On the 25th of April we gave a very excited and slightly worried welcome to 36 caterpillars who had travelled through the post to be with us. They arrived in a broken plastic tub with a hole big enough for them to have escaped…luckily they must have been too sleepy to go wandering around or out of the box (we hope!) so we quickly put them into their individual cups with food and air holes, gave them names and started to watch them grow.
Here is a before and after picture to show just how much they have grown in 10 days:
![](https://glow-prod-nl.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/nl/public/cp3/uploads/sites/11011/2017/05/image-3-300x224.jpeg?X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEG4aCWV1LXdlc3QtMSJIMEYCIQCbZL6wy2KUSiSlGNg8FB0s7TzumMDMctMQZz7EdwIe5AIhALM2uLY3kaix2K%2B99z6ZsD1u6jl3e2kqsbU7PkHKWePDKsIFCJf%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEQBRoMMjczNTcwMTk1NDMzIgyFv1F590yhzEspAg8qlgXut0nYZc0jQGQU3tzxYGm9LEmJBKIDyFXrUw4QzWkRKIg%2FYH9lBcjEOujp%2BrXj62C2zY1EU3xztAZwm4FMOi3WSYg9KbxNQB4lne0xIgkKam0UfGQi0kCElJNLKBhnvOV4iYffVI4rU0GH8b5J%2FMBgJ%2FENsp%2FhELfYtAduDb7s%2BmsKIgmlxdO2AzvBc1yKqJ3S%2BJnvXVR75GR3zAW10ZgGbYiJNCd98ynSxcNF%2B%2B%2FQTTPh6mueqpYP6K6yng%2FlBZiP%2FDaqC3rOaP%2FZYR9nJZO1hI4vLgjE2JXBi4dgdiEHgc6fdH2rHTb8DBmu2vSfthbEyF2azNoCm4fhmuCLG7xXKQmbnPUNc22hvpcdCfi7tl57VhesPzSMyBhrViNqhvs%2Fc%2F3QzAu4pjGiXWEO%2B%2FMuAfSZ%2BRKaWnSW08zrcuap1XAlL4aYiaX%2BE%2FMdllvUZ0ceQPGX0J8S9FBftQF7%2FSSkiP1hlZciCVrL9hzRA3aA%2FpwJYNRu5tyCLDiJim%2BIbT%2FMzrLMW%2BI3IIeDGX8wMLhQB9IDp5FSE200cdIq9dCEjPLqE9QQKAAIO3EhP6qFI3am7jOeroqxNBaFLHggjqoapzRQtgj3bpA6K9tF6B3xxmQT5NRxXnMk3Su6PnNb59jcB2tPlAwtX%2Fo2VEsTnFDwH56tmbnAlVQsaKAfDnIvzmhDTWr9pqgOlDJ1lNZpBsY0CEXYRlXRKi1C2wkeIagXY0dvoE5FNABcmbkyhaO5Xgx%2F9o83TL9SkW6NFg%2BIMTLvV7vYI%2B1tdOIcl0DzNNrvSkznAyn1m4dliYKSCobLDQyCAQg%2FqWv%2Byhha%2FWyGt0cA75zbL2Xt47ATIe0pJKIktzx8VVNsO2FWIBCny%2FRTwlXFR%2FUVETCVoYi3BjqwAW71MQee4NMzO1%2B%2F46OXBlWWkO%2BxPcUxZUSWoYIdD8Dr1S34PLh%2B%2FOVYKn%2FRZ%2FeTfIuqcZuTleuEOoUuY4KWAabFbMnmMGAYJnGyohMdrqv3Noc4Hw1XH4iORIS6aM2zEAbGOdN00HOvmGVhWjaOIoehdd4%2BywfDSh1WN4tcF9sd25%2BUiU3h9v0EOTUt1JdsF2TKz7jw5HqVeN6%2B4Cz88tg8170TmferCbuVMLZTEXHn&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAT7MQN47U2FGBCG5P%2F20240911%2Feu-west-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240911T221941Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=900&X-Amz-Signature=456542f411541a5977e4b0e97481c9db2a0276b0867fa9215c7fbc57946d925c)
