Well, the wine rack wasn't as popular with the monarch cats as I'd hoped; only one settled in to pupate there. They preferred the mesh netting I'd draped over the whole shebang, and I had to relocate them later. (Now they look like wedding favors.) :-)
Too cute!!!
As for the wine rack...if it is metal or plastic and shiny (smooth) and laquered/painted you might be better off sanding it a bit. Gives the caterpillars a little something extra to grab onto when they are crawling around and looking for a place to cling/hang.
I had a wire candle holder that was painted black and very shiny and smooth...and they didn't take to that as the one. Yet one I'd had left in the yard hanging from a tree had faded over the months and the surface turned rough. When I put that one into the cat cage a bunch of Gulf Fritillary caterpillars started climbing all over it.
~ Cat
Junebug, I used a wrought iron plant stand with lots of curlicues and it wasn't an overwhelming success either, I thought I was so clever putting it in the crate! Out of 24 cats, only 7 settled on it, and one chrysalis fell off it. Most of my guys seemed to prefer the mesh on the sides of the crate, or the fabric surrounding the mesh. I stuck sticks in foam, thinking they might like them to pupate on, but though they climbed up them (maybe for exercise!) in their wandering, not one chose them for pupating on. But Cat, your idea is good, next year I'll try roughing up the surface of the plant stand a little! That one chyrsalis fell off, maybe because the surface was too smooth (and I think one of the wanderers probably jiggled it a little).
