As part of our biology studies this year, we decided to raise some butterflies...
We placed an online order for some Painted Lady's and waited for the UPS man to deliver our package. When they arrived, we were all shocked to see just how small the little larvae were.
We did our best to create a comfy place for them to eat and grow inside of the plastic terrarium that came with our order. A few sticks from the yard, some cheesecloth to cover the large holes, and some plastic "dishes" full of "food", and we were in business.
They ate like crazy and grew...
and grew!
In a little over a week, we had big fat caterpillars making a trek to the top of the terrarium to make their incredible transformation.
And a short time after that, they emerged from their slumber.
Amanda wasn't too happy when I told her that we needed to let them go in the backyard. I think she wanted to keep them as pets. Eventually she got used to the idea and we all headed out to the yard to set them free.
(The three extra kids in the photo are cousins.)
Gently reaching in to help them get out...
One of them LOVED Jaxon and didn't want to fly away!
They were all pretty tame and didn't mind crawling all over the kid's little hands.
After placing them on flowers, they eventually flew away. We still see one or two of them flying around the yard, I guess even butterfly kids are sometimes reluctant to leave home!
In a completely unrelated story, my 10 year old Chinese Wisteria finally bloomed. I'm not sure if it is supposed to take that long, or if I'm just a poor gardener.
Whichever the case, it was worth the wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment