Raising Polyphemus Caterpillars part 2-September growth

 August was a fairly interesting month for Charlie, Alpha, and Pee Wee. However, September was crazy! As they grew, I was completely captivated by their little sticky feet, their chompers, and the single minded devotion in devouring maple leaves! You could actually hear them munching as they ate. So, these next photos are parts of their growth you don't often find in many other blogs. 😀 

September 2

September 6 and 7. Aren't those 'teeth' incredible??? 

September 8. Such GREAT feet!!! As I mentioned, they are sticky and if you tug the critter, you can actually pull it apart because it doesn't like to let go of what it is holding. If you watch, you can see the little suction cups holding on and releasing as they inch their way along a branch or leaf. However, because those feet like to grab, it is difficult to get them to stretch out for a proper measurement. 

September 9. In the last image shows paired furry front feet. Those also are grabby, but not like the back ones. 

September 10 and 11.  As you can see, in the second image, Pee Wee is quite a bit smaller than the other two. I honestly can't remember which instar these guys are in. Before they shed, they are often very quiet and appear dead. I thought I had captured one shedding, but cannot find the picture. It was incredible watching it slowly break out and shrug off their old skin. Although, the first instars often do eat the eggshells, they older ones do not eat their sheds. (note: I think instar should not be pluralized, but no matter!!!) 

The last 3 are Jon's photos. He was able to capture how efficient these critters can chew! 

Raising Polyphemus Caterpillars In Eastern Oregon

An adult Polyhemus moth lives about 4 days. Their entire life cycle is approximately a year in length.  About 10 days as eggs, 5 to 6 weeks in several larvae stages, and the rest of that time is spent enclosed in their cocoon. They enclose (emerge) and live their few days looking for a mate. They don't eat in that time period. These moths are actually fairly common in the PNW. I was rather surprised to find out how common!!  This page is a fairly comprehensive in a nutshell story of their life cycle. Here in Eastern Oregon, there is a company out of Pendleton who raises their larvae on willow and even chokecherry, I used a tiny maple that almost didn't survive being harvested! The company is called Sagebrush Butterflies and this link should go to their FB page. They also have a website. 

On July 20, 2021, Jonathan brought home a very large moth that was dropping eggs. Which is what these night birds do. They exist to lay eggs and if the female doesn't mate before her death, she will lay infertile eggs. This lady was in pretty rough shape after being found on cement near a light where Jon works, but she still gave us several eggs. I was thankful we had a mesh enclosure for her, but the eggs were quickly moved into another spot less easy for the young to escape from.  Many many people have chronicled their own journey with these particular silk moths. You can find their stories on blogs and on YouTube. This is my saga with different images and a longer write up than some of the others.  I used my little point and shoot for most of the images. I'll add some of Jon's photos, too. This online journey is in 6 parts. Each section has a bit about how to raise them. Part 5, I think, has the most information on that! Hope you enjoy this fun saga! 

 The moth was identified as a female Polyphemus moth. The moth is named after a Cyclops in Greek mythology. Oregon has only two giant silk moths, I believe. They are Cecropia, and Polyphemus. The former has little moon like shapes on the wings and the Polyphemus has the eye spots. The eggs cannot be identified as fertile or infertile until they hatch or not. People have theories, but the eggs are best left to come to fruition on their own! 

 

On August 4 we had little ones. Minute starving voracious eating machines. Many of them didn't survive for numerous reasons. Eons ago, when the boys were little, Tony brought home a giant silk moth and almost all of the larvae died. The majority because I had no idea they'd drown in the jar the leafy branch was in and the last one because I'd taken the caterpillar outside to live on a tree and after the cocoon was formed, something ate it. A nature burrito? This time I was able to do a lot more research into the life cycle of this particular moth. I tried the first instars out on a few different kinds of leaves, they preferred the large maple ones. Thankfully, this was a volunteer sapling and it donated a lot of greens! The photo with circles was on August 11. 

August 22 and August 26, you can see how much larger they were getting. The 27th, they entered their second instar stage. You can see the little bunched up bit of the old skin or shed. 

August 29, it turned out I had 3 instars left. There had been 4, but I somehow lost one when changing out the worn out leaves. I was sad and thankful at the same time. These guys really could eat!!!! Charlie and Alpha are the larger ones and Pee Wee was the smallest. Pee Wee was actually quite a bit smaller and I'm not sure why. It was also behind by a day. Measuring them to check growth was a bit of a chore. I absolutely DETEST crawly things on me. I may have refused to touch these fascinating creatures, but I did feed and care for them. I used coins, toothpicks, rulers, and fingers to measure the three. The 29th was the coin in this series, and the last two are August 30 and 31. Am betting that last one is Pee Wee. 

What we don't see

Jon purchased a package of trail cams and most of these are images from those cameras. The first ones are during the snowy week of Easter. I left the date stamp on one, just to show which cam he purchased. The last photos shared were incredibly difficult to capture. Note: The cam does do pictures and video, he took the images out of the videos for the blog-although, the first ones were still shots. To see what they would look like! The images are smaller than a regular photo. Hopefully, they show up well online! 

These two below are favorites. The snow and the deer plodding through. Just wow. 

                             This night image below was a surprise. We know bear are up in the Blue not Mountains, but it isn't often they are seen. Jon moved a cam to an area where he might capture more of their movement. 

                                                            Spring deer are a bit scraggly!! 

These next three photos are from my camera. This is one determined squirrel. Mittens has been frustrated with the critter, mostly because it tends to ignore her!! We moved the feeder up the window several times to help inhibit its feeding. This weekend, however, Steve may have foiled the squirrel completely. This window has supports for the air conditioner and the squirrel used those to leap up onto the feeder. Now those supports are covered with metal cylinder sections. I witnessed a leap and a slide, so hopefully, this seed is now safe! 

Steve was given a squirrel toy for Easter. It is called a Squngee. Basically, a bungee with places to attach corn to on the ends. The cam kept capturing after the leap, Jon managed to tweak the settings and was able to capture some mild acrobatics. After a bit, Steve will move the cobs up and give the squirrel a better workout! YouTube has some videos posted with different creatures using this fun contraption. One has racoon visiting at night! 

 

Back in Time Hansell Side

 It has been almost a year since updating anything in blogger. I'm a bit annoyed because it still has annoying glictches that remain unchanged. At any rate, I wanted to go back in time. Easter 2022 week was spent doing many different things. One of them was going through and moving family slides to digital media. The Kodak Slide n Scan I purchased worked much better after Jon figured out a more efficient way to use it. Unfortunately, for some strange reason, the scanner only allows one to put the dates from 1980 to 2050 on images. There are dates on the slides, but I've not written them down in a notebook yet. Some of the photos have people who are also not written down yet! I will edit them in as I get them.  No matter, enjoy these first years of the Rod Hansell family as we go back in time. 

                          Pre Steve vacation with family from Dorothy's side on the Oregon Coast. 

Grandma Flossie and Steve 

                                                   

                                                                Dorothy and Steve

                                       

                                                          Cousin Kelly and Steve

                                                         Kenny, in front, Rick and Rod Hansell

                                                         Caledonian Day Parade '67?

                                                     Steve and his cousins, Kelly and Kyle? 

                                             Pendleton Round Up, 

                                                 Larry Coppock and fellow hunters.