There are a lot places out there selling caterpillars for you and your young ones to rear and set free. Here’s a secret…you don’t need to buy caterpillars! Read on and learn how you can cecome the coolest parent on the block by raising your own caterpillars safely, easily, and cheaply!

What you’ll need:

• Wire mesh trashcan
• Piece of window screen that will cover the top of the trashcan with enough extra material to secure it
• Large rubber band or bungee cords to secure screen over can
• Glass or plastic 20oz bottle
• Water
• Empty butter container filled with soil
• A stick long enough to place in bottle so that 6-8 inches stick out the top

What you’ll do (and why):

• Find a caterpillar! Around your house, on a hiking trail, anywhere! It’s okay if you don’t know what kind of caterpillar it is. Caterpillars are almost always found on their host plant. This is the plant that they eat, because eating is just about all caterpillars do! Caterpillars are picky eaters, many times only eating one kind of plant. Many people fail at raising caterpillars because they try to feed them something other than their host plant. A caterpillar will die before trying a new food. I told you, they’re picky! You don’t have to know what the plant is that you find the caterpillar on, but you MUST know where to find more. You might want to flag the plant or tree to make it easy to find again.
• Clip the portion of the host plant with the caterpillar on it. Fill the bottle with water and put the end of the plant (the end without the caterpillar) down into the bottle. The bottle has a small enough mouth that the caterpillar should not fall in (they aren’t good swimmers).
  Place the bottle at the bottom of the mesh trash can. You now have a perfect caterpillar home. You just need to do a few more things if you want to see this guy (or girl) turn into a moth or butterfly.
• Place the stick in the bottle. Some caterpillars will want to make their chrysalis (moths make a cocoon, butterflies form a chrysalis) hanging off of a hard surface like a stick.
• Place the butter container filled with soil right next to the bottle on the bottom of the trash can. Some moth caterpillars like to pupate (turn into an adult) in soil, so it’s a good idea to have some there if you don’t know what kind of caterpillar you’ve found.
• Cover the trashcan with the window screen and secure it taught with a rubber band or bungee cord. There are several reasons for this. Caterpillars usually stay on their host plant until they are ready to pupate. If you want to watch them pupate, you better cover the top. Also, some caterpillars like to form their chrysalis hanging from the top. This is why a mesh trashcan is suggested. Other materials are often too slick for caterpillars to climb up. Finally, this will protect your caterpillars from predators.

Your butterfly emergence chamber is now complete!

A few more VERY IMPORTANT notes:

• Check the host plant food supply every day. Caterpillars eat a lot and have to keep eating if they are going to pupate. Always keep a fresh supply of food available.
• You should keep your butterfly cage in a sheltered area OUTSIDE. Temperature and day length help determine time of emergence for some moths and butterflies, so they must be exposed to these elements while pupating.
• What are all of those pellets at the bottom of your trashcan??? Caterpillars actually do one other thing besides eat! Their waste is called frass, and it must be dumped out of the can every few days.
• Check your cage every day when waiting for a butterfly to emerge. They will need to eat soon. When they emerge, they will need a few hours for their wings to dry. Many will hang from the top of the cage until they are ready to fly. Once they are ready to go, simply take the screen off the top and set your butterfly free!
• You and your kids will surely love this activity so much that you’ll want to do it over and over…great! Some caterpillars overwinter in their cocoon or chrysalis, so if you are collecting in the fall and a moth or butterfly does not emerge from pupation in a few weeks, it’s probably overwintering. If this is the case, be sure to use a plastic bottle to avoid water in glass bottles freezing and causing them to break (just learned this tidbit from personal experience last winter).
• If you have a cocoon in the soil, be sure to spritz it with water every week or so to keep it from drying out.

Benefits to the above method of caterpillar rearing:

• It’s cheap! You should spend no more than $10 on supplies.
• It’s easy!
• You reuse household items.
• You learn about the critters in your own environment.
• You are releasing butterflies and moths that are naturally found in your environment.
• You can raise lots of different kinds of caterpillars which is great for learning!

