Action and Adventure in August #9: The Monarchs


I've never raised monarchs before, but everyone's doing it at school, so why not?  Let me tell you something about monarch caterpillars.  They eat constantly.  I had to replace the milkweed leaves sometimes twice a day. They also poop out small round balls called FRASS, which must be removed from the habitat for health reasons.  After a couple of weeks of constant gorging on milkweed, they stop eating, climb to the top of their habitat, walk around for a day or so and when they've found their sweet spot, they hang into a J shape.  This happened towards the end of the week, so when I go back to Thirdland on Monday, I'm prepared to see my two buddies in chrysalis form. In two weeks, they'll emerge as butterflies.  Somehow I'll get them out of the habitat at that point and they'll begin their winged adventure, probably heading to Mexico.  Unless they die in the chrysalis, which happens sometimes.

Comments

mm said…
The Thirdlanders must love this!
KC said…
Fun! Life-long learning. I'm a fan.

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