My ds and I found a beautiful caterpillar (black with a blue stripe down its back) on our blackberry bushes. We had a large tictac container in the car, so we put some leaves in there for it and I explained to my son that he had to leave the lid open a bit to allow air in there. He carried it around and eventually put it in the car. When we got ready to leave our garden to go home he found an empty tictac box! His window had been open, so we hunted in the car, in the grass around the car door, etc. No caterpillar. To make a long story short, this was on Wednesday. Today we got home from the store and he spotted the wandering caterpillar on the back seat. We had a clean mayonnaise jar handy this time, so I punched some small holes in the lid and we got some lilac bush leaves (no blackberry bushes near our apt.) and a nice stick for it. We drove out to our garden this afternoon and replaced the leaves with blackberry bush leaves, since that's where we'd found him. He started munching immediately! He was one very hungry caterpillar... Okay, back to my story. He had a friend on the blackberry bush! So now we have TWO caterpillars. We would love to watch them make cocoons and emerge as moths or butterflies, but I don't want this to turn into a tragedy. I'm hunting on the internet for info. and have found great pictures of science projects, info. on food you get when you order caterpillar larvae, but no solid info. on what to do with "wild" caterpillars!!!! Does anyone know if they need more than a steady supply of blackberry leaves? Do they need water or do they get enough moisture from the leaves? Any help would be much appreciated!!! Blessings,
Hi, Anne! We've raised monarchs from egg to butterfly, so I'm an "expert" ( :roll: yeah, right!) on caterpillars. I'm trying to find a particular web page; if you send him a description of your caterpillar and where you dound it, etc., he can often tell you what kind it is and more info on how to care for it. I did that about two years ago, so I'm having trouble coming up with the site now! There's a wonderful book, I think it's called the "Family Butterfly Book". I'll try to find it, and will let you know if it's a different name. Yes, you just need to feed them the leaves; they don't need water. Keep the leaves fresh. Stick with the blackberry leaves, since you know he likes them. Often a caterpillar will only eat one kind of leaves. Also (this is VERY IMPORTANT!!!) be careful about putting them in a glass jar! Remember that a closed glass container will have a "greenhouse effect" and retain heat (think of how hot a car gets in the sun if it's closed up!) My daughter leaned this the hard way. I had left the a caterpillar in the car with the lid open, she thought it would escape and tightened it, and we had once cooked caterpillar when we came back!!! I told her it was my fault, because I should have brought it inside the church...... He probably won't be able to climb up the sides of your mayonaise jar, and if you keep plenty of leaves for him to eat, he won't want to! A good size container, BTW, will have enough air for your caterpillar, so you don't have to worry about that! The caterpilar will shed its skin several times as it grows. This is called an "instar". The pupae stage will be different for different kinds of caterpillars. Some moths bury in dead leaves and will stay that way through the winter. Monarchs make beautiful green chrysalis that hatch in about 14 (?) days. Some will spin cocoons. Hope this will help you get started! Is there a park with a naturalist close by you can ask? I'll keep looking for that one site for you! Good luck!
Thanks for the info., Jackie, my Caterpillar Consultant! That website with the advice fellow sounds wonderful! So sorry about your daughter's cooked caterpillar. I'm looking for another, more suitable container. I had ds keep the jar in the shade today and it is now safely sitting on a shelf in the kitchen, but I did worry about the heat. These guys are real crawlers, though, they were on the top part of the stick, reaching up as far as they could toward the lid. So I think I need to find something with a lid, maybe a shoe box? I saw a silkworm project on the internet tonight and they were in a shoebox. I wonder if a clear plastic container would heat up as much as glass? It would be nice to have something ds wouldn't constantly take the lid off to check on his friends (I'm afraid he'll get distracted and leave the lid off.... don't want them wandering about, possibly getting squashed!). Last question -- they seem to have very healthy bowels! There are quite a few little pellets already. Do we need to clean that all out every time we get them fresh leaves? I don't want to disturb the caterpillars too much and disrupt their cocoon (or other pupae form) building efforts. (No signs of that, by the way.) Thanks for your help! Blessings,
I can't find the site I'm looking for, but did find this one that I think looks promising: http://www.whatsthiscaterpillar.co.uk/america/index.htm I'm thinking I put a paper towel in the bottom of the jar, and changed it regular. Yes, there's LOTS of droppings...just consider how much he's eating compared to his size! A plastic shoebox size box would probably work just fine. Discourage you son from handling him. Enchantedlearning.com has some good worksheets on caterpillars for kids. There's an "easy" page, and also a "harder" one with more complicated body parts. Let me know what you find out!
We've done catapillars twice, once ordered from a company and once from Monarchs that we found in the wild. The ones that we ordered from the store came in a plastic butter tub that was made out of clear plastic. They had food on the bottom and the directions were to never open the container. They didn't seem bothered by the pellets. They just ate and ate. The container had a piece of paper that was sort of the consistancy of a coffee filter taped to the inside of the lid. The catapillars made their chrysalis on the lid and then we moved the paper to a bigger container (a butterfly house that we bought at the store) to wait for them to hatch. The second time, we found some in the wild and put them straight in the butterfly house with lots of leaves from the plant where we found them. They didn't seem to need water or for us to clean the cage (although we did after they were all in their chrysalis form). I was worried that they wouldn't be able to attach their chrysalises to the smooth plastic lid of the butterfly house, but they just spun a little silk and hung themselves right up. you could probably make an approximation of the store bought butterfly house by cutting big windows in the sides a cardboard box and covering them with pieces of window screen or mosquito netting or clear nylon stockings. Pick a box big enough for the butterflies to live in for a few days before you release them. We fed ours sliced oranges and they were fine for four or five days. I'd say don't handle them at all if you can help it and just keep feeding them. Have fun!
