The first part of this story can be found at this link.
Caring for the caterpillar for a few days made us realize it needs to return to the wild, back to our porch Petunia plant. Although its netted habitat was supplied with fresh leaves, variety of flowers, and water on a piece of soaked paper towel, Green Guy’s activity level was low. A hypothesis is the chrysalis stage was about to occur, but maybe it needed to be in its natural habitat.
Kids were convinced that it would die from our constant interruptions to its habitat, not to mention me observing it like a hawk and taking too many pictures/ recordings. (Guilty I know) However, it was a brief and amazing observation experience: right before our eyes, we could see how it eats, breathes, responds to new food, poops, and admire its green jelly legs.
It would’ve been a memorable experience to witness Green Guy metamorphose into a butterfly but it was too risky. Better to let it go before it we disrupt its natural cycle.
Hours later I checked to see if Green Guy stuck around and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Green Guy had traveled from one side of the soil layer to the other. That top part of the plant above him was bare from deadheading and I could imagine a bird swoop in for a tiny snack: covered it up with leaves from another plant.
It’s cozy enough. I hope Green Guy calls this plant home.
14 responses to “Green Guy, caterpillar release”
Au revoir green guy!
Beautifully said…”au revoir!”
As Fancy Nancy says, “everything is fancier in French”!
Gotta agree with Fancy Nancy there!
You returned him to his habitat and he will live happily ever after in another form and you’ll watch a metamorphosis on the YouTube channel. 🙂
So sad to report: it’s not moving. I shouldn’t have moved it back to the pot. It could’ve been the stark contrast to its environment. I was feeling hopeful for the first 2 days and now it’s flopped over. ugh…still learning: trial and error.
It’s hard to judge – could be the smoke!
Maybe, highly likely!! 😜
I know you don’t have a cat but today on Twitter I saw a headline and a cat sitting besides a lot of plants that had overturned in their pots … the heading was “blaming yourself for your plants that die?” The deduction was “go ahead and blame the cat!”
I’ve noticed something unusual these days on our porch. Some plants have holes in the soil and a small pot was turned over. I think I know the culprits. Squirrels are out and about these days and I can hear them jumping from trees.
We get so startled by these sounds and abrupt movements.
I’ll be they are hiding their nuts or items they forage in there. Right now we have black walnuts in season and I see lots of squirrels holding them in their mouths. They have a rind around them, which makes it look like a lime. They shred the rind and munch on the walnut inside.
Squirrels have been jumping from tree to tree in our park; sometimes I wonder if they’ll fall off a branch. But no squirrel injuries to report as of now.
I hear munching, cracking sounds, and you see an upright squirrel chipping away at a nut. I’m not sure how big the squirrels are in your town, but the ones here are pretty small.
We have the gray and black squirrels and they are fairly small, even petite looking next to the bigger brown Fox squirrels (so named as their tail resembles a fox’s tail). The red squirrels with the tufted ears are cute but we don’t have any of those here unfortunately. I like when it is quiet in the Park, especially in the Winter, when I can hear the peanut shells being cracked open and peanuts munched on. I see them take flying leaps sometimes and worry they’ll fall and hold my breath – they are like little acrobats.
I think the squirrels by our house are the acrobatic ones! They hop from branch to branch and zip zap all over the tree trunks. I haven’t seen this many in all the years we’ve lived here. Cracked shells litter the grassy area. They’re pretty cute when munching on the nuts!