I splurged this spring and bought some caterpillars. There was a company that specialized in science stuff for kids and I was able to have 5 tiny caterpillars delivered to my door in a plastic cup complete with food for them. Here's what they looked like almost 3 weeks ago.
And here they are a week later....
Once they are all in their cocoons, the directions said to take them out of the cup and hang them in the mesh cage they sent along. It said that there was a paper disk attached to the bottom side of the lid. Simply peel that away, stick a pin in the paper and attach it to the mesh side of the cage. Hmmm, easier said than done. I got a tip from Will's teacher who had also ordered butterflies for their class. She said that they use a bent paperclip and it works well. I was able to transfer all 5 cocoons without any falling off - but it was a little tense. The caterpillars in Will's class are about 5-6 days behind ours. It's funny because Will's teachers say that he has been a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the caterpillars. They said he's pretty much an expert and shares A LOT. :) Yesterday when we came back from Will's field trip we found a butterfly out of it's cocoon. And this morning....we found another one.
There is a paper plate in the bottom of the cage which I put balled up tissues soaked in sugar water. (Per the instructions.) The red dots scattered here and there are droppings from the butterflies' body. The instructions said this wasn't blood - but leftover coloring from their wings. You can see 2 Painted Lady butterflies in this picture - one exercising it's wings and one to the right of him just hanging out. So far, they do a lot of hanging out. We will probably keep them until they all appear, and then release them a few days later. Molly has also done a very nice job of leaving them alone.
4 comments:
Wow you can buy catapillars??? I remember when they were very plentiful on the sidewalks for free! I also thought it took them a lot longer to develop into butterflies...very interesting!
Denise
You can order ANYTHING these days. :) We now have FOUR butterflies out....and I think the last one may not hatch. Something seems wrong with it, but you never know.
We did try to keep a catterpillar last fall and see if it would change, but it died. I figured this was better. And yeah - 7-10 days as a growing catterpillar, 7-10 days inside the cocoon, and ta-daa!
I loved doing this with my childcare children! You can also buy tadpoles and watch them turn into frogs :)
Melanie
that's awesome! I might have to get the kids one of these. I've heard about them, but never tried it out. very cool science fun.
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