For a while we were practically running a caterpillar farm here on Elua Street. It all started when I was teaching first grade last June, the class was learning about insects and got to raise their own caterpillars. I couldn't resist and took home a very tiny caterpillar (they are really darling when they are so small with their little stripes and antennas). But caterpillars can really go through some leaves, so that little catey quickly went through all the food I had.
Caterpillars can only eat a few plants (poisonous ones with milky sap, mainly milkweed) so I drove all around looking for tropical milkweed, the poor guy was starving! Finally I manifested a ton of tropical milkweed at unicorn valley, I literally followed a butterfly to it. (More on unicorn valley later...) I took home heaps of milkweed, which meant that I took home a heap of caterpillar eggs (that's where the butterflies lay them, right on the food source). The cycle went on like this for months. It's really an incredible thing to have all kinds of metamorphosis going on in your kitchen.
No comments:
Post a Comment