The first group took about 11 days to eclose, these are about a month old at least. I know some are alive because when I lightly tap on the tank they will move.
The Black Swallowtails are still nice and green colored. The Giants are at different stages of gray to brown.
Is this 30 days at least normal?
My swallowtails BST and GST are taking too long to eclose?
I swear it wasn't five minutes after I posted when one of the GST's eclosed! TOO FUNNY!
Yeah..I bet it did that on purpose. They don't always eclose in a certain number of days. I wish they would...except, of course, the fall-pupated, overwintering kinds. You never know when they will eclose. I just hope my chrysallises from the spring cats aren't baked by the heat.
I've had MANY BST's stay in the chrysalis for months and months. Even the ones that pupate early in the summer, many of them don't eclose until the following spring! I always feel bad about that, because in the summer, there are so many flowers in my gardens and elsewhere, the perfect time to eclose! But they wait until March or April, when there aren't that many flowers out.
Just be sure to keep checking on them to release any that do eclose!
thea, I see you are using a plastic container I assume with water to keep the parsley fresh. Just an FYI, I had some florist water tubes and tried them and they work great.
Thanks for the help.
Yes, I put floral foam into the container and refresh the water every day, and there are holes poked in the lid. Works very well! How long does the water last in the water tubes, and where do you get them? Do you stand them up in a container or something? It's fun to see how other folks raise their cats!
You can just lay the floral tubes on the surface or prop them up, I never have a problem with them leaking. The water last a couple of days. Is your milkweed holding up more than a day, if not sear the cut with a lighter? They will actually take root that way if they don't get eaten.
The milkweed, when I was raising monarchs, usually lasted about a day before I had to put fresh in. Luckily I had enough this year. Parsley (for the BST's) and passion vine (for the frits) lasts a little longer. I have tons of passionvine, and tons of frits all over it, laying eggs! Every time I bring in some passionvine to feed my little crowd of cats, I usually bring in tiny cats with it, so I've been raising batch after batch (67 eclosed as of today). BST's are all in the chrysallis now, and I guess they'll be wintering over!
Wow sounds like your busy!
I noticed the conversation about the BST. I've had 5 that just won't open and I started to worry about it. I found a website that said to wrap them in papertowel and put them in the refrigerator until next June because they are probably overwintering. Has anyone else ever done this. The website said to do this so they don't eclose when there is a warm spell during late fall or late winter and no flowers for them to eat from. Just wondering if anyone has ever done this.
I've been busy with my monarch cats. Right now I have over 50 chrysalises and about 10 cats in various stages. I've probably released about 40 monarchs so far this year.
I have 4 chrysalis now. I will try to find somewhere out side to put them. I am not going to try to do this again next year. This is the second year for BST's and I just don't get the cats early enough.
I don't plan on over wintering any either. I am interested in the method you saw on the website suscwbuff, do you remember where you saw that? I have had them come out due to house temps, it was just after a freeze when nothing was available to nectar on, etc. Then I have to remember to mist them periodically too.
As for the Gulf Frits, they seem to do fine on their own. I leave them outside and just move them around to vines that have leaves when they strip the plants in full sun.
I have about two dozen or more GST cats inside and my Rue plant is getting very small. I am thinking I will release them on it and hope they have enough to finish their growth safely. I have a couple of small citrus trees that I have forced one batch to use, but the others are older and won't switch.
Hi Sheila,
The website is www.suesbutterflyhaven.com. I think I had googled BST overwintering and that came up. I'm going to give it a try but I'm going to let them outside for at least another week. If they don't eclose by them I'll put them in the refrigerator and see what happens next year.
Found it and posting the quote here.
Quoting:
Another fact is that this butterfly may over-winter. I had chrysalises in late July that did not emerge until the next summer. When over-wintering hand-raised caterpillars, I place the chrysalis in a Tupperware container and wrap them in paper towels. I place a cover on the container and store them in the refrigerator. Then the following year when I am ready, I bring the chrysalises out. The one time I tried this method, it took two weeks for the butterfly to emerge. If one places the chrysalises in a garage for the winter, you may run the risk of a early warming spell that confuses the butterfly into emerging early and the weather was not ready for them. This results in a short life for the butterfly as the weather will not be warm enough
Taken from Sue’s Butterfly Haven website. http://www.suesbutterflyhaven.com./black_swallowtail_butterflies.html
I believe this will definately work. It might be helpful that the towel be dampened lightly occassionally through storage.