Your larger larvae

Here's where things get different, and also here's where your larvae will put on most of their growth! Yes, your tiny larvae will soon become real giants of the amazing insect world! The first few weeks (and their first three molts) got them from tiny larvae to something "big enough to SEE", but in the two molts to come, they'll grow from "nice size", to HUGE!

Here is where a gallon jug will be useful, as well as a pillow case (or a bag made of screen!), as the food from here on out will no longer be individual leaves placed into a container. but they will be feeding on actual branches, just like in the wild!

Please see the following list to show the best foods to use for the following species, in regards to how well each foodplant stands up under being cut and being placed into water indoors.

EACLES IMPERIALIS - Oak

CITHERONIA REGALIS - Lilac

ANTHERAEA POLYPHEMUS - Oak

HYALOPHORA CECROPIA - Wild Cherry, Lilac, Apple, Plum

CALLOSAMIA PROMETHEA - Wild Black Cherry (Prunus serotina), "Purple leaf" Plum

ATTICAS ATLAS (Larva shown above) - Bush Honeysuckle, Privet, Lilac

........ and this list will continue to grow as I get/give away more species, and again these are by no means the full extent of foodplants, but are "tried and proven" by ME, and have total success when these are used as cut plants, indoors - since these don't readily wilt when cut and placed in water!

A note concerning cutting: I find it best to do in the morning or late evening, or on wet days, and after cutting I look the branch over and immediately snip off any tips containing brand new growth (tiny immature leaves that are still tender and growing), then I spray it good with the hose and then shake it well before bringing it indoors. Believe it or not this seems to help!

SCREEN BAGS

These are made of the same fiberglass window screen material used in the home, and this material is perfectly designed for forming a "cage around a branch" for indoor rearing! To do this, the material can be picked up at the hardware store, and get several while you're at it! It's fairly cheap, and get a piece about 6 ft long, and about 3 ft wide, and use the trimmings from that to make some extra, smaller bags. From here, take it home, fold it over double, sew the two sides, and presto! Here you have a screen bag which lays flat, but is open on one end.

Next go cut a branch of the recommended foodplant, and shake it well (to shake loose hidden "hitch hikers" - spiders and such - that would otherwise get a free ride indoors! Spray it well with the hose and gently stuff all but the cut end into your bag (lacking a screen bag, a pillow case will work, but it lacks the free-air movement the larvae seem to prefer), and do as before..... that is to cut around your caterpillars, and place them into the bag along with the branch. Afterwards tie the open end of the bag with a rope or shoelace so it's tight around the branch, then take it in and place the cut stem into a container of water (a gallon jug works best), and lean it against a wall to keep it from falling over. Setting it up on spread-out newspaper is a PLUS, because of the dust that's produced (micro-bits of chewed leaves, etc), and once they're in the bag, spray them once a day, and you'll be amazed at how big they'll grow! They reach a good size with a daily spraying, rather than feeding them on just leaves alone. It's best to spray them in the evening, to similate the nighttime dew they drink in the wild.

It is possible to do this outdoors, but I don't recommend it! Of course your larvae are always safer indoors, and certain Paper Wasps love to chew neat, round holes in your fiberglass bags when left outdoors on live trees, plus ants and earwigs can get into even the tightest of places, and way-too-many times I've had stink bugs walk around on the outside of the bag and puncture (and kill!) larvae, as well as rodents chewing their way in and doing huge amounts of damage, and even birds tearing holes in bags and destroying countless larvae.

So please rear them indoors!

Preparing for Pupae! There's a value in having the newspaper under the bag, and its true worth will be revealed here shortly! In fact....... you better go ahead and put down several layers! I'll tell you why in a moment. As the larvae grow to a huge size, you'll notice they will eat a LOT of leaves! In fact in their final days before pupation, they will become literal "eating machines"........ pausing only long enough to move to the next leaf after the one they were eating has been consumed! Make sure they never run out of food, and your success looks good from here in getting them into pupation. Again be sure they get their daily spraying (a hand-held plastic spray bottle works best....... and you'll never run out of uses for it besides spraying your caterpillars!). At branch-changing time it's best to carefully slide out the whole branch, dump out the frass (droppings), and add your new branch, and afterwards......... and only with a very careful hand remove each caterpillar and do the transfer, otherwise it's still best to cut around each one like before, and transfer them safely before re-tying the bag. Now for the MESSY part - Remember the "several layers of newspaper under the bag" part??! Well here's a bit of scientific fact, as sure as sunrise, sunset, and gravity! When a caterpillar is thru feeding for good just prior to pupation, here's something you should know about! Your peaceful, timid, slow moving caterpillar will soon evacuate its internal substance. Yes, it's about to eject out of its back end about a third of its weight! That means it's gonna "jet" out a lot of gunk here very soon, and it'll start off thick and wet, thus wetting everything in the cage below it! Don't worry as it's totally harmless though, and it takes each caterpillar about 30 minutes to perform this ordeal...... and by the time it's nearly finished, the liquid is mostly clear. After this is accomplished, it's time to do the next process in their rearing, depending on the species. Keep in mind that within an hour or so after that, they will make preparations to pupate........ and for cocoon-spinners, simply leave them in the bag (just remember they are in there when changing branches! They hide their cocoons quite well among the leaves, or in the folds of the bag!), and set them aside in a safe place for now. as the larvae hidden will continue to spin - unseen - for the next several days. It's also best to try and leave the cocoons in the same position as they were in when they were still in the bag, since most cocoons have an "up" and a "down", and to flip them could spell doom for them at hatching time, since the pupa inside would be pointed toward the wrong end of the cocoon! Now this would all be hunky-dorey if all caterpillars spun cocoons....... but there some that do not! These dig into the ground, and need immediate attention to have success going into pupation. They will let you know by their often dull colors, and by their urge to wander restlessly around inside the bag. Anyways when these are found, it's best to take them and put them in a container such as a 5-gallon bucket filled with several inches of moist (but not wet) dead leaves, and when the larvae are placed into this, they will wander around in there for the next day, and after 24 hours or so, remove them and clean them off if needed, and place them into a similar container, or even under an upside-down metal pie pan set upon several layers of moist paper towels (in the 5-gallon bucket, place a moist towel in the bottom, and place a lid on the bucket, and place it in a dark place). Either way, check your larvae daily and remove any "fatalities", and otherwise try to disturb them as little as possible until after they have pupated. Cocoons are pretty much self-contained, but those that form a naked pupa will need a little more moisture.