Friday, July 18, 2008

caterpillar graveyard

in a sad turn of events, it seems that more than half our caterpillars are dead. yes dead. at least i think they're dead. maybe they are just making cocoons very slowly, while laying stiffly on the ground. that's possible, no?

about a third of them have created coccoons and i was able to transfer these coccons to the netted butterfly "atrium" shown here. i can only hope that by some miracle of nature the rest of the caterpillars will make cocoons over the weekend. wouldn't that be swell? much more swell than me having to tell a bunch of kids that their caterpillars died and will never reach their butterfly destinies.

5 comments:

Johnice said...

You are not the only one having problems with your caterpillars. I ordered 30 and they usually send a couple of more just in case a couple die on the way. Well, I got 15 and by the time I got them it was too late to try and get the rest. 4 arrived dead and 3 followed the day after I put them in their seperate cups. Then about 4 days later all but 1 died. The one that lived is in the big net habitat now, but it hasen't turned into a butterfly yet and it's been a week and a half...so I'm assuming its dead too. I'm just trying to used this as a good time to teach about the circle of life I guess...that's about the only possitive thing that can come out of this situation at this point! But one of my neighboring librarians ordered 5, got 7, 2 were DOA, and another died a couple of days ago; but her remaining 4 are doing just peachy. And she knows that rubbing it in is making me pissy! Good luck with your remaining caterpillars!

Miss Dewey Decimal said...

wow. that is disappointing. glad to know i'm not the only one.

i got all 30 and i'd say about 10 of them have made it to cocoon stage. i poked one caterpillar and it was still alive. the others seem quite inactive aka dead. i'm very disappointed with this. i think i may write a letter.

Unknown said...

I would ask the company for replacements.

Johnice said...

I agree. I plan on writing a letter and hopefully it will result in them giving the the caterpillars I was supposed to have and maybe I can do another program.

*Bitch Cakes* said...

Yikes. Well, the kids will certainly be learning a lesson. It may not have been the one you intended, but a lesson nonetheless.

PS Have some tissues on hand, just in case...