Our Journal 'Caterpillars to Butterfly's'

TAKE ONE

We have been writing a journal everyday about what we see going on in the caterpillars cup. We sat up the table together looked and studied what was going on. Everything you are about to read was said by one of the girls and I just jotted down notes during our chats.

Day 1- My caterpillars arrived today, they are so small. They weren't moving at all, there is five of them. The bottom of the cup is covered in brown goo that looks like poo (quote Taylor) or sand (quote Masie). You cant take the lid off until their big change because of germs.

Day 2- They did not change much but they were moving a little. I saw the fat one eating (Masie) it was really cool. They have spun some silk on the side of the cup.

Day 3- They eat too much, there are loads of holes in their food and yucky pieces of poo. They are really big now and have changed a lot. They move fast now and are really big. We decided to name them: Kaylee, Browny, Lips, Fatty and daisy (no we do not know which one is which.

Day 4- There is silk everywhere, the smallest one is now almost the same size as the others. It looks like one of their heads have fallen off, they all look fine but there is a strange large hairy ball stuck in the silk. They sure do make a mess!! Taylor- I love Kaylee!!

Day 5- Not much has changed in their size, but they are a lot hairier. The silk on the cup looks like little scratches. There are now 3 'heads' floating around, really not sure whats going on there. They are all about the same size apart from one which is much smaller.

Day 6- The smallest one looks like a candy cane, there is poo everywhere. Not much has changed again today we are getting impatient and want them to do their big change.

Day 7- Wow, they are huge!! They are really pretty with the lovely patterns on their bodies.

Day 8- "Ewwww those two are pooing, look its coming out right now" said Masie showing Taylor. "Get that pooing caterpillar out of my face while I'm eating dinner" replied Taylor. ****Giggles from all**** Just about all the silk has gone now and we can clearly see in the cup, they must have eaten it. There is very little food left so we hope they change soon, the next stage is for them to hang upside down, so we are waiting for that. They each have a very bright white line going down their left and right sides.

Day 9- Well I hope I haven't killed them, you are not meant to open the cup the whole time they are caterpillars because of bacteria.... BUT.... Pablo knocked over the cup and some of their 'waste' got on the paper disk at the top (this is where they are meant to hang and do their change) it made the disk very weak and the caterpillars actually ate the disk. I should have called before but I just took off the lid (took a picture) and quickly added a piece of kitchen paper and re- sealed it. Then a few hours later they were all laying on the floor, so I called the help line and said what I had done and they assured me that they would be fine at this stage and I should have just left them as they can do the change on the floor if they have nowhere to hold onto. They did tell me to take off the paper towel though as they probably couldn't breathe (hence they are a lot more active now).

Day 10- "Wow they are so fat"!! Masie was shocked when she looked at them today, 3 of them are really fat they have condensed their bodies and laying on the floor. I hope this is them doing their change and not that they are dying. The other two are still active and long, hopefully they will catch up soon. They have eaten every bit of silk in the cup now, I'm thinking this is the reason they are on the floor (the silk helps them up and down the cup).

Day 11- 3 of them were dead this morning, so they weren't doing their big change they were dying, oops. I called the help line and said what happened and they asked the temperature of my house, I told them 68 and he said oh that's why they need to be at least 72 degrees at all times. He said warm the other two up and they might be OK, I did this and now they are dead too.

So I called them back and they are sending me some more.................... To be continued............