It happens sooner or later to everyone. But why keep it? Will just lead to more disappointment for you soon enough. Toss it and try again.

FWIW, what works real well for moving pupa if you have to do so, especially those with a very fragile chrysalis like Danainae, is to get a pair of long, pointed tweezers (those that lock closed if you need them). Pull the silk pad above the cremaster off whatever it is attached to, then glue, tape, tie or entangle the silk pad at its new location. Don't forget to snip the "girdle" on those species that have them first.

Won't help much if you drop the tweezers though.

Welcome to the hazards of raising Lepidoptera. I've dropped chrysalides before and injured them. It happens to all of us. It's part of the learning curve. As Larry said, you do need to dispose of it. It won't eclose.

Sandy

This is my first year raising Monarchs, and while cleaning out the frass in one of the containers, I dumped a 2nd instar cat into the garbage can. I looked through the garbage, but couldn't find it. I felt like a bad Mom too! I've been bumbling my way through here, but despite that, 5 caterpillars have made it to healthy chrysalides and 3 more ready to pupate today.

I'll be extra careful when it comes time to move the chrysalids. :)

Don't beat yourself up. I had a escapee last year that got squished. : ( I think their odds are still better being raised inside than outside though.

I tossed him :( But I got to see one finishing his chrysalis, and 2 more are about to! They are so pretty! I didn't realize that the little gold spots are actually *shiny gold* until the light hit the one just right. AMAZING!

Why do the chrysalides need to be moved?

Deanna

They were attached to the top of the container that I raise the cats in, and I have to get in and out of that so much to clean and replace stems of milkweed, that I wanted to put them in a 'safe' place. Trouble is, my move wasn't so safe!

I am learning when they act like they are ready to attach, so I move them just before that. I'm planning a new habitat where I don't have to move anyone, but for now I'm just going to be super careful.

Oh Lordy, I was planning on moving Monarch chrysalides from plastic container attachments and attaching to mesh sides of pop up hamper.

Knowing my lack of manual dexterity I've been putting off the move of 5 cats...counting down the days until they'll eclose and I run out of time to move them.

After reading all this I think I'll just put the plastic containers in the mesh pop up hamper and install "netting bridges" so eclosed Monarchs can climb up to mesh themselves! I'll keep an eye on them and help them get to mesh if they need it as I did with first two eclosures last week but I'm NOT risking dropping a chyrsalis. Until I read this I thought they were "hard" enough to withstand a little fall of a few inches. Haven't touched any yet so as not to risk introducing germs even with washed hands.

The odds aren't with me and my fumble fingers in getting them detached from tight container spaces and securely reattached without my frequent bouts of the dropsies.

For the confessional part of this post I have to admit I "lost" a tiny 1st instar Monarch cat in early container clean out with a few cats in it. When I went to put in new food the cat count didn't match the pre-clean out one!Couldn't find tiny little thing amongst all the frass, old milkweed mosaics held together with silk, dirty paper towels...well, you get the picture. I still can't get it out of my mind every time I go to clean out another container.

The persnickety Monarchs have had no interest in using the sticks, paper towels or netting provided inside containers and on their tops for forming chrysalides. Unlike BST cats I find Monarch cats don't take well to "assistance" of any kind. I stand in the kitchen trying to sweet talk them into climbing onto a clean milkweed leaf to make transfer after cleaning out their containers. They've resisted for up to ten full minutes even after I've progressed to begging as it's sometimes the middle of the night when they've eaten their way through tons of milkweed.

Offer a fennel frond to a BST and they're all over it.

Different kids have different needs...LOL.

My caterpillars are growing in those big clear plastic salad boxes that are about the size of a shoe box. I used them for winter sowing seeds this year, so they already had holes in the top and bottom. When the cats get close to pupating, I tape a paper towel to the top, and so far they've all climbed to the top and attached to the paper towel. Nine cats have pupated so far.

