Help! Mass exodus into J's!????

[notsotypicalblonde]

Hi all, very late last night I discovered that all 5 of the caterpillars on one group of plants I have inside had all made J’s! But at least two are not final stage instars (maybe fourth I think) and one other is only very small fifth instar!!

Its like one went into a J so they all decided to follow in a mass exodus!!

They are all attached by cremaster.

I dont know what to do as they are too small to pupate properly. Although the original plant they started on is very depleted of leaves. They have easy access to big plants with lots of leaves but these ones stayed with the original plant (I know the new leafy plants are fine as they were purchased with others that have been successful adopted by the other pillars)

Help! How can I make them come out of the J’s when they are attached??? Should I try to deattach them and hope they will eat again?? Or would this be a very bad idea and muck them up totally?

Help! I dont wont to lose all these guys!!!

Katrina

[Paul Cherubini]

If they are in J's there is nothing you can do except hope they will successfully turn into a chrysalid.

[notsotypicalblonde]

Good news, they have all successfully pupated and although they are little the chysalises are perfectly formed! Will just have to wait and see how they fare when they eclose

[Mona Miller]

Once they attach themselves to the silk pad, they are in the pupation mode. Detaching them could cause them to have to pupate without hanging and that can be risky. I've seen them do it successfully, but not always.

With regard to depletion of milkweed, if the other milkweed is not close enough (touching the other milkweed) they may not transfer to it. I've often carefully picked up the caterpillars and put them on the new plants.