u/KatsArtsy

I have 10 dairy cows and I’m wondering how much they’ll actually eat in like a day. I have so many more carrots to get rid of too…

Edit: gotcha lol this is way too much food

Finding this one felt so special cause I had never held one before! I collect the shells and I pinned a dead one once but this one was alive and crawling on me with its cute lil face—I love these guys!!!

I believe this one is a swamp cicada found in SC

Katie never did pin a dead katydid before, so Katie did pin the dead katydid!

This pin has been an ordeal and I’m nearly at the finish line but I’m wondering if I can get it any more vibrant?
I put acetone on it but should I do a full dunk for an extended period of time?
This cicada was a gift and she said she can’t wait to see how it turns out so now I want it to be as pretty as possible! (It’s already my best pin so far)

This is the one that I was going to pin, but after 2 days found out he was alive so I gave him an orange, then that was apparently going to kill him too, but it’s been 4 days since the orange and he’s fine.
So I named him Winchester since he keeps evading death.

Holy crap I had it in a drying container because I wanted to pin it and I noticed it moved!!! So I’m giving it food.
Can it survive after a couple days without food plus a silica gel packet on top of it?? I feel so bad! I thought it was dead!
What else can I do??

What a beautiful dragonfly 💙 I’m so grateful he landed on me and let me take a picture.
Also what’s he doing in the last pic?

These oakworms have been still for a day or two in my tree. I’m certain they’re either yellow or orange striped oakworms. But I’ve never seen one with a white face and white spikes? Did I find a shiny?

I noticed caterpillar behavior recently- shredded up leaves, frass littering the ground-but I couldn’t find the culprits. I finally found them today but I didn’t expect SO MANY. Not even sure if this is all of them!

I know I know it’s dead but man look at that stinger. I didn’t realize just how big hornets are. It felt like it was staring at me like it would come back to life. Why are my first couple pins wasps and hornets? Who knows? Is it super fun?? Yes!!!!

I have a hornworm pupa that’s hardened under the dirt here, it’s all the way on the bottom of the container and I really want to move it to the enclosure for when it’s ready to come out. I want to be able to observe it better but I’m wondering if I have to bury it again or can I just put it on top the soil inside the enclosure?
Or would it even be better to just place the dirt container in there but I want it to have an easy time emerging.
I’m just so scared I’ll bother it too much but I reaaaally want to move it.

I know the white pin is crooked…buuuuuut not bad right? For my first one? It was really fun to do and I can’t wait to display once it’s dry!

How bad am I disturbing the process by lifting the container up like this? It’s on the bottom so very hard to monitor without lifting it (very carefully!).
I also think the soil is dry but it looks wetter around the caterpillar itself.
It hasn’t changed a ton since Thursday, but I know it can take up to a week to turn into a pupa.
Any advice is welcome. I’ve done lots of research since finding this one but if anyone has raised tobacco hornworms before I’d love their input.

I’ll leave it alone for a while cause I did just change its cage. This is a wild tobacco hornworm I picked up out of my mom’s garden. I’ve been told they want to burrow when it’s time to pupate but the guy at the pet store said that his wife’s didn’t burrow at all. Hers was one of the reptile food ones though so I dunno if that makes a difference.

What I believe I have is an afflicted dagger moth (or some kind of dagger). It made its cocoon out of the wood and I’d like to know what all I need to do to keep it safe and healthy in there. This is my first time taking care of a caterpillar going through pupation and I’m so excited and emotionally invested! I’ve done a lot of research but I figured I should come talk to people about it in case anyone is experienced with these kind specifically, or have any advice the internet isn’t telling me. I don’t exactly know the timeline now of how long it’ll be like this beyond “a couple weeks.” It entered the cocoon last night sometime between 3pm and 12am (I went to work and missed it)
Any advice is welcome! I know every species is going to have differences so I just want to make sure I get this right so it emerges healthy!