Runmede, that is a pretty sweet setup! I don't think I have the room for a big tent, but I really like those big tubs of milkweed that you can swap out. I may have to come up with a bigger enclosure so I can try tubs like that outside. The enclosure I have now has a curved zippered door and a little threshold that I have to lift the pot over and kind of tip it in at an angle, which is not too easy. I had tried using my enclosure inside to move the chrysalids to so that when they eclose I can just bring the whole thing outside and release them. The only problem was that it wouldn't fit through the doorway! I had to carry each butterfly outside in my hands. Here is a picture of the enclosure. From 2009_08 These enclosures get pretty nasty after being outside for even a short period of time unfortunately. Plus being exposed to the heat means the pots dry out very quickly. Last year I set it up outside without enough bricks in the bottom and the whole thing blew over! I'm wondering if I should get some smaller versions of this type of enclosure to use inside and have several extra smaller pots of milkweed growing outside that I can rotate inside for each fresh batch of cats. Does anyone do this? How long can a pot of tropical milkweed survive indoors with the lower light? Right now I am doing the floral foam wrapped in plastic wrap to hold cuttings in clear rubbermaid containers. Living plants are a lot easier than doing cuttings. It is hard to gauge how much they are going to eat before the next cleaning. Last week I found myself outside at midnight during a thunderstorm getting more milkweed :) Oh well, the neighbors already know I am a nutball after seeing me moving around my 200 milk jugs in the snow for my wintersowing!

Thanks, Newbie, The experiment is over. I released 11 healthy Monarchs. The last 4 eclosed today. I'll do this again, but with bigger bags. I'll limit it to Monarchs, though. They seem to be perfect for Paper Bag Raising. Tdogmom, in one of the earlier posts, I proposed that you could add some kind of window if you felt you needed to constantly see them. I'm not for sure what I would make it out of, but tulle would work. I got to where I could look through the bags, held up to the light, and tell where the cats or chrysalides were. After interrupting the one that was pupating, I made sure I didn't fold the bag down quite as far. I also learned that when the food was gone, the cats crawled up the sides of the bag. Frass was so easy to clean out. I just dumped it out as it was very dry. I think you would want to put in caterpillars that had all hatched at approximately the same time. I put in caterpillars that I found on the plants and sorted them in the bags by size. That worked out pretty well. Success rate compares favorably with container raised cats. As I have raised over a 1000 Monarch cats, I'm not as inclined to need to see them. So, this fall when I am collecting 50 or more eggs a day, I'll probably use grocery bags and sandwich bags, as well as containers, to rear the masses! ; ) Sandy

Ditto on above post. The monarch once pupated is the exact shade of the plant leaves and stems. I noticed one of my monarch cats had pupated on a leaf this morning. There was another cat on the same leaf just statring to its process so I decided to leave my gathering alone until this evening. when I went out to check on them I swear that they were gone... I called my husband to help me look for them and he found three of them had just finished in the same area. Sometimes it just takes looking for them from a different angle to see them. I've also found that shaking the branches of the plant ever so slightly brings the little swings into plain sight again. I now have 18 of them in my indoor hatchery and there are still at least 8 more of the cats munching away on the leaves. I even went back to one of my defolinated milkweed plants in my greenhouse and found two more cats that I had missed when I tranfered the cats to the outside plants. These will be our first monarchs hatched out and we are both very excited about the prospect of adding a couple dozen more monarch cats to the great out doors. Love the little gold dots on the crystalys. I had no idea they they would be there....

Sylvia, I got your email. Sorry I haven't responded. I'm dealing with a family situation and had to get mowing, etc, done so I could go out of town tomorrow. As for your cats, your bigger cats are ready for paper bags. Put your cats in the bags and add 2 leaves per cat. You will need to keep a close eye out as to adding new leaves. I usually add leaves about 4 times a day. I use clothes pins to keep the bags closed after folding them over several times. I like using the lunch bags and putting up to 4 cats in a bag. I keep fresh leaves in the fridge for adding to the bags. Put the bags in a bright window so the cats will have light. Open bags carefully as when the cats start pupating, the silk may be between the two sides of the bag. I pull the silk apart very gently so I can put food in for those that haven't pupated. I try to match the cats as far as size, when I put them in bags, so they will pupate at approximately the same time. I would keep your small cats in a container until you can count on them to eat the leaves quickly so the leaves don't dry out before they consume them. Use a small plastic dish with a lid that you can poke holes in to keep the food fresh, or use wet foam designed for making live flower arrangements. Keep the cats in a plastic shoe box or other plastic container. Cover with bridal tulle, sheer curtain fabric, or even the leg from an old pair of panty hose. Put paper towels on the bottom of the container to facilitate ease of cleaning. Clean out frass daily or more often as it accumulates. Frass in paper bags is easy to dump out. When the cats in the paper bags have pupated. Cut around them and tape them to the sides of your mesh hamper. Use a towel as a cover to keep BFs from escaping before you get to see them and check them out. I've also used a piece of old curtain sheer that I attach to the top of the hamper with 4 clothes pins, one on each side. Good luck, Sandy