This morning i found 7 odd cocoons ( i am calling them this because I am not sure what they are ) they are on the dill in my cat cage.....and next to each cocoon is a Swallotail cat......are these a bad thing?.....should I separate them them?
ID needed for Odd Coccon next to each swallowTail Cat
That is really weird, Shadow, I've never had that happen! I think I would try to get rid of that weird thing and save the BST cat. I don't know of any other BF that uses dill as its host plant, so I'm thinking it's something you don't want, that might hurt the BST. Hopefully someone else on the forum will respond.
I concur, ...the strange thing is, that I brought all this dill into my cage with the newly hatched cats....nothing else was on them and that was over a week ago.....Now 7 of these strange things....and each one with a cat right next to it....I took that 1 out to get a good shot of it....
thanks for the concern
TJB
I found this on the internet.....but still inconclusive as to what it is.....I am definitely pulling the 7 of them out...
http://bugguide.net/node/view/207692
Very twilight zone.
ewww. that's just WRONG
This is quite horrible!!! It's bad enough, seeing the white parasitic wasp larvae popping thru the skin of the hornworms; my first experience with that totally horrified me. But I'm very fond of my beautiful black swallowtail butterflies, they were my first butterly raising experience, and I hate this news, that they can be so used by the wasps! I wonder if only swallowtails are affected by this wasp? I would hate to think this could happen to other species as well. And by the time you spot the cocoon, it's already too late! This DOES sound too much like Sci-Fi!!!!
Freaky article!!! Sad to say they are most likely wasp cocoons.
Last year I decided to raise some Theona Checkerspots so I brought in a bunch of caterpillars that were feeding on Cenizo. Also took cuttings of the Cenizo they were on to keep them fed.
Each time I'd clean the cage I'd find lots of little white cocoons right up near some cats. I put those cats and the cocoons in a separate cage and ended up with tiny wasps! UGH!
The first few that hatched got sprayed...the rest of the cocoons got sprayed too and then stomped on. The caterpillars continued to feed but did not make it through the chrysalis stage.
I couldn't find the photos of the tiny wasps - will keep looking but I remember they small and quick!
~ Cat
This message was edited Aug 18, 2008 8:42 PM
YUCK!!!! The poor little cats....
Oh
I have one of those on my poor BST baby...
And that's wierd nanny since you brought yours in so early!!
Well, from the sound of that article it sounds it is too late for my little guy. Darn it...
OOOh. Weird article. And icky photos! Learn all kinds of new things on this forum! Who knew??
valrita
Aug 25, 2008
We've had so many different types wasps in our yard this year so I've been trying to find a pic of what an adult wasp of this type looks like. I'm just wondering what kind of wasp to look for. Can anyone show me or give me a link to a picture? Which wasps should I look out for that will harm the cats?
Here's a picture of the wasps that attack swallowtails, along with an article. So creepy! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for my guys.
http://www.blogsmonroe.com/nature/2008/07/25/nature-aint-necessarily-natural/
Aaaahhhh, there was some milkweed right behind where I found my little guy. The pods were just covered with those things. I didn't know what they were.
Hrmm, mystery solved. Well, so sad for you Nanny. I lost two monarch cats and it is not a fun feeling.
It truly is science fiction, don't you think???
I find it all so strange, because I brought about 20 plus swallowtail cats in all on Dill flowers, and all of them so incredibly small, I thought they had hatched that day........and I lost close to if not half of them to these freaky cocoon things. The cocoon is half the size of their body.....and yes, they sit listlessly over it, and don't eat or anything.....
I am glad other people are doing research on this as well......I think next year my SwallowTails will be getting a cage of their own....
TJB
Jack, did you ever try to remove these things??
I released mine outside this morning. In the article it says some stay inside the cats body. That no doubt makes it unable to develope normally.
This message was edited Aug 25, 2008 10:08 AM
oooh, I'm hating this. It seems like just a matter of time before I'll be witnessing this horror and it's kind of taking the fun out of raising butterflies!
I just opened the August issue of Smithsonian last night, and there's a short piece with an accompanying photo, about a Brazilian wasp that does the same thing. A study from the Netherlands reports that the nasty wasp "larvae compel the dying caterpillar to swing its head violently after they emerge, possibly scaring predatory bugs away"; the photo is pathetic. It's impossible not to feel bad for the poor caterpillars. The best thing would be to put them out of their misery, and kill those nasty little larvae as well.
just in time for halloween!
I removed the STOMPED! The larvae, but the cats just lay there and starve to death.........Brazilian wasp?.....I am going to look that up as well....Thanks
TJB
awwww. okay, no hop there then.
I've noticed many different looking wasps all around my garden this year. And now with these awful wasp larvae being noted, I'm having terrible thoughts of a world without butterflies. We can kill the larvae that the affected caterpillars we bring in to raise are carrying but just think of all the others outside, all those little cocoons that will yield MORE of those horrible wasps! It sounds like the ultimate vicious cycle. I think it's really important that we kill those larvae, and unfortunately, the poor caterpillars harboring them.
Ahhh...but they do serve a purpose and there is where humans in meaning well ..in their efforts to safe one species, they destroy another and effect many more.
Right, there's lots about population control. I'd rather not start messing with nature more than man already has. That's a slippery slope.
I know, I'm usually the first to agree with that. But I just hate to see something as ugly as a wasp get the better of the beautiful butterflies. And I will kill every one of those little suckers I can, when I see them! I can only swat at the wasps (how DO you kill those things?) but if I see those cocoons.....SQUISH.......
I am with Thea......I want to figure out a way of controlling the Wasps, at least in the defined parameters of the Habitat I have built.......Let Mother Nature sort out the rest of the wild.......But in my back yard, I am going to play God.
with all of the polluting we do, and eradication of prairie and urban sprawl.....we don't actually know if we ourselves are not also 1. hurting the populations of the Butterflies by taking away their natural habitat and B. in some sick way Helping the population of these nasty parasites, that can only be compared to WE the human race.......There are so many issues that need be addressed with the world, it's a daunting task.....I choose a few battles in life to stand up for and work at changing......Nutrition, Health, and my Butterfly Habitat!.... all well within my control, so many things in life are not....lol
Peace
Well, cowbirds…
"You take the good, you take the bad,
you take them both and there you have
The Facts of Life…"
My understanding is that part of the reason they are such a problem is that their reach has extended due to man's destruction of their habitat. Who knows if they would have decimated species otherwise. I don't care for what they do, but it is Mother Nature's plan, so I take it for what it is.
Are you in the right place Mrs. Ed???
haaaaaaaa
what the heck? How did I get HERE!
oh man. time to go back to bed!