The Butterfly Nursing Facility

Savanah received a butterfly pop up net habitat for Hanukkah from her aunt. With this butterfly home you are given a post card to send off to get caterpillars. They are sent in the mail. Since it is so cold here in winter we waited until spring to send off for her caterpillars. They arrived in April looking half dead to me. They were small about a centimeter long and weren't moving. However, within hours these critters were crawling all over the jar they were sent in. The jar comes with all the food they need until they form their cocoons.

Over 10 days these caterpillars grew to be about an inch and a half long. It was great to watch. Then they hung themselves to the top of the lid. The transformation from caterpillar to cocoon was amazing. About 7 days later they broke out of the cocoons as Painted Lady Butterflies. All 10 caterpillars successfully became beautiful butterflies. This was early May.

At this point we put them in their net and began feeding them orange slices. It was fun to watch them stick out their proboscis and eat. Savanah holds the butterflies often.

According to the instruction sheet you can let your butterflies go or keep them for the duration of their life, about 14 days. Savanah decided she wanted to keep them to see if they would lay eggs and continue the life cycle.

Well we watched them......ahem..... join together. Then Savanah told me, "I know how they mate. They attach themselves together." I just smiled and nodded. All in the name of science!

Unfortunately there were no eggs and not for the lack of trying on the butterflies part.

We went to Wisconsin Dells on June 10th. 8 of the butterflies were still with us at that time. One of the ten escaped into the wild. The other, well let's just say he went on to greener pastures. Not sure what to do with them so they came with us, about a 4 hour drive. We came home with 7 butterflies. On June 22nd we went back to Wisconsin Dells (long story). At that time we were traveling with 5 remaining butterflies. We came back with 4 butterflies.

Now fast forward to today. We still have 3 Butterflies left. They are invalids, can hardly fly, hardly have wings left. They are still eating only oranges which is all they have ever eaten. I don't think they are unhappy. Although, how would you know if a butterfly is unhappy? I suppose they would stop eating?

Anyways I am running a nursing home for butterflies. These buggers have lived over a month longer than they should have! Are oranges the secret of youth? The fountain of youth is pouring out orange juice?

I don't know but my new mantra is "An Orange a day keeps the Grim Reaper away!"

Joytobe