Beautiful Moth

I was able to capture one last picture of the Hummingbird Moth with it's wings fully extended before it departed!  God has some truly amazing creatures!

Hatching

They hatched!  I am so overly excited that our caterpillars have turned into butterflies and moths!  It has been the most amazing thing to watch as the caterpillars eat, poop (the kids favorite part), and then cocoon.

I wasn’t really sure how this would all turn out.  I started with some bugs and dirt from my garden, found out the sand is not to their liking, and just kept feeding them and giving them a sprinkling of water…hoping for the best!  I think I really got into it more than the kids, although they have liked seeing the changes in the bugs.

Our first learning experience was that the horned tomato worms eat A LOT!  Then we learned that the little green caterpillars are not baby horned worms, they are something else that turns into a beautiful little yellow butterfly.  Their metamorphosis only took about 2 weeks from start to finish.  The horned worms took about a month to turn into a butterfly, from the time they buried themselves under the dirt to cocoon until their cocoon actually moved up above the dirt and they hatched.  Through that, we learned that there are bugs that cocoon underground!

The first horned worm just hatched today and it turns into a beautiful sphinx moth or a hummingbird moth.  They are named that because they are huge, roughly the size of a hummingbird! Their wings start out small and expand as they dry out, as you can see in the pics below.

This was a wonderful science lesson for the kids that took a month in the making, an old aquarium, and the rest was free!

Pests to Pets

My kids love to look for bugs in our yard.  I found that our broccoli and Boston ivy have a variety of tomato worms.  There are little baby ones that have just hatched and a big grand daddy one that has the girth of a penny and is 4 inches long.

About 4 years ago my son wanted to have an aquarium.  After going through a bunch of fish (pretty sure the money I spent on fish over a 2 year period would have paid for a papered Golden Retriever) we decided to put the aquarium up in the garage.  All the fish had died, except for a plecostomus, one of those algae eater fish that sucks the algae off of the side of the aquarium.  The fish store I had bought him at had gone out of business and I didn’t know what to do with him.  I stopped feeding him, thought he might just perish on his own…but no, after 2 months of no food he was still going strong, and was about 6 inches long.

After much deliberation (I couldn’t kill him) I put him in a zip loc baggie with water and placed the baggie in my purse.  I marched off to our local Wal-Mart Super Center and when I thought no one was looking, I emptied the baggie, fish and all, into their fish aquarium that was housing other plecostomus fish.  Of course the one I donated to them was about 6 times larger than the ones in their tank.

To this day, I am sure there was someone in the back watching security cameras and saying, “Hey, Joe, check out this crazy lady putting a fish IN the tank in the pet section.”

I digress, the reason for this post was to tell you that with an old aquarium some found caterpillars, a little sand and leaves to eat, you have FREE pets.  The best part is, they aren’t permanent.  Tomato worms will cocoon and turn into a beautiful Sphinx moth.  If they die before that, oh well, get some more, or put the aquarium away for later.

My kids are having a great time checking it throughout the day, collecting extra food, and showing their friends!  Great FREE summer fun!

Happy Anniversary to My Wonderful Husband

Happy 15 years to my wonderful husband!

Favorite Spots in Cayman

I now have two snorkeling kids!  Clearly the Sea Wasp sting I received didn't phase them a bit.

On our way down the path to Cemetary Reef; one of our favorite beach spots.  There is a cemetary on the left side of the fence that is right on the water.  We have come here every year to swim and snorkel.

Stung

June 25^th was a very exciting day in Cayman as I went out to snorkel with my daughter, son, and husband.  The current was really strong and was causing poor visibility with lots of sand being churned up from the current.  We like to snorkel around the dock since there are lots of fish there and it is very common for us to see sting rays, tarpon, parrot fish, lobster, and others.

My daughter had just learned to use a snorkel mask the day before and wanted to go again to see the fish.  I was just about to come in with her since the visibility and current were so strong when I felt a sting on my left wrist.

I quickly grabbed her and ran in to put vinegar on it.  Then I started into the most excruciating pain I have ever had.  I went down to the dive shop to find out what to do, they put a lovely grainy ointment on it (as seen in the picture of my arm) and told me it should be better soon.  After an hour of pain I headed back to the dive shop, where Stu told me that I most likely was stung by a Sea Wasp which is a jellyfish related to the Box Jellyfish of Australia (very deadly).  He was stung by one last year.

The only way I could bear the pain was to have a bag of ice on my arm at all times.  By evening the pain was still there and I went in to the ER in Cayman. I saw a nice British Dr. who said it was a sea wasp sting and he couldn’t believe I didn’t come in sooner.  The pain is horrible and most people are put in a hospital bed and hooked up to IV pain meds to manage their pain until it gets better.  He gave me that option, but I just wanted to find out how long it would last and get some pain meds.  He said by morning I would be much better.  I got an anti-inflammatory shot in my “bum” and then an ointment and pain pills.  The Dr. did say none of it would make that much difference; this is just one of those things you have to wait out.  He also told me I would most likely not sleep that night.

Don’t you hate when the Doc is right?  The pain got worse before it finally started to subside.  It was 15 hours of pain and I didn’t sleep until 3 am.

I am just very thankful that my daughter or son was not stung.  I guess only 4 or 5 people a year are stung here, I am lucky!

Below are a picture of my arm and of the beautiful sea creature; the Sea Wasp.

Baptism

Today my Dad baptized me in the ocean in Cayman!