Saturday, September 25, 2010

Bye-bye pillbugs!

We have released the pillbugs back into the wild, so they can get ready to do whatever it is that pillbugs do in the wintertime. When I say "back" this is not precisely accurate for many of them, since we had several litters (clutches?) of babies born in captivity. Hopefully they will know what to do outside!




Kate found a worm, too, and wanted to keep that for a while.

We enjoyed having the pillbugs with us for a few months--spraying them with water a few times a day to keep them from drying out, and feeding them things like lettuce, carrot peelings, and melon rinds. It was impressive how quickly they could devour a leaf of lettuce.

We had a few pieces of rotting wood that the pillbugs tunneled into. We thought it was cool the way they would pack into the grooves, so I got some pictures before we let them go. Don't click if you are disturbed by creepy-crawly things up close!

2 comments:

Kathey said...

I think this whole pill bug thing is really cool. I'm glad you were able to figure out how to raise them successfully. What a wonderful part of nature for Kate to experience, and for your family to do together.

Amanda said...

She wants worms? What about vermicomposting?!