Bug Catchers

 Before I start, these things do not catch bugs; they hold bugs.  For some reason, though, I keep referring to them as bug catchers.  I just wanted to be upfront with you about that just in case you're like me and were scarred at an early age by the Minuter Rice commercial where the rice flew around the table and then you got the Minute Rice and found it actually had to be passed from person to person.  So lame.  Even though these do not actually catch bugs, they are handy to have when you find yourself with a bug and you need a place to put it.

 To make a bug catcher, you'll need some screen.  This is the kind I got.  I was guessing at the sturdiness of it and probably could have gotten something a bit stiffer, but I didn't know if it would be easy to cut with scissors.  It worked fine, though.  I bought a whole roll because it wasn't very expensive and I didn't want to wait to find an employee to cut a custom size.

 You'll also need some plaster.  I still have a lot left over from when we did our Frederic Remington artist study, so I was glad to have a chance to use some more of it up!

 Cut the screen into a rectangle.  As you can see, I started with a 12" by 7.5" rectangle for ours.

 You'll also need two shallow cans for each bug catcher.  I used the cans from blueberry muffin mixes, though I think tuna cans would also work well.  Mix up your plaster and pour it into one of the cans.  If you want, you can add a small twig in the plaster.  (I thought of this a couple of days later, so ours are twigless!)

 Then roll the screen up and put one end down into the plaster.

 I used a clothespin to hold the shape of the screen while the plaster dried.  When it was dry, I did cut the height down an inch or so and also dabbed a little bit of hot glue along the edge of the screen to make it a bit more secure.

Put the other can on top of your screen to act as a lid and you have a bug catcher!