Sandy, As you know I read some of the threads now and then even though IÂm not logged in anymore. But I just had to log on when I saw this thread by you this morning as it made me smile. Naming your lady Cercropia Celeste brings up a little story About 35 years ago while collecting at a place called LambÂs Canyon high on the east slope of the Rockies in Utah my ex, "Celeste", who was up the canyon a ways from me out of sight let out a scream that could raise the dead (and as it turned out stopped all plant growth in the canyon for two years). I dropped and ran thinking she had fallen off a cliff, stepped on a rattlesnake, was being eaten by a bear or ???. Found her happily picking last instar H. cercropia cats off what little was left of a fair sized Populus tremuloides tree. All this ruckus from a normally dignified, quiet and reserved lady over a few cats? She had reared hundreds of Cercropia that I brought home before and from home mating, but these were the first of their cats she had ever found on her own out in nature. BTW, I went through similar with each new (for her) discovered species every place we traveled to. I once told her an earthquake in California was probably her fault because we were collecting up on Mount Tantalus in Hawaii when she found her first "wild" Vanessa tameamea cats the same day that California shook. My standard "calling" set up for the big silk moth females was a 3# coffee can cut open on both ends, 1" square hardware cloth covering the ends, and a wire or heavy twine bail that allowed the can to be hung horizontal from tree branches, etc anyplace I wanted to hang them. Cercropia is a species that mostly flies in the later wee hours of the night before day break, so they do not need to be out in the heat of the day and first light is a good time to check the cages for suitors. Along the lines of what Sherry said, they can be moved to a quiet place and left to separate on their own. I liked to lightly spray paper bags with clean water before putting a single female in each bag, then position the bags close to a light source on one side. This same "technique" works well for placing a male and female in the same bag to mate. The bags sure make it easy to cut the ovum apart in batches for either raising, distributing in nature or sharing with friends. All for now gang Larry

Wow Sue, I was just browsing this forum today and what a surprise to see your post. I read the antique rose forum and the regular rose forum almost daily but enjoy this one as well. I saw very few monarchs this year but they apparently came through as I ended up with tons of caterpillars on the milkweed, which was just planted this year. We took a few inside so as to watch them closely. The last one emerged only yesterday and was released. Godspeed! I read to wait about 4 hours and then release when the temp is at least 65 degrees. I was a little worried as it has been chilly at night. When the cocoon seems black they will emerge very soon. Maureen (gallicas!)

>It seems, they put a lot of trouble coating the cocoons so they can be shipped and stored It certainly does. It is just an indication that there are a lot of people out there who have too much disposable income and would prefer to give their money away. I'd love to have that customer mailing list. At least the farmers are making some income from this. I don't know for how long though. I agree that adding OM would definitely be the better method :) >lol! remember, they're "encapsulated" so she probably >won't guess what's inside those pebble-looking thingies ;D She'd probably surmise that it was worm related since I have a worm scraps container in the fridge, otherwise she might put them in a boullion soup.

He's out! Found him hanging this morning, drying his wings. I'm going to move that butterfly weed closer to the elephant ear, because that is such a good place for them to cocoon, and they have evidently figured out where this milkweed is. I'll also plant some milkweed outside around the Confederate Rose, because those would be good places for them to cocoon too, especially since it's shaded in the late afternoon.