After a year of keeping a horrid little shoe box replete with smatterings of eggs, tiny little caterpillars emerged a few  weeks ago.

We now had a whole box full of ‘very hungry caterpillars!’  You may well ask what this has to do with nappies. The answer is that these small little creatures reminded me of how important it is to be conscious of the chemicals we
have in our surroundings as they are highly poisonous and potentially fatal; well at least, they were for one unfortunate batch of worms.

When the caterpillars first started emerging, my 7 year old had decided that we were going to divide the new wrigglers into boxes… some eating mulberry leaves from the neighbours’ garden, some eating lettuce leaves from our own garden and others eating beetroot leaves bought from a local supermarket. Needless to say, the latter did not survive, simply because I had forgotten that most of the stuff (unless organic) we often thoughtlessly buy from our supermarkets are covered  with pesticides aimed specifically at killing just the type of little critter we were trying to feed it to! The point is – this  was a real wakeup for me, as it reiterated how easy it is to forget that much of our ‘modern world’ is full of deadly chemicals, nappies included!

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