While we were in the UP at the reunion, the kids found literally thousands of Monarch caterpillars. They were all running around with plastic cups over-flowing with the crawling creatures. Although I am sure most parents were able to convince their children that the best thing for the caterpillars was to leave them right were the found them (and then wash their hands with lots of soap and water)... however, we were unsuccessful. So say hello to our little friend. Within a few days the caterpillar found a nice cozy spot and made a cocoon. Shortly after we had an invasion of carpenter ants (perhaps more stow-aways from our recent trip) so we bug bombed the house. At the last minute we realized that the cocoon was still inside and Pat made a daring rescue.
This morning Andrew found this...
and this.... inside his bug house.
Andrew gave the new butterfly some words of encouragement. He whispered "it's ok little guy...you can do it...it will be ok... go ahead and open your wings... I took good care of you but you have to get strong and fly away because I don't have any milkweed for you to eat... "
Andrew is beyond excited. After our brief photo shoot he put the Monarch on a bush to allow his wings to fully dry. I am sure he will be off in search of some milkweed very soon.
1 comment:
wow! That was fast! How cool! And to think I got to see the cocoon...
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