One of my fond memories from childhood was collecting caterpillars from the parsley plants, putting them in a “bug zoo,” and watching them form chrysalises and then emerge as butterflies.
I’ve been trying to share this with my daughter but with no success. We’ve tried tomato hornworms, cabbage loopers, silkworms, and orange dogs, but they all just die. I remember a 100% success rate as a kid, probably exaggerated in memory, but nothing like this slaughter.
We’ve put them in jars with plenty of aeration, and made sure to keep a supply of leaves from the plants they eat. But so far nothing but dead caterpillars, which makes my 6-year old cry and think we’re bad people.
In desperation I ordered some caterpillars and bug zoo–“five caterpillars, guaranteed to get at least three chrysalises.” So far so good–four chrysalises, fingers crossed on the butterflies to come.
My question is, what am I doing wrong? The purchased caterpillars came in a plastic container, and the bottom is filled with some kind of “caterpillar food.” I notice that they are attaching to the lid of the jar they came in to form the chrysalises (chrysales?). In my home attempts, I put the caterpillars in a glass or plastic jar with fabric screen material across the top for air. Is it as simple as not giving the caterpillars a horizontal surface to attach to? Or something else?
Not sure where you’re living, but as a kid in the Midwest, I had great success with monarch caterpillars and milkweed stems. We used huge jars with a stick so they could get to the top, and holes punched in the metal lid; they would hang off the bottom of the lid somewhere.
I don’t think it’s pesticides. I am very sparing in my use of them, and primarily I use neem oil. Now, neem oil DOES actually keep the caterpillars down, but let me explain.
The hornworms used to appear in the days before I used neem on my tomatoes. Haven’t had them in a couple years, but when I did, they were on non-treated plants, and I fed them (in the jar) non-treated leaves.
The silkworms came from my daughter’s preschool, as did the leaves. I guess they could have been treated somehow.
The orange dog and the looper showed up this year after I was away for a month and hadn’t been spraying. They were alive and thriving on the plants, and in addition to not spraying before I moved them to the jars, I washed the leaves I gave them to eat.
So I don’t THINK it was pesticides; though maybe they were just taking a long time to die.
I had much success in this as a kid, especially with various swallowtails and tomato hornworms. I vaguely remember that some of them dried out, and raising the humidity in the jar was an easy fix.
The kids may also enjoy a praying mantis egg case, if you can find one. But do not allow them to hatch indoors; I remember my mother vacuuming the little buggers from the drapes.
Where are you, Panache? I’m in southern California. I suppose humidity could be it, but it’s not like it’s any moister outside on my plants than inside.