When Homeschooling gets YUCKY!

So today, we got outside to enjoy some cooler temps. It was also a good nature day. Apparently TOO good. Lovely had a BLAST filling her bug jar with little caterpillars.

There were so many of them that she now thinks we have the COOLEST yard! I mean, look how cute they are....and what a great learning tool, right? Nature at our finger tips. I just kept seeing them...stepping on them. Then, look in the background of the picture - notice some brown spots? Sure, we've had a hot summer....but are brown patches really just caused by the heat?

Umm, no. They can also be caused by these:

These guys are not just normal, cute, pre-butterfly caterpillars. They are Army Worms. They will become a moth, an until then, they and about 1,000 more of their buddies will eat your lawn when it is dark or VERY shady (if we saw this many during the day, currently as I type this, thousands more are out now eating our yard) from the root up. Sometimes the infestation can be so large, it looks like your yard is moving with all the feasting. We saw hundreds in the shade, so this homeschool teacher, in fantastic educator fashion, went running for the hills...EWWW! Yuck! I felt like we're being watched, since so many more were in hiding till nightfall. EEK!

Lovely is so excited though. How do I tell her that her 1000 best friends are NOT wanted? LOL