Did it attach to the towel? I can't remember why, but I've had to put a chrysalis on the towel at the bottom, and the butterfly was able to crawl up the side. As long as you have something for them to crawl up to expand and dry their wings, all will be okay.

Do you have on of those butterfly habitats with the netting on the side? They will be okay. I've even had one in a paper bag and it was able to cling to the side of the bag.

Have fun with your butterflies!

No...It didn't even attach to the towel. I have them in an aquarium that has sticks for them to crawl up. I have thought about draping cheese cloth up the sides, since I have it covering the top. But I don't know how well that would work. I'm thinking of buying a butterfly house.

Don't "drape" the sides - they can crawl between the cloth and side of the aquarium and get trapped. Cut paper towels to size, and seal all edges to the glass with masking tape so they can't crawl behind it. I did this to the back side of my smaller enclosure.

However if you just put the chrysalis right next to the stick, it should be fine - mine always find the stick and climb up.

I agree with the posts above. I had one eclose this weekend, and it just crawled up the side of the cage and was fine. I even had to take it out two or three times to clean out the frass. It moved around every time I touched it.

This one had made its chrysalis on a carrot leaf, and the other caterpillars ate the leaf until it was gone and the chrysalis fell to the bottom of the cage.

I have successfully attached BST chrysalises to a couple sticks in the aquarium tank where I usually put the cast when they are ready to pupate. If you have strands of silk on the ends of the chrysalis you can tape the silk to a stick or other surface. If there is no silk, I have taken a long thin piece of masking tape (approx 1/4 inch wide x 2 or 3 inches long) and wrapped it around the midsection of the chrysalis, and taped it to the stick.

In both cases, I try to mimic the natural positioning of a chrysalis. This has been pretty successful. They usually come out and hang from the stick or chrysalis. If I were on my desktop I could probably post a picture!

Oh, and the mesh pop up enclosures are great for butterflies. The mesh is soft and easy for the butterfly to cling to and hang on. I've got 5 Monarch chrysalises in a 12 x 12 pop up right now.

Thank you for all the suggestions. I have ordered a pop up butterfly enclosure, but I don't think it will arrive in time for all of them. I placed him near a stick so he can climb it to pump up and dry his wings. I am excited because two of them have turned dark and are showing some color. The one that didn't attach is one of them.

If they are starting to darken today they will probably eclose tomorrow morning. If your house is fairly warm inside overnight, it might be early in the morning. I love to see the colors and spots of the BST show through the chrysalis. It is always exciting when a butterfly ecloses!

Yes.