But these containers don't have a rough vertical surface for the butterflies to eclose and besides I think they're too small? I was getting anxious about what to do with them when they eclosed, because I don't have a larger cage for them. Well, the solution turned out to be very simple. When the first 2 chrysalides started to turn transparent, I cut off that part of the paper towel and taped it to the exterior of the house. They eclosed fine! Not sure what I would do if they weather were bad though.

{{gwi:530801}}

Don't feel that badly. My experiments with large numbers have already cost me 15 cats or so. Basically, I put them outside too quickly and they dehydrated. I think. :(

Jeff

Well, I now know the feeling, too. I was moving chrysalises to my "Painted Lady stick" recently, and the stick fell. Amazingly, only one out of the six chrysalises was injured that I could tell, and all but that one and another were happy to waggle in protest.
On moving chrysalides, I have recently found a couple of ways to move them more easily. If you stick masking tape in two strips on either side of the cremaster and press to make sure it sticks well, the silk pad will easily come off with the tape, and can be stuck onto whatever. I have used this successfully for removal from mesh and smooth wood (a chopstick). I have not tried yet with a branch with bark. Also, I caught another hint on how pupa get over the molted caterpillar skin, but I want to make a diagram, so I might not post before Monday or so.
-Jmcat

I feel like a bad Mom today. Five fat healthy 5th instar caterpillars pupated yesterday and today. They pupate on the top of the container to which I tape a sheet of paper towel. The very last one was pretty much a pupa, but hadn't hardened yet. It was near the edge of the top. Of course I had to lift the top and get a closer look. When I put the top back down on the container, I squished the pupa! I think I might have hurt it, but I'm not sure. If it had been fully hardened no problem. I feel badly that I might have hurt it. :(

I moved chrysalides outside into mesh hamper.

Didn't move those attached to plastic but built my little netting bridges up to mesh sides. Have the feeling I'm going to have to help them anyway. We'll see when they emerge how adventurous they are.

There were 4 that had attached to mesh/paper towel I put under tops of containers.

With shaking hands I taped the whole piece of net/paper towel to the mesh and then took thick carpet thread and SEWED them onto mesh sides. Then cut off excess net/paper towel so they could put their legs right onto mesh. Didn't trust tape to hold on mesh and didn't want to go check on them only to see one had plummeted to bottom of hamper!

Then I was worried about ants eating chrysalides as someone experienced so put mesh hamper on top of chair on deck. Then worried about direct sunlight so put light webbed lawn chair on top of mesh hamper to shade them but let air circulate so they don't get any mold.

Now it's started raining lightly so went out and put plastic tarp over 3 sides of whole shebang so remaining containers they've attached to don't fill with water even though they're under overhang and others sewn to mesh hamper sides don't get wet.

Don't you just get a real gush of "natural setting" from imagining the environment these little Monarchs are going to see when they emerge...ROFL.

What a production and it was only 8 cats for goodness sakes...LOL.

I kept one chrysalid in the house as he had a little problem ejecting skin at end of forming chrysalis. Don't think there's anything wrong with him disease wise as it seemed more of a mechanical problem. After waiting a couple days for him to harden up I gently tugged on the skin and it detached easily from top of chrysalis with no leakage and shape of chrysalis looks okay. Better to keep him segregated from others and make sure he ecloses properly so I know everything's okay and others aren't possibly infected.

There's gotta be a better way...LOL.

Weed30, I never would have imagined having cat guilt but I am coming to realize exactly the feelings you had. AFter reading the rest of this thread, I am so pleased to have found all of you so my other friends won't have to hear me talk about my 14 monarch cats like I have newborns! You know the story..."I had to change them 4 times and they ate so much I could hardly keep up and one was resting so quietly that I had to sneak in and make sure it was ok and..." Does anybody else wonder if maybe, just maybe, there is a Starbucks somewhere where all the monarch mommas meet every Tuesday at 10am to giggle about us human parents and the lengths we go to? I, for one, would like to see that...and I bet there would be tons of eggs there!!!

Meredith