Feeding Squash (learn from my mistakes)

[laurel]

In Early December I attempted to raise all 31 monarch caterpillars which hatched on my two milkweed plants. I knew from the start that I wouldn't have enough milkweed, but went ahead anyway, hoping I could get them to their 5th instar on Milkweed and then finish them on squash.

I was barely able to do this. I switched most of the cats to squash between their 4th and 5th molt. The squash I used was calabaza, which not only turns their frass orange, but makes it very wet and difficult to clean up. Milkweed frass rolls around very easily and is a breeze to clean up, but the Calabaza frass was wet and stuck to everything, including the pieces they were eating from. It was a nightmare to keep them clean. I changed their bedding every 4 hours and it was still a mess.

After some trial and error, I was able to devise a semi-clean way to feed the squash: I skewered a square chunk of squash, leaving the ends of the wood skewer long enough to prop the squash up off the bottom of the container. This gave the cats a clean surface to stand on, and their frass, for the most part, fell to the bottom of the container.

Nevertheless, it was impossible to keep the inside of the containers dry enough, and I lost about 1/2 of the caterpillars to infection. Those that did pupate made strange-looking, wrinkled pupae, some with black spots.

About half the chrysalises pooped out before eclosing, and the other ones produced butterflies that were too wet to fully eclose (they stuck to the chrysalis) or they emerged with deformed wings. Out of 31 caterpillars, not one made it to a healthy adult.

If I find myself in a similar situation in the future, I'll choose from the biggest, healthiest cats to raise, and euthanize the rest (I hate doing that, but I'd rather have a few healthy butterflies than none.) Also, I will use a drier squash like pumpkin. Calabaza is too wet, and all the problems I had were related to moisture.

[Mona Miller]

I peeled the squash, cut the squash in squares, put a hole in the middle, and put them on the milkweed stems. The frass falls down. I also raised these outside in my tent during the summer. I had pretty good success, but only used the squash on 5th instars.

You might want to consider that the squash you were using may have had some type of pesticide.

[laurel]

I've seen the posts where people put the squash on the stalks of the milkweed plant. This is ideal in many ways, but I wasn't able to do that.

I find that my milkweed recovers much quicker if I prevent the caterpillars from eating the crown of the plant, so I keep my cats in plastic containers and feed them selected leaves. This way I can keep them indoors in a climate controlled environment, and generally they stay drier than if I kept their containers outdoors.

I didn't see pesticide-type symptoms, but definitely moisture-related bacterial sickness. They were crowded in their containers. I shouldn't have tried to raise more than I could accommodate.

[M_ and_ M]

I had no idea the larva would eat on squash as I read all this. So you are using the vegetables with success?? Thanks, trying to figure out what to do with my 4th and 5th instars right now as milkweed is done to stems.

[Mona Miller]

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1907&p=8999&hilit=pumpkin#p8999
I posted some information earlier on using pumpkin to feed 5th instar larvae. Hope this discussion helps.

[Citheronia]

Sorry if I'm asking to repeat. (I've missed the beginning of this discusion about substitute food when milkweed's not available.)
I'm so GLAD this forum is here. Thank you people for sharing your knowledge & experience. I'd not known about offering squash to Monarch cats. Interesting! It sounds as though only the squash itself is given to the cats? No leaves or parts of the vines?
Is it a majority 'vote' that pumpkins are OK too, or not? What about other kinds of squash such as Acorn, Butternut, (not zucchini I suppose, pretty wet,) Spaghetti squash etc.?
Are there other alternative food & nutrient sources too?
I understand about trying to rescue more than you'll have food available for. I've done the same, raising Silk Moths -- resulting in wandering around the chilly WI forests looking at all the bare trees , getting chilled and just praying to find one, even just one leaf still clinging to a Balsa Tree. I'd bring back some stale ol' thing. The poor cats would try to eat it but I don't think it tasted very good. Luckily, just when I was really wringing my hands, one by one they'd luckily begin to spin themselves into their winter 'tombs'.

[Mona Miller]

If you put the word "pumpkin" in the search, which is located at the top right you will see all the discussion.