How to nurture butterflies in your balcony

The very first time I saw a caterpillar  on my lemon plant, I freaked out. It looked too big and scary. Unaware about what to do next, I just cut the branch out and threw the caterpillar  away. (I am sorry)

A few weeks later, I saw another caterpillar ; I was worried that some pests had attacked my plant. I immediately went to the kitchen and started making my organic pesticide. The caterpillar s disappeared for a few months, only to make a comeback. This time I took to twitter, in a desperate need to connect with other Urban Gardeners who may have faced similar problem. That’s when someone pointed out that this was merely a harmless caterpillar  who someday would turn into a beautiful butterfly.

Now I decided to let the nature take its course, I let the caterpillar  be. I watched the caterpillar grow, he was joyfully eating away my lemon plant and growing a little each day. It became like a morning routine for me to wake up and go find on which part of the plant he was stationed at. Soon, I noticed other smaller caterpillar s on the plant – they literally were tiny and looked like bird shit.

I watched them grow, eat my plant and get stronger. Soon they started getting into their cocoon. This is where the problem began, a couple of days after they get into the cocoon the cocoon used to fall of the plant. After inspecting I realised that it’s dead.

I tried to figure what they problem is and then it dawned on me that my birds were a problem. You see, I also have a bird feeder. Sparrows, parrots and squirrels are my regular guests. I am assuming that they tried to eat the cocoon (this is my wild guess, I don’t have another explanation) and it the process, damaged it.

So I took it upon myself to make a DIY home for these caterpillars so that once they turn into a butterfly, I can release them into the world.

Here’s what I did,

1. Decided to re-purpose an old 5 liter Bisleri plastic bottle
2. Made a lot of holes across the bottle for ventilation. I even made holes on the cap
3. Added two wooden sticks in the bottle. Ideally you should add branches, but I didn’t have any.
4. Made a big flap on one side of the bottle, and sealed it with a cello tape. I will open this flap for the butterfly to fly away
5. Cut the branch on which the caterpillar were and moved them into the bottle
6. Added a few lemon or curry leaves to the bottle every day. I used the cap to add this
7. And that was it! Once the butterfly emerged, I opened the flap and let it fly away

I tweeted the entire process, you can watch it here

A few caterpillars found home in my lemon tree. I let them be there but soon noticed that they used to die anyway.
This time, I decided to nurture them. So I made a home for them in a plastic bottle with enough ventilation, gave them leaves to eat everyday. pic.twitter.com/cZbrQZJEBy

— Pooja Mahimkar (@PoojaMahimkar) March 8, 2019

One of the three turned into a beautiful butterfly today.

Gathered some neighbouring kids and set the butterfly today. Saturday morning was good 😇 pic.twitter.com/tSGbFWsRxl

— Pooja Mahimkar (@PoojaMahimkar) March 16, 2019

And there's the second one!
Tried capturing it in slo-mo, looks fabulous no? pic.twitter.com/30jEkQblLK

— Pooja Mahimkar (@PoojaMahimkar) March 17, 2019

The third one is also in the cocoon now pic.twitter.com/MwZ73RXL03

— Pooja Mahimkar (@PoojaMahimkar) March 9, 2019