Simple Sprite Explosion Animation Questions

Hello,

I just started playing around with animating a sprite using a sprite sheet.
I have been searching the forums and following links (broken and otherwise) for a couple of hours and I'm frustrated.

My goal is to have a prefab explosion animation that I can instantiate when needed and have it play through once and stop.

I can drag a selected set of sprite sheet images into the hierarchy and it asks me to assign a name to a new "*.anim" file.
Then a new object is created in the hierarchy (which appears to be a sprite) and an "Animator" component is added to it.
If I run the scene the animation starts playing and repeats in a loop.
All well and good.

I name the sprite "Explosion" and move if from the hierarchy into my Resources folder.
Then I instantiate it from a "Start()" event like this:

Code (csharp):

1. exp = (GameObject)GameObject.Instantiate(Resources.Load ("Explosion"));

When I run the scene the explosion is created and begins animating in a loop.

If I try and access any animation related properties via my "exp" variable (such as: exp.animation.Stop() it tells me I need to add an "Animation" component.

QUESTIONS:
1) My animation runs without an "Animation" component, do I really need it for scripting or are there ways around it.

2) If I need an an "Animation" component then I drag my sprite sheet into the "Animation" slot on the "Animation" component, correct?

If I do (1 and 2) and try "exp.animation.Stop();" on a mouse click, I get no errors, but the animation keeps on animating.
3) How do I prevent my animation from animating until I tell it to?

4) What is the best way to destroy the animation when it has finished animating?

Thanks for reviewing this long-winded topic.
Any help is appreciated.

-- Paul