3. How to feed your caterpillars?
The most difficult part in raising butterflies is to provide your caterpillars with fresh cuttings from the host plant appropriate for the species of caterpillar you are raising. Caterpillars are very picky eaters. Each species will only eat very specific plants. Therefore, in order to take care of a caterpillar, it is important to know what kind of caterpillar it is, and what that kind of food it eats. A good rule of thumb is that a caterpillar is most likely to eat the kind of plant you found it on. If you are in doubt about what kind of caterpillar you have found, it is best to let it go. Caterpillars will starve to death before they will eat the wrong food. Once you have found the correct food, remember your caterpillars must always have fresh food! Caterpillars will not eat old or dry leaves. The easiest way to feed your caterpillars is to provide them with a live, potted plant in their cage. However, because many host plants are large bushes or trees, this is not always possible. Therefore, it is best to provide new cuttings of host plant everyday. We use small plastic cups filled with vermiculite and water to hold the cuttings and stop the caterpillars falling into the water. If you cut too much food at once, give some of it to your caterpillar and put the rest in a glass of water in refrigerator until you are ready to use it. This will keep the food fresh longer. Always carefully inspect your fresh plant cuttings for spiders or insects. It is very disappointing to find that you have inadvertently fed your caterpillars to a very fat and happy spider! Caterpillars receive all the water they need from the plants they eat so you don't have to provide any additional water.
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4. How to keep your caterpillars clean?
Caterpillars have one job in life: eating. Because of this, they produce copious amounts of waste (known as frass). This frass must be cleaned out of the cage every day in order to prevent mold growth and create a healthy environment for your caterpillars. We line the bottom of our cages with paper towels, this makes the necessary daily cleanings easier.
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5. How to handle your caterpillars?
Caterpillars are very susceptible to a variety of bacterial infections, including bacteria we all carry on our hands without knowing it. Be sure to always wash your hands thoroughly before handling the caterpillars. Caterpillars are relatively fragile creatures. Handle them very gently. If you are changing their host plant, it is best to put the fresh host plant into the cage, then wait a few hours for the caterpillars to crawl onto the new host plant on their own. Then you can remove the old food. Alternatively you can use a small paint brush to carefully move the caterpillars from one plant to another, this works for us. Remember how many caterpillars you have and count them all before you throw out old host plant so you do not accidentally throw away your caterpillars, it happens to the best of us! Do not pick up caterpillars with branching spines! These spines can deliver a very painful sting. If your caterpillars seem lethargic or have changed color, do not handle them. They are probably preparing to molt or form their pupa and are very vulnerable at this stage. Or they may be sick. If your caterpillars die, remove them from the cage immediately to help prevent infection of the other caterpillars in the cage.
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6. How to take care of your pupa?
At some point your caterpillars will have done with eating. They will then crawl up to the top of the container (or onto the provided sticks) and pupate. It is best to carefully remove them at this stage to another suitable container (like the caterpillar container). Remember newly emerged butterflies must be able to hang high enough so that the tips of its wings will not touch the ground when they are fully expanded. If a new butterfly does not have enough vertical and horizontal space for its wings to expand and dry, its wings will not form correctly and the butterfly will not be able to fly. Your pupae do not need food or water. An occasional misting of the container will help keep the environment humid, which is necessary for healthy pupae. If the pupa is on a stick, carefully move the stick to the new container with enough space. If the pupa is at the top of the caterpillar container attached to the kitchen roll or cloth carefully cut around the material and pin to the top of the new container. If the pupa has fallen off , you can still hang it by placing a dot of UHU (or any 'tacky') glue on a piece of cotton wool or paper and then place the tip of the pupa on the slightly dried but sticky glue. Hold the pupa on the paper a few seconds to allow the glue to harden. Now the pupa can be hung by pinning through the paper onto a piece of cardboard or cork attached to the top of the new container. Most butterflies will emerge from their pupa after around two weeks. However, if your caterpillars pupate in the fall there is a good chance that they will remain in their pupae until Spring. Remember that your diapausing pupae are still alive. Keep the cage humid with occasional misting. Most butterfly pupae will either turn dark or become clear when the butterfly is ready to emerge. When this happens, be especially sure that your cage is humid. Keep a careful watch! It only takes a few seconds for a butterfly to come out of its pupa and it usually emerges in the mornings! Dead pupae often turn very dark. If you gently bend the abdominal region of the pupa and it stays bent, the pupa is probably dead.
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7. What to do when your butterflies emerge?
Be sure to provide sticks that hit the bottom of the container so a fallen butterfly can climb up the sticks to find a place to hang. It is kindest to release the butterfly within a few hours, and a great joy to watch the creature you have raised fly off to freedom! Of course if your garden is planted with host and nectar plants the butterflies will stay!!
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