Wednesday, June 18, 2008

You've got mail!

We got a small box in the mail yesterday, and the kids were very excited about it!


The box says live butterflies, but it had in it five Painted Lady caterpillars, and everything the caterpillars need to grow into butterflies.


It isn't the best picture, but those black things are the caterpillars. According to the little paper that came with them, they spin silk to move more easily and protect them. (I never knew that) Also according to the paper we will notice little green balls of frass starting to accumulate. What is frass you ask? Caterpillar poop.

So now we wait, approximately 7-10 days for them to start the change into chrysalids. The kids have been asking every hour if they are butterflies yet. That won't happen until about 7-10 days after they make their chrysalids.

Why are we raising caterpillars? Well, a few month ago the kids received a box in the mail from my cousin, and it had this in it. (We waited until it warmed up to send for them!) It is from Insect Lore

It should be neat. When Lino and I got married, we released butterflies after the service. We ordered 100 of them from Butterfly Celebration . They came to us already in the chrysalid stage and we had to put them in cute little boxes and wait for them to hatch. Which, conveniently enough happened 2 days before the wedding!

1 comment:

Leia H said...

Oh I was going to order butterflies this year and totally forgot. It's still in season, I should go do that....enjoy your caterpillars! They are so much fun!