Worms, Cocoons & Moths

OK, so I found several of these BIG, GREEN, NASTY worms munching through my tomato plants.  I am pretty sure they got more nourishment out of them than WE did! ;)

OK, so I didn't take this pic, I found it online...

but this is EXACTLY what our worm looked like.

It's scientific name is  Manduca sexta,

or better known as the

Tobacco Hornworm.

Most of them I totally squished...what?

They were DEVOURING my tomato plants!!!

But we decided to keep the largest one

and do our own science project.

I looked up online how to make a place for it,

these worms dig down and form a cocoon

underground.  So I used a bucket

lined with ripped up papertowels,

put some tomato plant stems w/leaves in there, 

and put saran wrap over the top.

I wrapped a kitchen towel around it

so the little guy was in the dark,

we fed him for a few days and then

he stopped climbing up the stems

to eat the leaves and a few days later he started getting

all still and brown on one end and eventually...VOILA!

OK, so I didn't take this either...I am kinda lame!

But our cocoon looked EXACTLY like this one!

I transferred it to a little Gladware container

after the cocoon was fully formed

so I could get the dirty bucket off of my

kitchen counter! 

It was in the cocoon for a couple of weeks,

until one day I was doing dishes

and I saw a little movement out of the corner of my eye-

and crawling around inside

the Gladware container was a MOTH!!!

7:14pm 8/4/10

I hollered for the kids and raced it outside.

Here it is just MINUTES out of the cocoon!

I DID take this pic...I swear! ;)

7:14pm

It climbed up the base of our big

umbrella stand until it got a grip and just sat there.

7:18pm

ALL the kids were AMAZED! :)

Izzy was so interested she couldn't be bothered

to look at the camera!

7:20pm

Just a few minutes later and the wings are already unfurling!

7:22pm

Pretty cool huh?

7:24pm

This is what happens when it tried to fly

before its wings were ready!

It ended up in the grass,

then made its way back up the umbrella stand!

7:32pm

Here it is, the wings are fully unfolded.

Pretty durn cool!  We left it outside and

I went out and took pics every few minutes!

Unfortunately I got caught up with bedtime for the

munchkins and missed it flying away!

So I am sorry if any of my neighbors

get Tobacco Hornworms next year...

I hope my kids enjoyment of seeing this one

change into a moth make up for any eggs it lays!!!

:)