A couple of weeks ago, I was really excited to find tiny swallowtail caterpillars on my Rue for the 2nd time this year. The first time was back in April, and a couple days after I first spotted them, they all disappeared. I decided not to let the new caterpillars meet that same fate. I brought them indoors, to the caterpillar playground!
They're doing quite well, getting nice and big!
2 different instars of the black swallowtail caterpillar, chowing down on some rue.
This morning I went outside to gather some more rue for them, since they are going through lots of it.
And I finally got to see something I had never seen before- a black swallowtail egg!
Isn't it gorgeous? This tiny pale green perfect little globe. I've seen pictures of the eggs, so I immediately knew what it was. I was so excited and wondered where Momma was, and if she would be back to lay more eggs soon.
About 30 seconds later, as if to answer my question, there she was! She didn't even seem to mind that I was sitting right there.
A couple of my neighbors know that I'm raising caterpillars and when they wanted to know about finding them, they asked, "Did you just go out looking for caterpillars? Or you just happened to find them?"
"No, I found the eggs."
This always seems to blow people's minds at first- like I have some super human powers for finding butterfly eggs. Which I think is funny, since once you know what to look for- and possibly more importantly, where to look- it's very easy :)
Now I've got about 10 of the eggs and will go out later to see if there are more. I will have to do some research since it is getting late in the year- these caterpillars might want to overwinter as a chrysalis!
Have you ever said to someone, "I am so embarrassed for you."
It's kind of a mean thing to say, even if you're trying to be empathetic.
But yesterday around 7:30 in the morning, I had those thoughts. And instead of trying to spare further embarrassment to the subject, I grabbed my camera.
I had let my dog out early to do his business, and went out with him to dump out a container of banana peels and coffee grounds into the compost. I noticed my dog, instead of doing his business, was very interested in some bug flying around in circles, low in the yard. I watched him while several thoughts were flying through my head.... Obviously hoping he wouldn't catch and chomp down on the bug- at first, for the bug's sake, but the longer I watched, the more that bug was resembling one of those giant Japanese hornets, and I started to worry for my dog. (I don't know if we actually have Japanese hornets around here, but growing up, that's what my stepdad called them.) And if it WAS a giant hornet, I wondered if it was circling its own nest in the grass there- which would be a REALLY inconvenient place for bigass hornets to have a nest.
My dog decided to leave the thing alone- quite unlike him, actually- so I went inside to grab my camera, thinking from far away this bug looked interesting.
When I arrived back on the scene, I was simultaneously thrilled and disgusted. Right before my very eyes was a beautiful Nessus Sphinx moth! I see them every now and then (a couple times a year), but never when I have my camera with me, and they never hang around long enough for me to run all the way inside and get it.
The moth had been flying around in little circles, just above the grass, right over....
A fresh pile of my dog's poop. And feeding on it.
Disgusting.
I actually feel sort of bad for uploading these photos because, obviously to zoom in close and get good photos of this cool moth, I also had to zoom in on the poop. No one needs to see that. I debated whether or not to just color over it in Photoshop, or use the clone tool to copy the grass over top of the poop, but as of this morning, ain't nobody got time for that.
There are just.... so many jokes I could make right now.
Necessary things for your butterfly garden include:
Host plants for caterpillars
Nectar plants for butterflies
A puddling area
Fresh dog turds
Ugh!
Gross!
NESSUS STINX MOTH
LOL
But if you can get past the poop (and if you can't, I understand), the moth itself really is a beauty. And from far away, totally looks like a big hornet.
Saturday (the 28th), before my race, I was out doing some gardening for a few hours. (Maybe not the best way to spend pre-race time, but oh well.) I was DELIGHTED when a Monarch butterfly fluttered into the garden amongst my milkweed!! I hurried into the house to get my camera, then came back out in hopes that she would lay some eggs.
Just hangin' out...
It didn't take long- almost immediately I saw the tell-tale reverse abdominal crunch move that indicates that a butterfly is laying an egg!
"UUUNNNnnnnnnnngh!"
Tucking her abdomen under the leaf to deposit an egg
I followed her around for a while until I no longer saw her in the garden. I have milkweed plants in 4 different places in our yard and found eggs on most of the plants.
Egg!
I prepared an empty plastic cookie container (reduce, reuse, recycle, right??) for the eggs by washing it thoroughly and putting a paper towel in the bottom. I punched holes in the lid from the inside out (so the jagged edges are pointing up and out of the container, and the caterpillars won't rub on those sharp edges if they climb up!) with a wine bottle opener. Then I went outside and collected the eggs (10 total) by pinching off the entire leaf, but you can also just tear off a piece of the leaf with the egg attached.
Lastly I took an old knee-high pantyhose and cut off the top, then cut a slit down the side so I could stretch it out into a square shape. I laid this on top of the open container and stretched it out, then closed the lid over it, securing it in place.
Those caterpillar babies are going to be about the size of a small ant, and can easily fit through the holes in the container!
Then I waited.
I didn't have to wait long.
On day 3 (July 30th), TWO eggs hatched!
The first hatchling caterpillar baby! Meet Eddie Murphy.
A little video I made of the first few moments of Eddie Murphy's life...
Eddie hatched first, in the afternoon, and Charlie hatched later in the
evening. For the rest of the night I was pretty excited.
The 2nd hatchling caterpillar baby! Meet Charlie Murphy.
I recently watched Eddie Murphy on "Inside the Actor's Studio" (he is GREAT by the way) and the names just sort of... happened.
When I woke up this morning (day 4), I couldn't wait to check on them!
You can imagine how happy I was this afternoon when I looked in the container and saw......
FOUR CATERPILLAR BABIES!!! The two born today don't have names yet.
