Only the determined : Results from pet lacewing project

Here he is, Trevor the lacewing larvae last August. I found him on a bush in the back garden and decided to keep him as a pet. For a start I didn't know he was a lacewing but with jaws like it really couldn't be much else.

My first conundrum was how to feed him. I had never kept a predator before. I would need to keep a whole herd of prey animals as well as him just to see him through. So I went out every morning and picked the most aphid coated leaf from our sweet-peas that I could find and then put it in the jam jar with him. His appetite was unbelievable. The only two words that adequately describes it is that he went on the rampage, engorging himself in a blood drunk feeding frenzy. He single handedly nearly ate every aphid in my garden! His hunting stile was simple. He would walk along until he found an aphid, grab it in his massive jaws, wrench it off the leaf and whilst holding it aloft suck it dry. The white aphid husks fell like snow as Trevor grew fatter. One day Trevor looked a bit anxious. His speed increased and he stopped eating. Within a couple of hours he had spun a perfect ball of silk under one of the leaves and then began an enormously long pupation.

Five months later, Trevor emerged. He cut through the silk cocoon with his larval jaws and emerged still within the ill fitting skin of his old self. After a stroll of about 5cm his skin split down the back and out climbed new Trevor the bright green lacewing. He exchanged the massive jaws of his old skin for a pair of gleaming translucent wings. Then he excreted once before keeling over dead. Bugger.