Post #795742 by tikiskip on Mon, Jun 17, 2019 12:16 PM

"What do you raise them in?'

They make these cages for kids to learn the whole butterfly thing.
I find them in thrift stores.

And we plant a bunch of dill and fennel then you go and look for the caterpillars and put them in the cages with dill or fennel to eat.

I mist them every day for water.

In a month or so they cocoon,
and hatch at a later date, if it is close to winter I put them in the fridg so they don't hatch out.

The rate of cocoons that make it to the butterfly stage is 1% so I got a good ratio at this time.

MANY things eat the cocoons, parasitic wasps lay eggs inside the caterpillar and the wasp hatches out after the caterpillar cocoons killing the would be butterfly.
Spiders, birds even those bald faced wasps eat them.

I let one go and he was still wet, their wings are like butter till they dry,a spider came up and stung the butterfly right before my eyes.
So I let them dry in safety before I let them go now.

Even with all that I don't see that many after I let them go.