Today was a bug-filled day for us. This morning we went to a co-op on butterflies. Miss Wendy brought some milkweed plants with Monarch caterpillar eggs and caterpillars on them. She also brought some chrysalises. We were lucky enough to bring a plant with some eggs on it and two chrysalises home. The boys and I are excited about watching the eggs hatch and watching the butterflies emerge from their chyrsalises.
Once home, we discovered strange looking white bugs on our hibiscus plants. At first, I thought there was mold growing on the plants but soon saw that the mold moved. I looked the bugs up online and discovered that they were mealy bugs. What I thought was mold is a powdery wax they secrete to protect themselves as they suck on the plant's juices. You can learn more about mealy bugs here.
Near the front door, we also discovered an exoskeleton that a grasshopper had molted. Edited to add: It was several weeks before we saw the grasshopper himself. Check him out here.
This evening, I went out to water our tomato plants and noticed that one of the unripe, green tomatoes was missing its top. I quickly saw the culprit was a brown striped caterpillar who had been eating it. I looked that up as well and found out it was a tomato fruitworm moth caterpillar after much searching online. They are also known as corn earworms as they also like to eat corn. I am pretty sure that this caterpillar's relatives are the ones behind the demise of our corn plants. You can learn more about tomato fruitworms here.
It is amazing how many cool things you can learn while you are living your life.
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