(STORY TIME!!!) Piggy 'Pillar!!

6 more pictures in notes above! :)

A couple of weeks ago, I shared some pictures of some caterpillar eggs I discovered, and then I found some beautiful Tiger moths which appear to be the ones who laid the eggs. I decided to bring a 2-inch-long section of eggs home with me, leaving behind almost all of the eggs just in case they didn't hatch indoors. I put them in a plastic container with hole-pricked plastic wrap and waited. And waited. I worried if I had done a bad thing, but hoped they would be ok.

A week later, at 3 in the morning, I woke up in a panic! "OH NO!! WHAT IF MY LITTLE BUDDIES HATCHED AND DIED!!!" I turned on the light in the kitchen and after being blinded for a minute, I thought that I could hear music playing from inside the container. "WHAT THE???" I asked myself, and I looked into the container...

(Play this in the background while you read! :D Kool & The Gang: Celebration)
"There's a party goin' on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times and your laughter too
We gonna celebrate your party with you"...

Why, the place was CRAWLING with little fuzzy wuzzies!! They were everywhere! On the floor, on the sides and the plastic wrap ceiling too! ...and they had NO FOOD.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

I pulled on some clothes (can't go running out in the meadow in my skivvies after all!) and ran outside and into our smaller meadow to the Milkweed patch there, plucked a few leaves, and zoomed back. I pinched the leaves into smaller pieces and placed them into the container, coaxed a few towards the munchies...and as I sat gasping for breath, I watched my tiny charges. Because I am blessed with extremely good close-up vision, I was able to watch these 1/16" caterpillars as they noticed the milkweed and then...nibble nibble nibble, munch munch munch...HOORAY!!!! They were EATING!!!!!

Once I could see that they were making their way to the tasty goodness, I dribbled a few droplets of water inside, covered them back up and went back to bed.

The next morning I got up and took a peek Every single caterpillar--about 50 I'd say--had found its way onto the leaves! There were munched holes and little lines of eating all over! I was overjoyed.

That was nearly two weeks ago. The caterpillars are eating like little piggies and I bring them new leaves every day. They are probably about 1/4" in size now and as you can see, their latest hairstyle is extremely fancy and enviable! :D

I will be moving them into a larger container tomorrow because they're outgrowing the tiny plastic box I had for them! The OINKERS! :D

This project has been such fun for me. I've never raised caterpillars before and it's something I've wanted to try for years. I would like to thank Dean Morley and all of you who encouraged me to try raising these little guys. It's so exciting to see them getting bigger every day! I'll be posting updates with new developments as they occur! :)