In case anyone is interested, the name we’ve gone with is Cedric

June 24, 2020 4:30 PM

After a trip to the grocery store, Sam Darlaston became an inadvertent caterpillar breeder:

Hey @Tesco I was about to cook my favourite vegetable of all time (broccoli) and after unwrapping it, to my surprise, found caterpillars inside! They’re really nice and we’ve ended up keeping one as a pet and naming him. but just as a heads up, some of your broc has c-pillars😳🐛 Twitter | Threadreader
posted by Johnny Wallflower (14 comments total)

How I should like to become a chrysalis! And then fly away from this wormy planet
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:56 PM on June 24, 2020 [3 favorites]

This was lovely! I just yesterday released my first two monarch butterflies that I found as caterpillars on my milkweed, so this whole story feels very familiar EXCEPT of course I didn't nearly accidentally cook and eat my caterpillars.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:59 PM on June 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

We found some swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on some parsley from our back yard last week; we've been raising them up, and now they seems like they're JUUUUUST about to go to chrysalis...
posted by kaibutsu at 5:08 PM on June 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Those are damned cabbage moth worms! The cabbage moth is a hateful bug and anyone who thinks otherwise has never raised cabbage or broccolli or cauliflower (really terrible because they get up deep inside the head) or brussel sprouts or... And anyone who encourages their propagation should be sentenced to a lifetime diet of canned, not fresh, vegetables.
posted by CCBC at 5:21 PM on June 24, 2020 [29 favorites]

If I were buying non-organic broccoli, I would welcome a few live caterpillars as a sign I wasn't about to poison myself with insecticide residues.
posted by jamjam at 5:34 PM on June 24, 2020 [4 favorites]

I love this so much.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 6:50 PM on June 24, 2020

They are cabbage butterflies and therefore horrid, but the pics and narration is first rate.

I needed this.
posted by allthinky at 6:56 PM on June 24, 2020 [3 favorites]

This made me very happy. Not the least because I love Cabbage Whites and find them beyond hilarious when they fly around my yard - and I was delighted to meet a few caterpillars this spring. (horrid? hateful?! gasp. Although.. admittedly, I gave up gardening because creatures kept eating my produce. So I reap what I sow here.)
posted by VioletU at 7:05 PM on June 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

my cabbages!!!!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 7:55 PM on June 24, 2020 [18 favorites]

Better a louse in the cabbage than no meat at all.
-- German proverb
posted by bryon at 10:32 PM on June 24, 2020 [4 favorites]

fly away from this wormy planet

Butterfly supremacist.
posted by Segundus at 2:16 AM on June 25, 2020

Caterpillars don’t breed.
posted by snofoam at 11:44 AM on June 25, 2020

Sounds like we identified these as common cabbage moths and are already in the local environment, but if your produce has bugs possibly from another country and you haven't positively identified them, maybe don’t release them where they may cause problems as an invasive species.
posted by LEGO Damashii at 4:03 PM on June 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

I thought Captain Jack's Deadbug was organic? At least it's what I've always used (otherwise seriously I wouldn't have any brassica at all survive to harvest.) Agree with the invasive species comment, I was thinking the same thing...
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 5:17 PM on June 25, 2020