i woke up and was cleaning out the castle and getting fresh milkweed for my caterpillars.
i have my milkweed leaf stalks in jars of water to keep them fresh. then i saw that this poor little guy had fallen in the water - and he had drowned... so sad.
i remembered i had just read something about this...
put the caterpillar on a pile of salt.
i did that... and i was amazed when a few minutes later he started moving. then started walking around !
okay ! it worked !!
when a caterpillar falls in water, it's spiracles close over and the caterpillar goes into a state of torpor. the salt draws any water out of the spiracles and trachea.
fascinating.
