Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 11, 1 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
Thanks ya'll :o)

Deb...have you tried using wet floral foam to hold your cuttings? If they are like most skippers they wrap themselves up so they are completely hidden. They still venture out to feed and will make biggers nests as they continue to grow. If you have enough indigo you can continue to replace the old cuttings with new ones. Leave the older cuttings in there and the caterpillars will crawl over onto the news ones to start the nest making again.

The wet floral foam does help to keep the cuttings fresher longer. I buy it at walmart and any craft store should have it. Once a piece gets too dirty I through it anyway and put in a fresh piece.

This is a photo of a container with wet floral foam in it - I added a citrus cutting with a GST egg on it. It stayed green for about seven days...and I was able to add fresh cuttings when the egg hatched.

Also realized the cuttings stay fresher if I keep them indoors as opposed to outside on the back porch - where the air temperature is in the high 90's to the 100's. The water just evaporates a lot faster when they are outside so I must keep adding water to the wet floral foam. I usually leave all the caterpillars outside since the cold temps inside the house slows them down.

~ Cat