea of it, and so we've got containers with bugs in various states of ill-health stowed all around the garage. morally, i feel like i should be going through some amount of remorse or at least pity for these little multi-legged creatures, but i can't say that i do. i mean, they could get eaten by something much bigger than them, and end up as lining the inside of a spider's abdomen, or they could die intact and end up with a pin through them under the admiring gaze of a 6-year old. if i were a beetle near the milinovich house, i know which one i'd choose: the shiny pin and future of show-and-tell. heck, it even looks like isaiah's vision of the new earth: the spider shall lie down with the beetle and the yellowjacket shall recline with the grasshopper. it's peaceful, isn't it? so, rest in peace, bugs. enjoy your new-found life of fame.
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monica
monica: we just catch them with jars. the neighbor boy has a net that we've used to catch some of the fliers, but we've also captured some of the bees right off the flowers. then we just keep them in the jar until it dies (is this supremely inhumane? am i showing serial killer tendancies here?). then, i used a piece of watercolor paper mounted to a piece of corrugated cardboard, and i attach the bugs using straight pins. i put this inside a shadowbox with glass, so i had to push the pins all the way through and then cut the pins on the back with wire cutters. i'm sure there are a variety of ways you could do it. i was going to use foamboard, but didn't have any available. enjoy!