Caterpillars

[Pinoyfisher]

Anyone else try keeping some all the way to butterfly status?

There's a couple of trees in front of my kids school that has a ton of caterpillars every spring. They crawl out of the tree and climb up the school walls and hang upside down and do their thing. We decided to catch a couple and see if we could keep them alive long enough to see them grow into butterflies.

Caterpillars


Starting to hang upside down


Cocoon stage



Who knew their heads fell off??


So far so good. Will post up pics of the butterflies if we make it that far. Any amateur entomologists here? I have no idea what they are.

[sasquatch]

Used to be a tree across the street when I was a kid. Had millions of those. We would pick them then throw them in the street for cars to run over. No idea what they turn into.

[Pinoyfisher]

Used to be a tree across the street when I was a kid. Had millions of those. We would pick them then throw them in the street for cars to run over. No idea what they turn into.

Sounds like they turned into roadkill!

[Tim524]

Pretty cool learning experience for the kids 

[Fish Jerk]

I kept a giant swallowtail butterfly caterpillar a few years ago to maturity. It was pretty cool. They feed on citrus leaves. The most interesting thing about the caterpillar is that it mimics bird poop to prevent getting eaten.

http://butterflies.heuristron.net/butterflies/giantSwallowtail.html

[Eric H]

I used to fill squirt guns with dish soap/water and shoot them mid air.

Did that to thousands of ants too

[Latimeria]

Pretty cool Mike!  We used to occasionally get a few caterpillars running through the yard, but now our chickens are on food patrol 24/7 and no caterpillar ever makes it long enough.

[xjchad]

We had some monarchs that we watched go from caterpillar to butterfly last summer. The kids loved it! It was really cool letting them hold them for a few minutes before they flew away

[Pinoyfisher]

Well, they finally hatched!





Kids were beyond stoked! Such a cool experience for them.

[sasquatch]

Very cool.

[Latimeria]

Wow!  That's very cool Mike.  I like the second stage much better.  The first stage looks like great bluegill bait.   

[Sharkinthedark II]

Very cool!