![](https://glow-prod-nl.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/nl/public/cp3/uploads/sites/11011/2017/05/image-300x224.jpeg?X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEG4aCWV1LXdlc3QtMSJIMEYCIQCbZL6wy2KUSiSlGNg8FB0s7TzumMDMctMQZz7EdwIe5AIhALM2uLY3kaix2K%2B99z6ZsD1u6jl3e2kqsbU7PkHKWePDKsIFCJf%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEQBRoMMjczNTcwMTk1NDMzIgyFv1F590yhzEspAg8qlgXut0nYZc0jQGQU3tzxYGm9LEmJBKIDyFXrUw4QzWkRKIg%2FYH9lBcjEOujp%2BrXj62C2zY1EU3xztAZwm4FMOi3WSYg9KbxNQB4lne0xIgkKam0UfGQi0kCElJNLKBhnvOV4iYffVI4rU0GH8b5J%2FMBgJ%2FENsp%2FhELfYtAduDb7s%2BmsKIgmlxdO2AzvBc1yKqJ3S%2BJnvXVR75GR3zAW10ZgGbYiJNCd98ynSxcNF%2B%2B%2FQTTPh6mueqpYP6K6yng%2FlBZiP%2FDaqC3rOaP%2FZYR9nJZO1hI4vLgjE2JXBi4dgdiEHgc6fdH2rHTb8DBmu2vSfthbEyF2azNoCm4fhmuCLG7xXKQmbnPUNc22hvpcdCfi7tl57VhesPzSMyBhrViNqhvs%2Fc%2F3QzAu4pjGiXWEO%2B%2FMuAfSZ%2BRKaWnSW08zrcuap1XAlL4aYiaX%2BE%2FMdllvUZ0ceQPGX0J8S9FBftQF7%2FSSkiP1hlZciCVrL9hzRA3aA%2FpwJYNRu5tyCLDiJim%2BIbT%2FMzrLMW%2BI3IIeDGX8wMLhQB9IDp5FSE200cdIq9dCEjPLqE9QQKAAIO3EhP6qFI3am7jOeroqxNBaFLHggjqoapzRQtgj3bpA6K9tF6B3xxmQT5NRxXnMk3Su6PnNb59jcB2tPlAwtX%2Fo2VEsTnFDwH56tmbnAlVQsaKAfDnIvzmhDTWr9pqgOlDJ1lNZpBsY0CEXYRlXRKi1C2wkeIagXY0dvoE5FNABcmbkyhaO5Xgx%2F9o83TL9SkW6NFg%2BIMTLvV7vYI%2B1tdOIcl0DzNNrvSkznAyn1m4dliYKSCobLDQyCAQg%2FqWv%2Byhha%2FWyGt0cA75zbL2Xt47ATIe0pJKIktzx8VVNsO2FWIBCny%2FRTwlXFR%2FUVETCVoYi3BjqwAW71MQee4NMzO1%2B%2F46OXBlWWkO%2BxPcUxZUSWoYIdD8Dr1S34PLh%2B%2FOVYKn%2FRZ%2FeTfIuqcZuTleuEOoUuY4KWAabFbMnmMGAYJnGyohMdrqv3Noc4Hw1XH4iORIS6aM2zEAbGOdN00HOvmGVhWjaOIoehdd4%2BywfDSh1WN4tcF9sd25%2BUiU3h9v0EOTUt1JdsF2TKz7jw5HqVeN6%2B4Cz88tg8170TmferCbuVMLZTEXHn&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAT7MQN47U2FGBCG5P%2F20240911%2Feu-west-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240911T221941Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=900&X-Amz-Signature=62eb082372cab92c8358428ec47c4b9afef139c6cddf050cbe1c8f9b8e7ef66d)
They are eating, spinning silk and growing. They will shed their exoskeleton four times and grow more than 10 times their original size!
Keep following the blog to find out what happens next 🙂