Helpful Caterpillar and Butterfly Resources:

Peterson First Guide to Caterpillars by Amy Bartlett Wright

Butterflies and Moths – A Golden Guide by Robert T. Mitchell and Herbert S. Zim

Earth Day is April 22nd, and no matter where you live in North Carolina, there is plenty going on! Are you looking for events and activities for you and your family? You need look no further than the Environmental Education Calendar hosted by the Office of Environmental Education. Simply type in your zip code and how far you are able to travel. It’s that easy! Even better…it’s not just for Earth Day! You can use the new calendar any day of the year to find fun, educational outdoor events and activities happening across North Carolina!

When you are out with your kids, chances are wild animals aren’t appearing for observation all too often. Besides the fact that us humans tend to be noisy, we’re also usually rushing from one thing to the next, often paying very little attention to the world around us. While I can’t promise you spontaneous wildlife appearances, I will say that if you’re willing to slow down and look around, you will likely from signs of animals all around you.

Tracks
While you might not see the animals themselve, they often leave their tracks behind. Snow-covered and muddy conditions are especially good for this. Tracks can help you and your kids identify what kind of critter has been around. Whether or not you can determine the track-maker, however, the tracks can tell you a lot about that animal. How was it moving? Were the tracks close together or far apart? The farther apart they are, the faster the animal was probably going. Here are a few fun facts that you can use to impress your kids while your out searching for animal tracks:

• People often follow the tracks of bounding animals, like squirrels or rabbits, the wrong way. If you have not looked closely at rabbit or squirrel tracks before, you will see a pair of small prints, the front feet, and a pair of larger prints, the back feet, clustered together. When an animal like this is bounding, its back feet actually swing ahead of its front feet.



• Many of the animal tracks you find near your house could be domestic animals, like dogs and cats. These are still great to inspect! In fact, they can give you plenty of practice for identifying wild animal tracks. If the ground is soft enough, you should be able to tell dog and cat tracks apart. Cats have retractable claws that are not exposed when walking or running. Dogs, on the other hand, cannot retract their claws, so they are visible as a dot or point in front of each toe pad print. This holds true for all dogs and cats, wild or domestic. (You know there is always an exception, though. There is a species in the cat family that cannot retract its claws. Hmmm…why would extended claws be helpful to one particular cat?)
• Deer often leave what is called a “direct register,” where their hind foot falls directly on top of the print left by their front foot. Other times they will leave a “double register,” when one print seems to almost shadow the second.
• Have you ever seen tracks that have a line running in between the left and right prints? You might see this with river otter or turtle tracks. Give up? It’s their tail dragging behind them!
• Birds often leave their tracks behind, especially on the beach. The shape of a bird’s footprint can often tell you about how the brid moves around. Most perching birds have 3 toes forward and 1 back. Birds that spend a lot of time swimming have webbed feet. Some woodpeckers, that have to grip tree trunks, have 2 toes forward and 2 toes back.

Scat
Excuse me? Scat…it’s a fancy word for animal poop. For some reason, all kids love to learn other names for poop. I know, it sounds gross, but scat is something that animals leave behind, and it can tell us what’s been in the neighborhood. No, you don’t have to touch it, but take a close look. Is there fur in it? Then it came from a carnivore or omnivore. Is it a small round ball that looks kind of like a cocoa puff? You have rabbits! You’ll get used to the idea soon.

Food Evidence
If you found any scat, you know that these animals must be doing something else…eating! Often times you can find what animals leave behind after they have found their food. Have you ever found pine cones with the outsides all chewed off? Squirrells tear cones apart to get to the seeds inside. Have you found empty nut shells? Look closely and you might be able to see tiny bite marks. Both rabbits and deer will browse, or eat the ends off of, twigs. You can actually tell the difference between trigs that jave been browsed by deer versus by rabbits. Rabbits have sharp upper and lower incisors (the front teeth that you would use to bit into an apple). They clip twigs at a clean, 45 degree angle. Deer do not have upper incisors, so when they browse, they end up mashing and tearing the end of the twig.

