The Walmart is fresh out of Tulle fabric to keep out parasites and we have no other fabric stores in the area....what is an alternative that I can use to keep the cats safe from Parasites?
Butterfly Cage? an alternative to Tulle fabric?
I use cheesecloth from the paint section of the Home Depot.
Also very fine organza can do the job even better, no holes for anything to get through.
I keep the cheesecloth guys inside. For my outside butterfly house I use the same kind of screen that we have on the patio. But I wasn't sure what the fabric was being attached to; screen might be flexible enough for whatever kind of setup you have.
Melllie,
Isn't the outdoor one more susceptible to the parasite wasps? I have regular fiberglass screen around the " GreenRoom" sun porch, where I will be keeping the cage....is there any advantage to having them inside the house? I am a little too late on all of this, as I found 7 cats today on my milkweed!....I about had a stroke and ran about like a small excited child, trying to find a plastic container to put them in....LOL
Thanks for your advice
TJB
Well, the outside one sits inside the patio so I suppose it has two layers of security. I keep most of the cats inside. Usually, the ones that go outside are the ones that are harder to raise in captivity. Right now I have some long-tailed skippers in there; I put them in there when I left for vacation and they seem happy so I'm not moving them.
But for the inside ones I keep them in Critter Keepers (those plastic tanks at the pet store you can keep crickets and such in) and I just put a layer of cheese cloth over the top. Even if the cats look too big to fit through the slots, they will stretch their little bodies and do it. My zebra swallowtails fooled me one time. They have a hump-backed appearance so I thought they couldn't squeeze through, but I woke up the next morning with two of them sitting on the shelf basking in the sun. Luckily, they hadn't wandered too far - they might have fallen in my fish tank!
Melanie
LOL!, Now that is an amusing story....I can picture them basking in the sunlight.....then....Oops!, the jig is up! We have been found out!...lol
My situation is much like yours with the screened in room, would it not be advisable to rear them out there in a large cage that I am building?
That's certainly one way to do it. The Selby Gardens in Sarasota have a butterfly cage outside and they have different host plants and caterpillars in it. I prefer to watch mine pretty closely so that's why I bring them inside. With a large cage like that it's certainly a more natural setting for them since you can have whole plants and not just cuttings. Plus, they get lots of room to run around which is good to keep them from eating each other and just pestering one another in general. I have one of those little dustpans that makes it easy to sweep out the frass.
One problem that could occur with a large cage is what might happen if some of the caterpillars turn out to have diseases that can spread among the other cats, even between species. I used to use a large cage, but it became problematic for that reason. Hard to sterilize, for one thing. The smaller containers I can just clean easily with detergent and a bleach solution. And with smaller numbers of cats per container diseases can be limited better.
Sterilize?......didn't know that was part of the process......good information, thanks.
I use a variety of different sized caterpillar rearing cages I made from various rubbermade and gladware type containers.
Found that the best screening to use is that nylon mesh type used on windows. Used to use tulle and other mesh type fabric but found after a few seasons our south Texas heat and periodic cleaning/disinfecting took its toll on the fabric and they started to deteriorate/tear.
Have several photos of cat rearing cages on my community webshots if anyone wants to have a looksee.
~ Cat
Large cage used for cocoons and chrysalids
http://thumb2.webshots.net/t/69/569/1/70/0/2021170000096214582qplUmy_th.jpg
A few of Martha Stewart square containers - these work wonderfully and are stackable when not in use:
http://thumb2.webshots.net/t/65/765/2/13/3/2921213030096214582rsSAwV_th.jpg
http://thumb2.webshots.net/t/50/750/1/70/67/2406170670096214582nxfPHt_th.jpg
http://thumb2.webshots.net/t/65/765/9/18/8/2826918080096214582bOtHAw_th.jpg
http://thumb2.webshots.net/t/50/750/4/44/4/2600444040096214582ttrqxT_th.jpg
Another of the square containers where I used tulle - this one has since been replaced with nylon window screen.
http://thumb2.webshots.net/t/53/653/4/88/85/2208488850096214582PPyiKH_th.jpg
http://thumb2.webshots.net/t/16/16/5/87/93/2584587930096214582XCCQuX_th.jpg
Oops...maxed out my edits- DOH!
Oh well, here's a main link to my community webshots site for the cages - it's probably easier to browse through the photos on there than look at the teeny thumbnails.
~ Cat
ARGHHH...I messed up again. Man this is not my day for being on the computer :o)
I think I finally got the link right - if not, oh well, by the few photos I've included ya'll get the idea :o)
~ Cat
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/557604373qPIWfi
Here's one of a plastic trash can I made into a large cage too.
