Most likely your cats were doomed before you brought them in. There are lots of things that happen to caterpillars which result in low survival rates. The best way to raise caterpillars is to locate the eggs and bring them in. This doesn't guarantee they'll survive, but increases the odds greatly. There are parasites and diseases that hit caterpillars. Without knowing the details, I can't tell you what caused the death of the caterpillars you brought in. Don't give up. Just realize that what happened was already set in motion before you found the caterpillars.

It sounds like you're doing everything right but one thing - bringing them into your house. If your house is 75F, then you've got air-conditioning, of course, and I've never successfully raised any cats in the house. I haven't tried very often, so maybe it could be successful, but I assume that the lower humidity in the house is what they can't tolerate. The only person I can recall raising cats regularly in the house was a woman in southern California, and, since the humidity is much lower there, I assume the butterflies and other leps are acclimated to it. In the East, particularly the Southeast, they're acclimated to high humidity.

If that's not it, then the only other possibility is that you've been very unlucky, or there's a disease running through the leps in your area. Question marks aren't too easy to raise - I've lost a few, even outside - but eastern or black swallowtails are easy, at least they have been for me.

I'm so sorry this has happened. If you have a SHADED porch or deck and a cage to put them in, I think you'd have better luck there.

Sherry

Thanks so much for the input.

Sherry, I've been trying to build a shaded greenhouse to raise my caterpillars in, just because of what you said- it's the environment they're used to.

I've been very careful not to use chemicals in my yard, and to use all the organic material that I can (once you compost, you'll never go back ;) )

Thanks, again!

I raise mine in the house all the time here. Like others have said, this might have already been happening before you brought them in. But just out of curiousity, what is airflow like where you keep them, and how many do you keep together?

I only mentioned the lower humidity created by air-conditioning inside a house as a possible reason for her cats dying, because about ?10 years ago, there were lepidopterists trying to raise the big moths of the Eastern U.S. in California outdoors. The caterpillars all died, so they did studies to find the cause. They determined that the low humidity in California adversely affected the caterpillars' ability to breathe, bring in air through their spiracles. Humidity may also be the reason why little cats can survive in sealed plastic containers - the humidity in sealed containers is certainly high.
This is just a possible cause, of course. She's not raising luna or regal moth caterpillars, but QMs and black swallowtails.

Sherry

Lopez, I kept two cats together per attempt, and I had them just on their food sticking out of the covered cup in my room. Should I have a net at least around them? Is that why they died, because it was too open or something?

Sherry, interesting info. I gotta say that I'd love to even see a Luna moth in person.

Also, what about a greenhouse will keep them from getting the diseases they get in a garden?

I can only speak from personal experience, I raise a few hundred caterpillars a year of different species. My biggest problems have occurred when airflow is a problem, crowding, or high humidity coupled with frass is not good.

Like Sherry said, it sounds like you are doing everything right. Sorry I could not be more help.

A greenhouse sounds great, but I don't think it would guarantee that your cats wouldn't get diseases from outside. You'd have to keep the door open and let air flow through, I'd think, or it would get too hot, at least in summer. And you'd still have to cage the cats to protect them from wasps and predatory stink bugs.

It's hard to figure why your cats died.

Sherry

I raise most of my cats indoors. It gets too hot and humid here to leave them outside, as the host plants wilt. However, we keep our house at 78 degrees.

I had some other thoughts. Does your area spray for mosquitoes in the summer? Pesticides can cause problems. And, I had problems with spray from our aerobic septic system. I lost some Monarchs that were on plants that were in the path of the spray, as the spray is used to water the lawn. So now I don't plant anything for the butterflies close to the spray pattern. If your plants are new, they may have been treated with systemic pesticide/disease control which stays in the plant's system for a long time.

It took me a bit to figure out about the aerobic septic spray--and I lost a lot of caterpillars. Hoping you are able to isolate the problem--don't give up!

Sandy

This post was edited by butterflymomok on Mon, Jul 29, 13 at 23:32

FWIW, I just lost two black swallowtail cats, too. One was ant size, and I just found it on the floor of the container. The other one was well along. He stopped feeding, wandered off, and then just lay still. I think it's just a hard world out there for a caterpillar. My guess is that some of them probably got infected in infancy and were already sick when we brought them in. If I raise more this season I will look for eggs and try to bring them in before they hatch. Thoroughly cleaning the food plants is probably good advice, too.

Just keep in mind, before modern sanitation and antibiotics most people died young, too, generally of infectious diseases. (I'm a doctor in my other life.)

I raise mine in the house all the time here. Like others have said, this might have already been happening before you brought them in. But just out of curiousity, what is airflow like where you keep them, and how many do you keep together?

Each year I raise hundreds of caterpillars inside my house ( In the guest / bug room as my family calls it LOL )
Once of the things I did not see in the comments is the presence of a branch or stick in the container. Black swallowtail ( and many others ) really like to climb so they can hang while pupating. If they are trying to pupate while on the bottom of the container or close to it, they will hit the container and die because they cannot pupate properly. Just a thought ! Good luck

Yeah, I had sticks in there for them, but they were still not ready to pupate, I don't think...

However, I just found a ton of spicebush cats on my spicebushes, and a tiger swallowtail cat on my magnolia. I'm a little afraid to bring any in... Especially since these like to nest, and I don't have any smaller plants I could raise them on indoors.