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Butterfly Garden

What is happening to my caterpillars?

8 years ago

I planted my butterfly garden about 8 weeks ago, and it includes milkweeds, passionvine, dill, parsley, jatropha, agapanthas, heliconias, and pentas. For the first couple of weeks I saw caterpillars about every day, but since then there have been none. I have spent some time observing and I see a lot of brown anole lizards (I'm in Florida) , flies, wasps, aphids, and ladybugs. We also have invasive Cuban tree frogs in my county, and I know I have them around my house. I believe the eggs and caterpillars are being eaten because I see lots and lots of butterflies every day including Monarchs, Gulf Fritillaries, Sulphurs, and Swallowtails.

Does anyone have advice on what to do? I am going to plant more and more host plants to try to overcome the odds.

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Comments (6)

MissSherry
8 years ago
The only way I know of to keep your caterpillars from being eaten is to raise them yourself inside a protected cage. You wash the host plant leaf/leaves (or just inspect for bugs on it if a cat is already on it) into the hole that you've punched in a plastic leftovers container with water in it and put this in the cage. Put paper towels on the bottom of the cage, and it's a good idea to put foam rubber on the bottom of the cage, under the paper towel. You add additional leaves as the cat grows or before the old leaves get old.

Here's a link to a place that sells cages meant for reptiles, but great for raising caterpillars. They're easy to put together PVC frames with a zip up mesh cover.

Sherry

LLL Reptile
rgn22
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you, Sherry! I'm a birder who is new into butterflies, so I have a lot to learn still.
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You are seeing an small example of why the populations of many insects (and some higher animals) go through a boom and bust every few years. In the case of caterpillars, too many eggs were laid on your local milkweeds and only the earliest and most aggressive catperpillars might make it to cocoon stage. In the wild there are huge losses at every stage of the insect life-cycle: Egg, larvae, pupa, adult. Now in your square mile, those few plants could be an exception and the population as a whole is normal. Many moths (and a few butterflies) eat a wide variety of plants, you would have to look up the hostplant list for this tussock to get an idea of what the odds are for finding nearby substitute plants. At this time of year they cannot travel far without dehydrating. This post was edited by larry_gene on Tue, Jul 15, 14 at 23:32
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kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)
8 years ago
Or you could pull an organza bag over the cat and food source and pull it closed. Less expensive than cages...myorganzabags.com I think!
roper2008
8 years ago
Wasps are always looking to eat my baby Monarchs. This is my set up. I have two of

these aquariums. My sister plants milkweed in a pot and brings it in her little florida room.
MissSherry
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
There are many set ups to protect caterpillars, all that work are good!

I don't normally use aquariums, but I'm raising some red-spotted purples that I found on willow in an old terrarium, because it keeps the willow fresh longer. Willow doesn't last long in water when exposed to wind or anything below 100% humidity. I've covered the top of the terrarium with netting, secured with clothespins. This not only holds the netting in place, but you have to put the top on to the side of being straight on, leaving two little places for minimum air circulation. It might be alright to keep it 'sealed' since the container probably isn't REALLY air tight, but this is working and seems more like the right way to do it.

I'm hoping these willow cats are actually viceroys!

Sherry
dragonflydee
8 years ago
I use aquariums with screen tops,also.

I have to watch the sun because glass can heat up quickly

Here in the deep south.If I have a tank on my outdoor open

Potting station shed it is shaded,but still on a hot day I check

For overheating.

I mainly use them for Buckeyes because they are small butterflies.

Those screen tops will stop those wasps!

DD

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