Just call me “Caterpillar Whisperer”
Jul 31st, 2009 by jhahnke
Did I actually finish that last post hoping those bazillions of caterpillars would eat and grow? There’s sage truth to the saying, “Be careful what you wish for!” They did eat and grow, and eat and poop, and grow and eat, and poop and poop. I’ve spent enormous amounts of time during the last few weeks collecting leaves and feeding and cleaning caterpillar containers. It was easy when they were little, but the mature caterpillars are quite large and eat constantly. The lunas are as big or bigger than my pinky, and the cecropias are longer than my forefinger and fatter than my thumb!
It’s been an amazing experience, though, and I’ve loved watching, photographing, and filming these guys and learning their ways. Even more fun, I’ve run three different kids programs where I explained the luna moth’s life cycle with my photos and video, and I offered up caterpillars for adoption. I placed about 30 caterpillars into some very excited homes. Well . . . the kids were excited and the moms were good sports!
Most of the caterpillars have spun their cocoons during this last week, though I’m still waiting on the final few. There are a handful that have grown so slowly, I’m sure they won’t survive, but who knows. I have 43 luna cocoons at the moment, and I’m expecting to still get another dozen or so. And the cecropias did quite well. They’re very difficult to raise successfully indoors, but they seemed to enjoy my terrarium. Of the 11 cecropias that hatched, 6 made it through the final molt and 5 have spun their enormous cocoons (as big as your hand). The 6th should spin sometime this weekend.
I’ll be sharing my photos and video on my Web site when I get some time. I’ll use the luna moth lifecycle material as part of the curriculum guide we’re developing for The Grey Ghost, and it will be freely available for classroom use. In the meantime, if any teachers or school librarians are interested in a cocoon for your classroom, I’ll accept reservations on a first-come, first-served basis. I will charge $10 per cocoon plus postage to help cover my expenses, but I’ll provide full instructions on care and on how you can use the cocoon with your class.
These guys will now spend the rest of the summer, fall, and winter sleeping. We won’t see them again until next spring. Sleep well, my buggies!
4 Responses to “Just call me “Caterpillar Whisperer””
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You and your experiments Ms. Fascinated-With-Everything Fantasy Writer! Imagine an apartment full of orchids and buggies! I admire the beautiful moths, and I can deal with the cocoons, but the fat, undulating, pooping caterpillars? No way! Ugh!
We adopted a Luna Moth caterpillar at the Blue Bunny in Dedham. We named it Crunch and it ate his way through lots of birch leaves. It grew 2-3 millimeters each day. It blew his guts on August 2nd. Now it is snug in his cocoon and sometimes scratches like a mouse. We can’t wait to see if it is male or female. We liked learning about luna moths.
Hi Amelia,
I’m glad Crunch is so happy in its cocoon. You might be learning if its male or female sooner than you think. My cocoons have been hatching for the past week. It seems they were exposed to too long a day length from my working late at night, and they think they’re living down south where the leaves stay on the trees all year. So they’re not sleeping all winter.
Keep a close watch and you may see crunch hatch from its cocoon this week! Let me know how it goes!
Hi Lynda,
I never said how wonderful it was to hear from you! You do have a point—there was a lot of caterpillar poop! Luckily they weren’t free range ‘pillars!