DJ who discovered SEVEN caterpillars in his Tesco broccoli reveals they’ve become butterflies – after he created an ecosystem for them at home
- Sam Darlaston, 27, who lives in London, found caterpillars in his Tesco shopping
- Posting on Twitter, he shared photos of the creatures lurking on his broccoli
- Presenter documented his efforts at raising the caterpillars in a viral thread
A man who found seven caterpillars wriggling in his supermarket shop, has documented raising them to become butterflies in a viral thread.
Sam Darlaston, 27, who lives in London, contacted Tesco on Twitter, after discovering a number of caterpillars in his recent purchase of broccoli.
He explained to the supermarket that he’d decided to keep one as a pet, but they should be mindful that the creatures are on their shelves.
The Kiss FM and E4 presenter began documenting his efforts at raising the caterpillars, racking up over 30,000 re-tweets, as he revealed how they grew into what appears to be Pieris napi butterflies.
Scroll down for video
Sam Darlaston, 27, who lives in London, was stunned to discover caterpillars lurking in the broccoli he purchased from Tesco
Sam made a decision to keep the creatures as pets and researched how to make a suitable eco-system to raise them in his home
Sharing his first photo of the findings, Sam wrote: ‘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’
He then shared a video clip of the caterpillar squirming in a homemade eco-system, revealing that he’s named it Cedric.
Later that same day he told his almost 5,000 followers that he had purchased another broccoli from Tesco, which surprisingly had more caterpillars lurking inside.
A day later he posted: ‘WELL! What do you know! My housemate just went to cook his broccoli and BAMMMMMMM, he’s got green mates too. Open to name suggestions for our 7th caterpillar child.’
Sam documented the process of the caterpillars eating green leafy foods and days later cocooning
Sam posted a series of photos and videos showing the creatures Cedric, Broc, Ollie, Carlos, Croc, Janine, and Slim Eric eating broccoli within the eco-system and wriggling on leaves.
He revealed that some of the caterpillars began to cocoon around day three.
The 27-year-old joked that the experience had put his mother off eating broccoli with her roast dinner.
He shared a photograph of the caterpillars that have become butterflies, along with a video of himself freeing the insects into nature.
Tesco reached out to Sam offering him a £1.10 gift card to cover the cost of his broccoli.
The radio presenter who racked up thousands of re-tweets on his posts, was sent £1.10 from Tesco to cover the cost of his vegetables
The thread attracted a mixture of responses and over 50,000 likes.
One person wrote: ‘Oh my Lord, I’ve probably eaten those bugs. I rarely look closely at brocoli’
‘Good news about how kind you were to help them along, maybe also good news that the broccoli was not so doused with chemicals that it killed these ones,’ another said.
A third added: ‘We had exactly the same thing last week! Except I didn’t realise we had a visitor until the caterpillar was boiled and floating at the top of the pan. So no happy ending here (I think this has also put me off Tesco broccoli for life).’
A stream of responses were impressed by his efforts to raise the caterpillars, however others admitted they’re concerned that they may have eaten the creatures