BACK MINI4 5' Mini-mysteries for the mouse detective Michaela Mouse lived in a hole under the roots of a large tree. One day she heard a knock at the door. When she opened it, she saw a the queen bee. "You have to help me! Please, Michaela Mouse, help me!" exclaimed the robin. "What's wrong?" asked Michaela. "Somebody must have turned off the sprinklers again. Our flowers aren't giving us any nectar!" Michaela went to the park with the queen bee to investigate. The first thing she checked were the electrical wires that turned the sprinklers on. In the last mystery they had been cut by the lawn mowers. But the wires were fine. So, she went to the fences where most of the flowers are planted to see why the flowers weren't getting water again. But to her surprise, the ground around all the flowers was wet and there were puddles in some places. Michaela explained, "The flowers are getting plenty of water. Maybe another animal is sipping all the nectar. Have you seen other animals?" The queen bee replied, "Just the butterflies. But we always share the flowers with them. They don't drink much nectar." "How about the hummingbirds?" asked Michaela. "They drink a lot." The queen bee thought for a moment then replied, "No. As a matter of fact I haven't seen a hummingbird around here since the wires were cut. I think they flew off to other flower beds." Michaela looked around and noticed that only the roses in the flower beds were blooming. So, she went over to a rose plant with the biggest blossoms and inspected the stem of the plant with her tiny magnifying glass. "Aha!" she exclaimed. "Did you find something?" asked the queen. "Yes." replied Michaela, "Whoever is stealing the nectar from these roses is not sipping it from the blossoms. They're stealing it from the stems!" "How on earth could they steal nectar from the stems?!" asked the queen. Michaela held the magnifying glass up against the stem at the queen's eye level and said, "Look." "Well, I'll bee!" exclaimed the queen, "Somebody drilled tiny holes in the stem and sucked out the nectar before it even got up to the blossoms! Are all the stems like this?" Michaela examined a few more rose stems with her magnifying glass and concluded, "It looks like all of the roses have been robbed of their nectar." "Who could have done such a thing?!" asked the queen bee. "I don't know yet." replied Michaela, "But I'll investigate." With that, Michaela began climbing up the stem of the rose bush slowly and carefully to avoid the sharp thorns. When she got near the top, she saw what looked like grains of sand crawling around on the stem and on the underside of the leaves. Now Michaela knew that little grains of sand can't crawl, so she took out her tiny magnifying glass and looked closer at them. "Aha!" exclaimed Michaela. The queen bee flew up to Michaela asking, "Did you find something?" "Yes," replied Michaela, "I found the robbers!" "Where?" I don't see anyone." replied the queen. "These robbers are teeny tiny insects with a mouth like a tiny drill that can drill into the stem of the rose." explained Michaela "But it's hollow like a vaccination needle, so that it can suck out the nectar." "Well, how will we get rid of them?" asked the queen, "Maybe we can get the birds to eat them." "No. The birds would have to somehow land on these stems to eat them." explained Michaela, "But the thorns on these stems wouldn't let them land here." "Then what will we do?" asked the queen. Michaela replied as she carefully climbed down, "Let me talk to my friend Michaela the human. I'll be back later." Michaela went to her friend Michaela's house. The two of them looked through the book on insects and finally found the robbers. According to the book the teeny tiny insects were called aphids. The two Michaelas read all about them. It turns out that if you don't get rid of the aphids, the drilling of the aphids could kill the rose plants, then noone would have any nectar. Michaela the human returned to the park with Michaela the mouse in her pocket and a small jar in her hand. "What do you have there?" asked the queen bee as she hovered around Michaela the human. "We went to the pet store. We bought some insects!" replied Michaela mouse. "But we already have insects!" exclaimed the queen. "But these are special insects called lady bugs." replied Michaela, "Their favorite food is aphids." When Michaela the human got to the roses, she opened the jar and released the lady bugs. Within a day or two, the lady bugs grew fat from eating their favorite meal, the aphids, and the roses began to give nectar to the bees and butterflies again. Thanks to the good detective work of Michaela mouse they all lived happily ever after. ©2008 Bob Snook. Conditions for use: This story is free. Pay no fees or royalties. Do not sell this story or rewrite it. You may reproduce and distribute this story freely, but all copies must contain this copyright statement. http://www.fea.net/bobsnook/kid email: bobsnook@fea.net BACK |