Hunting for Inchworms

A "twig mimic" inchworm

For the past few weeks it has seemed like within minutes of venturing outdoors I am sure to hear the delighted scream of someone screeching, "Mommy! There's a WORM on your shoulder!" Terrific. They're these little green inchworms, and they seem to drop right out of trees, and they are everywhere.

Well, finally I decided to figure out just what they were, and lo and behold, they are inchworms. But what's even more incredible -- and which proves yet again just how little I know -- is that these little guys turn into moths.

Wow. I had no idea.

Inchworm Home Sweet Home

So of course we had to catch some and build a little habitat. It turns out that they're the larvae stage of the Geometer moth, geo-meter being Greek for earth-measurer, which refers to how the inchworms draw up their mid-sections to creep along the ground. Cute little fellows. Find them dropping down on silky threads from trees -- or on your shoulders.

Our habitat started out as a bona fide bug-catching glass jar with holes in the top, but we discovered that the squiggly little guys could squeeze right out the holes, and since I didn't relish the thought of finding them in the Cheerios, we recycled a plain old plastic cup with a lid and punched TINY holes in the top.
Success. And not just because they didn't escape but because I have now kept them alive for 48 hours. According to all the information I've found on the Internet (which is always correct), they eat leaves (verified -- oak leaves, preferably) and will enter the cocoon stage sometime in the near future and emerge as moths sometime in the not-so-near future. Like, November. In which case, our little critters are only going to be enjoying their new home for a few more days, because we have vacation plans coming up, and I refuse to call up neighbors and ask if they'll babysit our inchworms.

Inchworm of a geometer moth