The situation with the monarch butterfly caterpillars started to get somewhat critical over the past few days here at Struan Farm, as they've munched their way through our huge swan plant.
Yesterday morning their numbers were starting to dwindle visibly, with only the seed pods were left as food, and those were disappearing rapidly. The pumpkin pieces I'd put on the ground weren't really getting any takers.
Since yesterday was my day to foodshop, I headed into Mitre 10 Mega in nearby Te Awamutu, where much to my relief I found small SWAN PLANTS. I bought twelve to try to get as many caterpillars as I can through to chrysalis. I'm also balancing this with my need to tell John what I've done, since he will be rolling his eyes over all this-- Karen is now buying food for caterpillars, can you imagine?
Returning home I immediately unloaded the plants, popped them next to the swan plant, and started picking caterpillars off and onto the new food. I also saw several chrysalis have formed--seven so far!
The butterfly chips will now fall where they may, but I think we have made a wee contribution to the monarch cause.
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