Nests
Winter is a great time to look for nests in deciduous trees, because they are easy to see with all of the leaves missing. I am always surprised to find how many bird nests there are in the trees around my house that had been hidden in the spring and summer. You can also see squirrel nests, which will look like big leafy masses 12 to 19 inches across.

Projects
Sometimes, especially when the weather has been dry and the ground is hard, it can be difficult to find animal tracks. You can set up a track box to help you. It’s simple…just put out some sand and smooth it flat with a wooden board. You can put something tasty in the middle of it if you want. Check it every few days to see if you’ve lured in any track-makers. Once you find a track, you can use Plaster of Paris (available at most hardware stores) to make a cast and preserve it forever!

Above are just some examples of the evidence of animal activity you will find around you if you take a little time and pay close attention. You might be surprised by what you find!

Birds chirping and chicks hatching are things associated with warmer weather, but birds plan ahead! It’s time to put up your bluebird box. Don’t have a bluebird box? Don’t know what a bluebird looks like? Read on to find out what you’re missing. Putting up a bluebird box around your house is a great way for you and your family to get outside.

Why put up a bluebird box? Bluebirds have historically nested in tree cavities that other birds leave behind. Through the mid-1900s, many of their natural nesting cavities disappeared as trees were cut down and wooden fenceposts removed. Bluebird boxes, sold at most hardware stores, garden centers and many other retail locations, provide a great place for bluebirds to live. Plus, it’s a great way for you and your kids to get a close-up look at bluebird eggs and nestlings!

But won’t we disturb them? We’ve all heard our grandmother say that we shouldn’t go near baby birds because the mother will smell us and abandon the nest. Grandma meant well, but she was wrong. Most birds don’t have a good sense of smell. While you shouldn’t handle the nestlings or bother the nest every five minutes, checking on the nest once a day won’t put the birds at risk.

What kind of box should I get? Get a box made specifically for bluebirds. It should be easy for you to open, but difficult for predators to get into. Many are built with one side that swivels open at the top and latches at the bottom. If you are very industrious, you can build your own bluebird box with your family. There are some building plans included at several of the links provided at the bottom of the page.

How do I check on the nest? When checking the box, approach it from the side and tap gently on the side wall. This way, if the mother is inside she will fly out. Nobody wants a bird in the eye when they open their bluebird box! Open the front and peer in to check the nest for eggs or nestlings. Some bluebird boxes include a nest cup which makes it easier to check on the nest since the entire cup can be removed.

Where should I put my bluebird box? Bluebirds eat mostly insects which they can find easily in open grassy areas. It’s best tp put up your bluebird box at the edge of a meadow or large lawn area with the opening facing this open area. Since male bluebirds are territorial, it is best not to put boxes within 100 yards of each other. Put the box at a height of about five feet where it’s easy for you to monitor the box.

When will birds move in? Bluebird couples generally start nest shopping in February in North Carolina, which is why it’s good to get your box now. Nests can be established anytime between February and June. Females usually lay two and sometimes three groups of eggs (each group is called a clutch) each breeding season. The first clutch is usually laid in early April. Each clutch is made up of 2 to 6 light blue eggs. It takes 13-15 days for the eggs to hatch, and only two more weeks before the birds can leave the nest.

What should I do with the box when bluebirds aren’t nesting? Leave it up! The box might be used as shelter by other birds or even flying squirrels. You might want to clean out the inside of the box with a wire brush after your bluebirds are done nesting and again in early February when they again look for a nesting site. Some scientists, however, think that old bluebird nests might actually help the nestlings of the following year.

Where can I learn more about bluebirds? There are several great resources out there for learning more about bluebirds and bluebird boxes. We have listed several below for you to check out. Good luck attracting bluebirds to your home. Have fun playing outside!

North Carolina Bluebird Society

Bluebirds in North Carolina from Carolina Country

Several articles from Hilton Pond Center:
Time to Hang Those Bluebird Boxes
Maintaining Bluebird Nest Boxes
More and More Bluebirds

The Birdhouse Network from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology