Butterfly watch

Last Friday, the 11th, Ladybug went outside to pick tomatoes. As she picked one she felt something brush against her finger and figured it was a spider or a bug. She looked under the tomato and found a monarch caterpillar attached to the tomato. She carefully carried it inside to show me. I didn't believe her at first - I figured it was a tomato worm! But, after looking it up on the internet, I found out that she was correct!

The caterpillar was already hanging in the j shape, so we wondered if we would have to opportunity to watch it transform into a butterfly. But, we had to figure out how to take care of it since it was attached to the tomato! First we decided to tie a string to the stem of the tomato and tied that to the top of one of Ladybug's large bug containers. Then I worried that the tomato might rot off the stem and crush the butterfly. We found a piece of material, cut a hole and fashioned a "net" for the tomato to rest on. We then carefully threaded the caterpillar through the hole and tied the material to the top of the bug container.

Then... I read online that when raising monarch caterpillars, once they are in the j shape you are not to touch them or move them. Great.

I had to work that night. Brian took the girls downstairs to work on cleaning the basement. They were only down there for about an hour, came up and found the caterpillar was in it's chrysalis!

It's looking like it will emerge in the morning. I've been taking pictures at each stage that I will post when we finally have our butterfly. This has been so neat to watch!