Caterpillar Rescue Squad

Anyone who reads my blog--thank you, all dozen of you!--knows I have been obsessed with monarch butterflies and their caterpillars. Remember this?

I checked on my milkweed plant yesterday afternoon and discovered that it was COMPLETELY denuded--not one leaf there (see it in the middle up there?). At first I thought, oh no, has it died from lack of water? And then I saw the big fatty up there, clinging on to a bare stalk. Hmm, I thought--that's still weird, that one caterpillar would strip a plant in two days. And then: caterpillar on the wall. Caterpillar on the bag of soil. Caterpillar walking down the walkway. Smashed (boo!) caterpillar on the sidewalk (one of our workmen must have accidentally trod on it). In all, seven hungry hungry caterpillars. Ack!

I got in my car and SPED over to the local nursery to buy 2 more plants. I raced back and relocated all of them--from the wall, from the sidewalk, etc.--onto the new plants. Happy to report that they are all still on there today, munching (and pooping!) away.

Doing my bit for the monarchs!