disappearing cats

[Seanaldo]

I collected maybe 5 or six tiny cats and eggs the other day, put them in a pop-up with a potted milkweed, left them alone for a couple days (to avoid accidentally hurting anyone) and now I can only find three. I'm hoping maybe I just don't see them, but I'm kind of upset/confused? I checked all the dried up leaves carefully, each egg appears to have hatched. Do y'all recommend raising individually? I just wish I knew where they were/what happened!

[Mona Miller]

Okay, if some of the others eggs hatched before the other eggs the tiny caterpillar has a bad habit of wanting another yummy egg snack. They will crawl over and egg another caterpillar inside of its egg. Sorry. Their eye sight is very bad. Then, there's the tiny hiding spiders, assasin bugs, and other predators. Check the under sides of the leaves, for predators. I usually wash the plant off before I enclose them, spiders hate water. Caterpillars also like to play hide-n-seek. Most of the time you will find them hiding under the leaves or at the very top of the plant. They may show up later.

In the future, when hatching eggs make sure you separate the newly hatched caterpillar away from his egg brothers/sisters.

[Seanaldo]

Will do!

[Mona Miller]

They will crawl over and eat another caterpillar inside of its egg. Sorry. Their eye sight is very bad.

Oops, I meant to type eat not egg.

[skinnyhoops]

"egg" another caterpillar sounds funny though LOL

EGG FIGHT!

[Mona Miller]

When the egg is eaten, the tiny caterpillar inside is also eaten.