Giant monarch caterpillar decoration — fun DIY project to welcome back the migrating monarch butterflies.
One day I came across a photo of a fence post decorated with an oversized caterpillar. I liked the idea and filed it away in the back of my mind for a possible future project. But when I finally decided to build something like it, the real challenge became figuring out what materials to use.
After tossing around a few possibilities, inspiration struck in an unexpected place—a flexible clothing dryer vent tube. It had just the right shape and flexibility to create the caterpillar's body. Once that piece of the puzzle fell into place, the rest of the design came together surprisingly quickly. Before long, I had an oversized caterpillar ready to wrap around our front porch pillars. Scroll down for project steps.
In reality... monarch caterpillars have two different types of appendages. The three pairs closest to the head are true legs that are jointed and used for walking, while the fleshy, stumpy "feet" farther back (false legs or prolegs) help the caterpillar grip leaves and stems as it moves and feeds. In this project, I took some creative liberties with the type of feet and the number of pairs for better presentation and mounting purposes.
If this project sparked your interest in monarchs, please visit the Raising Monarchs pages to learn more about their remarkable life cycle.
