Keep them safe.

I have a potted milkweed, A. syriaca in a cage, along with a potted parsley. The A. syriaca always has ants on it, and it's no exception being in a cage; the smaller ants are all over it. I have 4 BST cats and a bunch of monarch cats in various instars, and the ants never seem to bother them. I don't think ants are a problem, but would love to know if I'm wrong LOL!

Why don't you keep the chrysalis and see if something comes out? How do you know it's dead?

I wouldn't give up on it.

For whatever reason, ants have never bothered my caterpillars, but they have eaten a chrysalis of mine once. I had raised a palamedes swallowtail on a potted redbay plant in my garden, and I thought I was protecting the chryalis by covering the plant with mesh. Ants formed a line up and into the plant and ate half the chrysalis before I knew it was happening. That's another reason why I bring as many of my hatchling cats in to raise as I can - the cages are on tables on the porch, which is 3' off the ground. Ants have never gotten close to them, but if you leave a chrysalis near the ground, it can happen.
Sherry

Thanks for your responses...I know it is dead because there was fluid oozing from it & I put it in a container on my patio table & ants got on it again.
I am thinking of going to buy another dill plant where I got the one they are on & put them in a terrarium I have. I had brought some extra eggs home from the nursery but none hatched. I am going to have to do a lot more research on raising cats...do you have a info source with specifics?
I had given up on getting Purple Martins after trying for over 6 years so now I'm wanting to help BST, PST, GST, & Monarch cats...but I am a "newbie" to this.

imabirdnut,

There is lots of info in the FAQ section of this forum for raising caterpillars.

I purchased several containers of animal crackers from Sams, they are about 1-1/2 gallon in size, for the container, not the animal crackers! After emptying out the container, I cut holes almost the size of each side, leaving about and inch or so all around to attach screen (the cats need ventilation) and to have some sturdiness for the cage. I try to use a single length of screen, but if I don't have enough, I use pieces to cover the holes. I attach the screen with silicone (bathtub caulk) so that it is waterproof when I need to disinfect the cage after the butterflies have emerged. (It is important to disinfect your cages after the butterflies have emerged-especially the monarchs, they are susceptible to viruses and OE spore.) I raise as many as 20 cats in one container, then disinfect when all have left, or at least those that attached themselves to the cage walls. BSTs usually attach themselves to sticks that I place in the cage in pieces of floral styrofoam that will fit inside the opening. I purchased some miniature vases from WalMart, about 3" in height, and use these for supplying food to my cats. The water in the vase helps keep the food fresh and keeps the cats off the floor of the cage and out of their waste.

Hope this helps and remember, you can always come back to the forum and ask any question. The people here are great about sharing information and experiences.

Mechelle

Mechelle

Mechelle, Do you have pictures of how you prepared your containers?
I'm not sure if I have time to hand raise cats but I am wanting to help them.
I've been planting dill, parsley, rue, fennel & more milkweed.

Black Swallowtails aren't too demanding until they get that last instar, and then you just need to be sure to put lots of food in there to get them through the day. And with two, you will spend maybe 5-7 minutes a day caring for them. But you might spend upwards triple that by checking on them. :)

We need to remember that ants do a lot of good in our gardens even if they occasionally make a living off of the caterpillars. I have to remind myself of this fact quite often.