Jackie, I haven't discovered what they are yet. There are tons of pictures on that website you gave me , but I haven't had time to view each one. I'm thinking about just taking a photo of the caterpillars and e-mailing it to the site to see if they can identify them for me. :wink: The caterpillars seem to be fine, though. They've gobbled up LOTS of leaves. I have them in a clear plastic box with a lid. I lined it with a paper towel. The website said to feed them twice a day and clean out the pellets. I've just been doing it once a day, so as to disturb them the least. I just gently lift the papertowel, leaves, caterpillars and all. Then I put a new liner in the box, fresh leaves, etc. before using a leaf or a stick (whatever they are sitting on) to place them back in the box. So far so good. Boat Gal, I may just add fresh leaves from now on, since that worked for you. Thank you for the tips on how to build a butterfly house! I'll keep you posted! Blessings,
I was hoping that one site was one that was asking questions, and you could kind of narrow it down by the answers. Am sorry it isn't. I'll keep looking for that one guy, but have had no luck. Another thought is to take him to a local park and ask the naturalist. I know that there are many parks where I live where people would love to answer your questions!
I know that the trees in my front yard are polluted with their nests and the ugly things! YUCK!!!!! Brenda
Our caterpillars made cocoons! Well, at least we know one did. They both burrowed under the leaves. I was able to peek under one big leaf and saw one cocoon, but they have all the leaves glued together somehow and I'm afraid to peel them apart to find the other little fellow. I'm hoping he's made a cocoon, too. Jackie, I posted a message on that caterpillar website's forum. I'm hoping someone there can help identify it. I'm not sure where I would go to find a naturalist! We don't have any nature centers near us. However, I do have a neighbor that's a botanist. I'm going to check with her next time I see her. I'm going to check with Amanda and see if I can post some photos of the caterpillars and the cocoon. I've got to get busy and make a butterfly house! Blessings,
I'm guessing it will be a moth. I THINK butterflies are more likely to make Chrysalys (sp!!!), and moths make cocoons. But please don't hold me to that!
Jackie I think you are right, moths do make cocoons. But, there are some pretty moths too and ugly ones. But, any way good luck there fun no matter what they are. :lol:
I read the same thing about caterpillars/chrysalises and moths/cocoons. We have a white little bundle made of what looks like spider's web threads. Looks like a cocoon rather than chrysalis, from all the pictures I've found. So I guess we'll have moths soon! I'll keep you posted!
Anne, We have them down here they take over alot of the trees. The girls love watching them and when they are ready to come out of the cocoon they are all over the place and on to everything. But, the girls think they are neat. :lol:
Anne, I found him!!! I was showing DH where I kept the kids' shot records on file in my drawer, and he asked "What all do you have in there anyway?" Well, all my school files.... And there was a file on butterflies/moths. When I looked through it, I found a page copied from the guy's site that I was telling you about!!! I didn't know I had that! So send an e-mail to Bill Oehlke at oehlkew@islandtelecom.com. Describe your caterpillar to him, that it eats blackberry leaves, that it made a cocoon in the leaves, and he will probably get back to you and let you know what you have. Good luck, and let me know!!! (I'm xcited about finding it for you!)
Jackie, I e-mailed Mr. Oehlke and another guy (I found his e-mail at the caterpillar site you gave me). Both responded within a day! Mr. Oehlke couldn't pin it down precisely, as he's more familiar with North American caterpillars. But he got the species right! The other fellow sent me the following e-mail: So we now know what we have! Ds is rather disappointed about the small brown moths -- he was really hoping for beautiful butterflies!!! :cry: I'm also a bit disappointed that these moths are actually pests! :? :shock: :? :cry: :shock: I don't want my blackberries and apple trees taken over by moths that will reproduce tons of caterpillars to gobble them up! Yikes! I've got to find a nice safe place to release them! We've got a butterfly house all set up (a collapsible clothes hamper made of mesh with a mesh laundry bag to cover the top - ds came up with the idea for a top). So we're still watching and waiting... In the meantime, we've read up on caterpillars, done caterpillar/butterly worksheets, built a wooden model (a die cut 3-D puzzle I got at a dollar store ages ago and remembered today!), ds is working on a butterfly paper bag puppet I found at abcteach, etc. And I'm learning more about tree families! :wink: :lol: :lol: Thanks, Jackie, for the links and info. Thanks, everyone, for all the tips and info.! Blessings,
Where do you live, Anne? I'm assuming it's NOT North America; I didn't realize that! Well, even if they're "only" brown moths and pests at that, it will have been a great experience for your kids. Am glad you were able to identify them. Keep both addresses handy for future rererence!
