Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Quick & Easy Cat Cage, 1 by debnes_dfw_tx

debnes_dfw_tx wrote:
Here I have a large sized rectangular Ziplock container with a block of wet foam wrapped in foil,and sealed with duct tape. Then I picked a good piece of the laral host plant and took it inside washing it with a light stream of cool water rubbing each surface and checking for any preditors or aphids. Shook it off and placed it in a hole made the size of the stem in the center of the duct tape. Because Milkweed is a taller growing plant I set the container up on it's end.
I cut out the lid of the container all the way to the edge groove. Lay the fabric over the top and seal the lid rim tightly all the way around.. There ya go! Real cheap, real easy and fast.

Like when ya find that cat you didn't expect crawling out there helplessly among assassians, wasps and birds... Nothing like being prepared for a situation like that. I have heard too many times where people saw a cat and didn't even know what it was and later going back it's gone. Tears me up every time I hear it. It is even worse having about a dozen Black Swallowtails in chrysalids and finding swarms of these wasps coming out of them. I lost most of them, and had to euthanize some too..:-( !! That hurt.

Then some cats have to be sepparated in captivity or the big ones can eat the smaller ones, also sad. Hearing that about Giant Swallowtails, I made separate cages and raised them. I used the square quart size container because the Herculese Club springs are a little more compact. I released those 2 GSTs today, they were perfect and healthy, Yaay!

Then when you do find a cat you don't know what it is, you can place them in a cage like ths to observe them and ID them. Then continue raising in the same container. They are so very easy to clean. The frass just rolls out most of the time, and I put it back under the plant I used for that particular species.

Pictured here are 3, Third instar Monarch caterpillars with a sprig of Asclepias curassavica, (Milkweed).