Wool and Spice

As a child growing up in Vermont I wasn’t interested in keeping caterpillars or bees or crickets or ant farms. We never would have thought to bring pests in the house to raise. Anymore than we would have put one of the perch Dad and the boys caught into a fish tank to keep as a pet. I don’t remember our teachers ever encouraging this kind of lesson either. Besides I had my nose stuck in a book through most of my childhood. Insects belonged in the great outdoors and were just a nuisance to be stomped on, swatted, sprayed, eradicated.

Fast forward to yesterday when I discovered two little green caterpillars eating my deck lettuce — again. Last year when they chomped down my lettuce I disposed of them sans remorse.  This time  because the lettuce they were chewing had poop on it (who knew they pooped so much?) I cut off the plant and threw plant and ‘pillars in a plastic bag to throw away when I had a minute.  And of course promptly forgot about the bag until this morning.

When I found the little bastids still living, having eaten all the lettuce and pooped all over the bag.

So what was I supposed to do?

Well of course I immediately decided I’d missed a great opportunity as a child to observe the life cycle of insects up close and this was a second chance to expand my knowledge. Wouldn’t you?

I searched for what type of caterpillars these might be and whether they’re going to turn into a moth or butterfly. I got lost on the website and can’t tell if these are hairy or segmented, banded or slashed; except for one being light green and the other blue-green, they look alike to me. Since they’re busy eating, they’re not talking.

So then I searched for how to raise a caterpillar, read some quick instructions for building a habitat and then started collecting materials. (sorry, no link, I can’t find the same site anymore).

I don’t think I got it quite right (ask your kids what I’m supposed to do, mkay?) but I collected cotton balls and a few stones (one had a slug on it, ugh) sticks and of course food and threw everything in a canning jar. Which was too narrow so then I got rid of the stones, cut the sticks smaller, and changed to a wider, shorter plastic container for easier access.

I need to put a screen over it somehow, but haven’t figured that out yet. If they escape overnight, I know where to find them in the morning.

Oh and the cotton balls are to keep them from falling in the water that the lettuce is in. Apparently they like their lettuce fresh.

Meanwhile I thought one of the two ‘pillars had gone to the great garden in the sky but it turns out he was faking it so I rescued him from the plastic pail where I threw him this morning. He seemed happy to have a lettuce leaf all to himself.

Did you know you have to clean out the poop every day (worse than cleaning the litter box) and don’t let the habitat get too wet because they’ll get a fungus or drown and I’m wondering to myself why am I doing this?

I think they’ll pupate in a couple weeks (I hope I have enough lettuce) and then a couple weeks after that they’ll turn into lovely little….somethings.

Which I shall promptly release in the neighbor’s garden.

If you’ve done this or your kids have done this, I could use some advice. What do I need to do to keep these critters alive?

Tags: caterpillars, lettuce wars part deux