Day 5 - Feeding the Carnivorous Insects

    Since not much of the faculty was in today, Celeste had me do a butterfly release while she fed the carnivorous insects with crickets. One of the butterflies that had hatched was Protographium epidaus, AKA the Mexican Kite Swallowtail, and it's probably one of my favourites! There were also a lot of Orange-Kite Swallowtails which are fast fliers (and very hard to catch). 

    After the release, Celeste showed me how to feed the carnivorous insects that weren't on display. The crickets were kept in a large box full of egg cartons. They can't jump very high, so all I had to do to collect them was take one of the egg cartons and tap it over a container. Each insect gets about 2-4 crickets, except for some smaller insects which eat fruit flies. For the larger insects, this included tarantulas, centipedes, and scorpions. It was the most invigorating thing to watch them eat! It all happens so fast, and it also gave me a chance to finally see the centipedes. Later on I worked on the herbivorous insects (cockroaches and grubs) and also got to transfer newly hatched stick bug babies into the cage that held a bunch of other stick bug babies. They are so cute, but so fast. Goodness gracious.

    The final thing I did was change out all the food in the butterfly garden. First the fruit in the suet cages and on the plates, and then restocking the nectar in the hangers and torches. I also sprayed nectar onto the hanging balls (clown noses and wire) and hanging bananas (bananas with holes surrounded in wire). The final thing to do was empty out the 'Deceased Butterflies' bin into the box in the freezer for later sorting. 

    I forget to take pictures most of the time, but next week I'm planning to create a video about what the Entomology sector does each week. 

Facts I learned: 

• The butterfly garden is very busy on Fridays