Catching A Caterpillar..?

When the weather is nice we walk to Vada's speech therapy sessions. Yesterday was beautiful, so we walked. After therapy we took the long way home and two blocks from being home, there on the sidewalk I saw what looked like a caterpillar crossing the sidewalk. I grabbed a stick and put it in front of the caterpillar to see if it would crawl onto it, it did. So I carried it home. 

Kiliegh, my middle daughter, is turning ten this month and for her birthday we ordered Monarch caterpillars (which I am now extremely nervous about raising), so we have the habitat hanging on our deck awaiting their arrival. When Vada and I got home from our walk I placed the caterpillar that I had found from our walk along with some milkweed (just in case) two caps full of water (Apparently a mistake on my part.), one with some sugar added (I don't know why, but it seemed like a logical idea at the time.).

Later while Vada was taking a nap I got on line and tried to find my "caterpillar". The closest thing I found was a Tent caterpillar but I knew that this couldn't have been correct because my little guy wasn't furry like the Tent was. I did learn that with caterpillars, you don't need to give them water because they get their hydration from the leaves that they eat. Good to know. I also learned what our Monarch caterpillars would look like. I have seen them before but never put them together because up until now, I didn't need to. Interesting.

Today, I did some more searching and found out that I probably didn't catch a caterpillar but a worm. A Bag Worm to be more specific (scroll half way down on linked page to read a little about a bag worm) and one who happens to be living safely and ever so splendidly on sugar water, cherries, milkweed, nectar from freshly cut flowers and water. I have no idea if it's actually eating any of this stuff but it is still alive. Now i'm not for sure what to do!