When I was young, I loved playing in the middle of the afternoon catching bugs with friends under the sun's heat, dragonflies, and butterflies. Trying to catch the dragonfly only by hand, the small and large type green dragonfly, they made an improved net using some plastic and placed a wooden stick as a handle. Also, butterflies, but at young ages, they were forbidden to catch a butterfly. They said they were the souls of a deceased family member, and a child like me believed that thing. But when I was in college, we needed to catch different insects as part of the Crop protection subject and introduction to entomology.
Insects play a great role in your ecosystem; they are one of the balancers. They were pollinators and predators of other insects and pests. But agreed that most of the time, they cause this problem, sometimes mild and often severe.
The butterfly was beautiful, but the larvae going to the pupal stage somehow became a pest. That is what happened to me when I saw my lemons suddenly have curly leaves and damaged prematurely shoots. as I looked around, I saw signs of a voracious creature living a free life on my citrus. Dung secreted by some larva; This was an excellent fertilizer but somehow not beneficial if they will kill down the mother plant.
Lemon is expensive here in the Philippines, and one fruit causes a lot of because we were not that productive in planting and harvesting; importation saves us more time. As the prices of lemons in the market are somehow extravagant for ordinary people like me, I just planted mine. So anytime I need it, I have to get it from my backyard.
Another side that I enjoyed in lemon is the aroma of the leaf. As I am not in the mood, sometimes I go to the garden to pick some leaves and smell the citrus smell. It gives me some relaxation, so it was problematic on my side that there was a buildup colony of larvae in my lemon tree, I also grew different citrus, but they also much favored in lemon.
Prepare your culture box
This was made with disposable plastic in the kitchen, and I just brought some holes at the top of the bottle to give some air flow to the insects. This will secure your insects from other bugs and ants and prevent them from going out when they become matured winged insects.
Prepare your specimen.
Look for candidate specimens; you do not have to distract their cycle. Careful not to touch the larvae to avoid unnecessary contact, I used tweezers to hold them. If you make it your school project, look for healthy and much bigger specimens to have more healthy butterflies soon.
Place your specimen in the culture box.
This way, you could secure them while waiting for their metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is the change from pupa to mature winged insects. They need to feed a lot as they will be hibernating for a few days. Generally, in the insect's life cycle, they go to an egg, hatch and become a pupa.
Feed your specimen.
It would be best if you also fed your specimens from what plant you get your sample; it also must be the leaf you will introduce to graze them. They could easily be distracted when introduced to something they didn't like.
From the moment they hatched, lemon leaves were their feast until the last day before they would sleep in a cocoon; it must be lemon as always, not just lemon, but most of the citrus family was the breeding and feeding ground of butterfly.
Wait and observe.
In observation, you will notice that they will be ready for hibernation when their green color changes to brown, which means they are preparing to harden out and wait until the day they become mature.
Why are we using this distraction technique?
Sometimes when you see some larvae for the first time, you won't know if they were a butterfly or a month. It's hard to distinguish them by just looking as if they were worms, so we do is to get a sample and observe them until they get matured.
Also, it is an excellent way for you to learn my hands as you will see how they behave within your eye.
This becomes a distraction, for they will be forced to me hibernate when they have no resources left. But as you keep them in your garden, they will also cause some problems, such as die-back in your citrus and losing nutrients for damaging and foraging the leaf and anything.
So I collect them, place them under the culture and box, and let them sit for a while, for I also love butterflies and know their benefits. I free them from pollinating my plants. Also, soon when times and budget permit, I wanted to create a mini butterfly sanctuary in my home; I could have some experience cultivating them soon enough.
ALL PHOTOS BELONG TO @eunoia101
 | Hi, eunoia101 is a Farmer, Registered Agriculturist, Agronomist, Farm Technician, Mushroom Cultivator, Entrepreneur, and soon Researcher. Suppose your problems or queries are in any of the fields, don't feel hesitant to comment. We will try to resolve that. Upvote and reblog are highly appreciated. |
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