Literally 99.999% of my rearing since the mid 60's was done from either wild collected livestock, from wild collected gravid females or from hand pairings of adults in the lab. Finding wild ovum and larvae can not only be very productive, it is also huge fun and can be quite thrilling when you find what you are looking for. Pupae, while possible with some species, are quite hard to find in the wild with most species. They usually are colored to blend in with what they are attached to, are camouflaged to look like something else, are wrapped in plant material or buried in leaf litter, soil or under rocks. You will have far more success going for ovum and larvae. Luckily, some species are so easy to find a blind man could find them. They have very conspicuous eggs and/or larva that sharply contrasts the color of their preferred larval food plant, and those that remain gregarious in the early instars can be easily seen for a very long ways away. While livestock may be where you find them, knowing a lot about the environmental requirements and habits of the species you are after greatly increases your odds of finding their livestock. Their temperature, humidity and elevation requirements, and of course within the range the species is known to fly in. You have to be looking at the right time of the season (or times for multiple brooded species), in the right habitat that has the preferred larval food plants and nectar sources for the particular species, and know the flight habits of that species within that habitat. IOW, it doesn't do much good to look for a desert species in a riparian habitat, or an arctic/alpine species on a high grass prairie for example, or any species on a mountain side covered in food plant without some idea of the species flight habits. With enough experience observing each species and their habits, learning from both your successes and your failures, eventually you can arrive at a likely looking spot and almost walk right to the plants that will have eggs or larva on them. As for your example, Everes comyntas, they are typical of many of the Lycaenidae with small, stocky larva that are usually the same color as the stems, leaves or blooms of their larval food plant, look very similar to the plant part, often hide very well deep in the plant or even off from it when not feeding which makes them quite easy to miss, and they also use plants that commonly grow in large stands of endless plant. Generally, the most productive way to obtain Lycaenidae livestock is to get fresh gravid females and setup a micro habitat designed to get eggs from them. That cage too requires species specific requirements, but they are easy to simulate. Many here have great fun on the hunt for livestock in thier own home gardens. But it is even more fun, satisfying and can be more productive to hunt in the wilds, especially if made into a family outing/picnic. L.

After the monarch cat has emerged from the egg, it will often be necessary to transfer the tiny caterpillar to a fresh leaf. It is not possible to pick them up at this stage without injuring them. The only way that I know of to accomplish this is to use a small scissors and cut off most of the leaf, so that the cat is perched on what remains, about the size of a fingernail. Next, you put a small drop of water on the fresh leaf, and stick the piece with the monarch cat onto the fresh leaf, using the water as "glue." In an hour or so, the monarch cat will have crawled from the old leaf, onto the new one.

Hello eveyone! I was wondering if there was a place I could order the Hummingbird Moths from to release in my yard? I have one green tomato horn worm, that ate a green tomato the size of a golf ball in one day, but I would really like to see more of these huge moths out and about. Thanks, Lauren www.starbengal.net

There is no need to purchase expensive pharmaceutical grade boric acid for pest control. The household pesticide sold (for years) as Roach Prufe (not my spelling, lol) can be found in home improvement stores, hardware stores, garden centers, and probably your local grocery! You can also purchase Terro liquid bait stations. These handy little things are prefilled with a sweet, boric acid laced liquid that all sweet eating ants go nuts for. It might be worth trying a few of these just to see what happens. When using one of these little stations, it's important that you place it where pets cannot get to it...but it does need to be in the path of observed ant activity. After you place it, walk away and let it alone until it's empty. That might take just a couple of hours, if you have lots of ants. Disturbing the ants when you are trying to bait them with something is entirely counter productive. You want them to swarm the bait stations...that means that it's doing the job. It's creepy to see a jillion ants competing to get at the sugary liquid, but the results are amazing. Terro products can also be found anywhere that pest control items are sold. I've purchased mine at Lowe's or Home Depot.