i now have 2 cocoons spun and i am starting to get an idea what they need for a good spinning spot. They need to have a branch pointed at the the light source (in this case my window) a strong branch with multiple leaves and most importantly it must be hanging over a large space with nothing around it. This was surprising to me as i assumed that they would want to stay hidden and cocoon in the leaves and bushes.
I was researching how to take care the cocoon and found out that i need to soak them twice a day to keep the humidity up. i am a bit behind but i have started to do this, i do this by misting them until the water stops soaking and starts to drip.
It is very weird because i do sometimes see out of the corner of my eye a cocoon twitch.
So this morning had a little drama as 2 catepillars run off and it took my half an hour to find them
One of the catepillars is determined to coccon against my anatomy book next to them on the insect shelf. it has run out of the box three times to the book and honestly i cant think of a reason why it cant use the book to spin, so from now on im just gonna let it do when it wants to
3rd catepillar has started to spin where it shouldnt, its funny because i was really worried because i had read that one of the most difficult things to do was to get them to start spinning. That they needed the perfect situation and i would almost need to coax them into it but in reality its been the problem getting them not in spin. Its clear that when they decide that its time, they will start regardless. Such as spinning on a book, a towel, the side of the box and even two charger leads.
one of the cocoons got knocked over and broken. Its hard when i loose any insects, i do understand that whenever i got one they arents going to live very long. But when something happens because of a mistake i made, particularly a careless one of knocking something over its hard not to feel so horribly guilty. I have put something into an enviroment it wasnt designed for, simply for my personal joy, but try my hardest to give them the best life possible.
so the last of the catepillars have cocooned. I feel suprisingly sad about this, i miss my huge squishy green blobs sitting the corner of my room chomping away. Iv been checking on them a couple of times a day for the last nearly 3 months.
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