It's that time of the year again...caterpillar eggs!

I am so excited, it's time once again to share our home with visitors for the next few weeks. Probably not the kind of visitors you are thinking of, though. These are the super teeny tiny, can't I just hold you(?) fuzzy, always eating, rapidly growing, constantly changing and eventually leaving for good kind of visitors.
It's monarch caterpillar season!!! YAY!!!

It's been a few years since we have had the lucky experience of raising butterflies and I am so excited to once again share with my kids the awesomeness of nature. This time around, my two boys are old enough to follow along and understand what is going on. They were just teeny tiny themselves the last time we shared our abode with our winged friends so this is all new for them, and even funner for us as parents to see their excitement in learning.

There is definitely a science to finding, collecting, feeding, protecting and releasing these creatures, but it's all pretty simple, really. We were lucky enough to have a good friend who had been raising butterflies for a while and was gracious enough to show us the ropes.

Let's begin our journey......

Monarchs lay their eggs on Milkweed, which is just that, a weed. The key is knowing what it looks like and where to find it. I had no idea milkweed even existed until this whole adventure started.

We were super lucky and had a couple stalks of milkweed spring up in the flower bed in front our house. I had been watching for a while and as soon as I saw Monarchs flying around, I began my hunt for eggs.

I found 20 eggs in one day! Unbelievable! If you find eggs at all, there is usually just one and sometimes two on a plant. I was super lucky and was able to check my milkweed as soon as the butterflies had laid their eggs and before the spiders and insects could get to them. The eggs make a tasty snack for our multi-legged little friends, and most eggs don't survive.

I showed my boys what to look for, and the next day we saw Monarchs flying around again. My six year old found nine more eggs to add to our growing little soiree of pets.

Here is picture of an egg on the underside of one of the leaves.

A few days later, the eggs started hatching and we had all of these so tiny and so cute little caterpillars. They are so small at first that they are hard to spot. You can tell when it is getting close to hatching when the top of the egg turns black. After that, you just have to keep checking and if you are lucky, you can see one squirm its way out.

They don't stay little very long, though. They will eat their own weight in milkweed each day and they grow SO fast, it's amazing. Here is a picture of one day old caterpillars and six and eight day old caterpillars. HUGE difference, huh?

One day old.

Smaller one is six days old and larger two are eight days old.

This last picture is from today, I will keep posting as they keep growing and changing. SO FUN!!

To learn about the whole life cycle of a Monarch butterfly, read my post here.