Saturday, May 8, 2010

Those Dreadful Catepillars

I don't know about your area, but our area is being overcome right now by those tree eating, wiggly, furry catepillars. They build ugly white, filmy tent houses and destroy my flowering bushes. I hate them.

My children, however, love them. They name them, pet them, and build fabulous houses for them out of boxes and sticks. They beg to bring them into the house at night, and they carry them around as if they were kittens. They want me to fall in love with their striped, furry bags, their tiny black legs, and their beady little eyes. Oh, ok, they are kinda cute, but I still hate the destruction they create.

I saw my neighbor cutting branches out of his beautiful maple tree last week. I shouted for him to be careful on the ladder, and he commented on how many caterpillars we seem to have this year. He was clearly trying to save his tree. I wish him luck, but I am not exactly sure how successful he will be this year.

So, on our weekly scrap day this past week, my great nieces and my youngest daughter were carrying these critters around in plastic boxes. Of course, like every great treasure, each one wanted the boxes of caterpillars that the other one was carrying. Two boxes of wiggly worms were not enough, evidently.

We broke up numerous squabbles between the kids, and I even told them if they didn't play nicely together with each other, I will stomp their little heads off (the bugs, not the children).

The final axe fell when Macy, the cutest two year old in my world, came in to complain about her cousin.

"Macy, what is wrong?" her momma asked.

"Bella took my cattapissers!" Macy cried.

Oh, we couldn't help but laugh. Yes, Macy, I agree, because my new name for these dreadful critters is now the DREADED CATTAPISSERS!

I hope they are not destroying your trees right now.

1 comment:

Debbie said...

We don't seem to have a problem with them here in Central IL. On the bright side though, just think of all the lovely butterflies you'll have later :-)