Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Keeping milkweed leaves fresh in Monarch cat crate, 0 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
Just curious...you mentioned using wet floral foam - did you let it soak up water? That works great at keeping the cuttings fresh. In our south Texas heat that dries out quickly - must add water daily.

The wrapping of the wet floral foam with saran or wax paper helps keep the block damp. Also helps with keeping the block of foam frass-free.

You might try using bigger sprigs of milkweed - often times the end shoots wilt because they are still tender and herbaceous. Or as the others have mentioned - just toss a bunch of leaves into a cage - monarchs are voracious eaters and should eat the leaves quick enough :o)

The caterpillars can crawl on and off the wet floral foam without you having to worry about them. Some folks use containers filled with water then covered with saran wrap or foil - a caterpillar could still find it's way into the water and drown.

When the cats have eaten the sprigs pullou the nubs and brush off any frash. Add more water and stick in fresh sprigs. If the wet floral foam gets too dirty I toss it out and get a new piece.

Here's a photo of a piece of wet floral foam with Forbes Silkmoth caterpillars feeding from the ash tree cuttings..

~ Cat


This message was edited Jun 29, 2009 10:13 PM