So, someone at work who grows tomatoes thought it would be great if she brought me some
Tobacco Hornworms to raise into moths. The kids at the library would just love it. Unfortunately, the kids do love it, oh so much and in the meantime, I'm busting my ass trying to keep these damn things alive. I've already lost one to, get this, "black death" which is apparently like the bubonic plague to caterpillars. I have three left but they need fresh leaves everyday. Fresh tomato leaves. Where the hell does one get fresh tomato leaves in October?
Anyway, the get big and fat and then they burrow under the ground and pupate and come out as hawk moths. Some of you know them as hummingbird moths for the get nectar from flowers and tend to hover. But the trick is you have to watch them carefully and get them to dirt when they are ready to pupate or it's curtains for 'em. How do we know they are ready? I'm glad you asked. First, they stop eating. Second, they leave the host plant and seem restless. Third, their heart appears. Their little hearts are really nothing but an aorta and it runs up their backs. When they are ready to pupate, you can see the dark line running up their backs and pulsating. Ewwww.
So here it is, the weekend and who's going to keep an eye on the damn worms. Me. That's who. I took them home with me. (I told them they had won a weekend at a luxury hotel. Boy, were they surprised.) Co-workers scoffed at me saying they would be fine for the weekend if I left them at the library. Well, I realized on Saturday, one of them was not eating. Didn't eat all day. Just kind of sat there upside down on a branch, but I notices he wasn't holding on with all feet. By bedtime, I went to take one last look and he was only hanging on by two sets of feet so I picked him up and turned him over. His back was a dark pulsating line. Ewwww. So I transferred him to a jar with some dirt in it, added some leaves and went to bed.
I woke up this morning just in time to see his little caterpillar butt disappear under the soil. I'll be damned if the stupid little thing isn't pupating. Cool, right? Wrong. Now I have to keep him in my fridge for the winter, making sure to take him out for light occasionally and keeping the soil moist.
Did I mention, with the unpupating ones, I have to clean their poop up twice a day or it will make them sick? I hate caterpillars.