Check out the little holes in the leaves, and all of that poop. They are already eating and pooping lots. After I took this photo, I cleaned out the poop. Kind of glad I didn't clean it before the photo was taken though, just because it is amazing how much they can poop in just a couple of hours!
Next I plan to separate these four into a different container and wait for the rest of the eggs to hatch. I don't think I'll be waiting long, cause.......
See how dark that egg is? That means it's almost ready to hatch. A couple of the eggs look like this now, so they will probably hatch some time this evening!
(You can click on any pictures in this post to enlarge them.)
Random notes:
I have since read that for the first few days, you don't actually need air holes in the container. Can anyone confirm this?
I've also seen pictures where people have taken thumbtacks (or other objects that make a very
tiny hole) and poked airholes in the container with that. Are holes
that tiny sufficient to get the caterpillars enough air? You'd need a
lot of holes, but then you probably wouldn't need the stocking or other
barrier.
Any questions or advice for me? Please leave a comment and let me know!
I had a bunch of fun surprises during Pollinator Week this year, but I've been so busy I haven't been able to post about them. But now that's going to change!
First of all, an update on the plates- we have 366 applications collected and need 84 before the end of the year. Yay! That's about 14 applications a month needed by the end of December. So if you know someone in VA who loves pollinators, please tell them about this initiative to get them represented in the wonderful world of wildlife license plates!
Ok, back to the Pollinator Week excitement!
I have a few different kinds of milkweed in my yard: Common milkweed, swamp milkweed, and butterfly weed. Occasionally at random times during the day, I grab my camera and do a lap around my yard to see what I see. The first plants I check are the milkweeds, because they're the "water cooler" for insects in our garden. Everyone stops by to hang out for a little while.
On this particular day, I noticed a wasp crawling around on the common milkweed. I moved in closer to get a better look at it.
.
Wow... looks intimidating!
And check out the little bee friend up at the top of the photo!
But then the wasp paused for a rest, and something about it seemed.... off.
"Ho, ho, ho... who's this? How's it goin'?"
That's the first thing I say to you.....
Those look a lot like waspy wings. And the rear end looks waspy as well. But the thick thorax, the fuzzy legs..... Hmmm....
I went around to the other side of the plant to get a look at his face.
The face sealed the deal for me that this wasn't a wasp, but WAS a lepidopteran (moths and butterflies). Do you see the coiled up proboscis at the bottom of the face? That was the clincher.
I've seen lots of pictures in my insect field guides of moths mimicking wasps, but haven't ever noticed one in person- probably because for a long time I never thought to look twice.
One of the other neat things I had learned earlier during Pollinator Week was that wasps aren't all evil or aggressive, and in fact, many of them are friendly and nice- as long as they're nectaring and you're not disturbing their nest, of course. Learning that for myself, from experience, was what made me take a second look at this critter at all- which I would normally have dismissed as a wasp and not wanted to venture too closely, so I'm glad I stopped to check it out.
Knowing it's a moth and not a wasp is cool and all, but I did a little bit of research and found out that it's a Squash (Vine) Borer Moth, or, the adult form of the worm or caterpillar with the same name. I probably won't be raising any of these in my butterfly rearing cage, since it seems like I'd need an entire squash plant in there for them! But next time you think you're seeing a wasp... you might actually be looking at a very convincing moth in disguise ;)
I had a bunch of fun surprises during Pollinator Week this year, but I've been so busy I haven't been able to post about them. But now that's going to change!
First of all, an update on the plates- we have 366 applications collected and need 84 before the end of the year. Yay! That's about 14 applications a month needed by the end of December. So if you know someone in VA who loves pollinators, please tell them about this initiative to get them represented in the wonderful world of wildlife license plates!
Ok, back to the Pollinator Week excitement!
I have a few different kinds of milkweed in my yard: Common milkweed, swamp milkweed, and butterfly weed. Occasionally at random times during the day, I grab my camera and do a lap around my yard to see what I see. The first plants I check are the milkweeds, because they're the "water cooler" for insects in our garden. Everyone stops by to hang out for a little while.
On this particular day, I noticed a wasp crawling around on the common milkweed. I moved in closer to get a better look at it.
.
Wow... looks intimidating!
And check out the little bee friend up at the top of the photo!
But then the wasp paused for a rest, and something about it seemed.... off.
"Ho, ho, ho... who's this? How's it goin'?"
That's the first thing I say to you.....
Those look a lot like waspy wings. And the rear end looks waspy as well. But the thick thorax, the fuzzy legs..... Hmmm....
I went around to the other side of the plant to get a look at his face.
The face sealed the deal for me that this wasn't a wasp, but WAS a lepidopteran (moths and butterflies). Do you see the coiled up proboscis at the bottom of the face? That was the clincher.
I've seen lots of pictures in my insect field guides of moths mimicking wasps, but haven't ever noticed one in person- probably because for a long time I never thought to look twice.
One of the other neat things I had learned earlier during Pollinator Week was that wasps aren't all evil or aggressive, and in fact, many of them are friendly and nice- as long as they're nectaring and you're not disturbing their nest, of course. Learning that for myself, from experience, was what made me take a second look at this critter at all- which I would normally have dismissed as a wasp and not wanted to venture too closely, so I'm glad I stopped to check it out.
Knowing it's a moth and not a wasp is cool and all, but I did a little bit of research and found out that it's a Squash (Vine) Borer Moth, or, the adult form of the worm or caterpillar with the same name. I probably won't be raising any of these in my butterfly rearing cage, since it seems like I'd need an entire squash plant in there for them! But next time you think you're seeing a wasp... you might actually be looking at a very convincing moth in disguise ;)
