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The cage of doom

18 Feb

Remember that caterpillar we caught eating one of my heirloom organic Australian butter beans?

The bean eating caterpillar

Yes, that one. I’m pretty sure it’s a looper caterpillar. Well, he/she has made a silky cocoon and is pupating.

Yeah, I know, it’s very hard to see

The caterpillar tried to hide the cocoon, so it’s quite hard to see. It’s the green thing inside the furry looking thing under the stick about mid photo on the right. I couldn’t open the cage to get a photo or the vegetable grasshopper probably would have escaped. As you can see, taking one through the plastic didn’t work out so well, but you get the idea.

I thought Hannah’s class might like to see a weird looking grasshopper and a cocoon, so I asked one of her teachers if they’d like me to bring it in. I don’t think most kids around here have seen such bugs up close before. They probably don’t have weird parents who stick bugs in cages when they try to eat their vegetables.

The teacher was very excited and said she’d love me to bring it in. It’s been raining the last few days, so on the way out this morning, we saw an obnoxious snail about to munch on my strawberry plants (they are in big pots at the front door), so I stuck him in the cage of doom with the grasshopper and caterpillar cocoon. At least there is a live snail in the cage now, rather than only empty shells. Never again will any of them taste freedom. But at least they have shelter and food. And won’t be eating my crops.

Speaking of my strawberries, they are making runners like mad, and have already infiltrated the garden bed next to their pot. I also have a native finger lime tree in a very deep pot at the front of my house. When I got it, it was so small that it looked ridiculous in it’s pot. I left a couple of inches between the soil and the top of the pot, and the tree didn’t go past the top of the pot. That was less than a year ago. And if anything is crazy enough to brave the long thorns and attempt to eat my finger lime tree, it too will go in the cage of doom.

In the top left is my peanut plant that is in the garden under our front window. Below are my strawberries, and to the right is my finger lime tree which has grown by leaps and bounds since I got it.

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