Sigh of Relief

[NickiM]

I had a several tense and sad days. Three cats in a row failed to pupate properly. The first one pupated about halfway, and the other two didn't pupate at all, they just hung there and their back feet stretched out. It was very sad to see, plus I was really worried that my new food source might have been contaminated, althought the cats seemed perfectly fine until they tried to pupate.

I had three guys drop into "J" last night, and was holding my breath to see what would happen this morning. I awoke to find two lovely jade green "jewels" hanging in the containers, and the third one pupated just fine about an hour later.

I'm really glad these guys seem fine, but it's frustrating not to know what was wrong.

[Mona Miller]

I've heard reports of bacterial infections--this can be in the egg. A caterpillar can pupate and a fly come out of the pupa. It's all part of nature's way of trying to balance things. But, not fun at all when you've spent time trying to protect these incredible creatures.

[Wyvern]

Besides parasite and illness problems, sometimes failure to pupate properly could be as simple as they could not properly unzip/split the caterpillar skin and it gets bound up/stuck preventing the chrysalis from forming properly. I had one that definitely suffered that this year.

[Mona Miller]

I've read if there are other caterpillars in the container, that sometimes the other caterpillar will silk over the caterpillar waiting to pupate and cause the skin to snag during pupation.

Some times I wonder whether it is a male thing and the other male does not want to allow another male to succeed. The caterpillars do have a sex.

[Wyvern]

I've read if there are other caterpillars in the container, that sometimes the other caterpillar will silk over the caterpillar waiting to pupate and cause the skin to snag during pupation.

Some times I wonder whether it is a male thing and the other male does not want to allow another male to succeed. The caterpillars do have a sex.

I've had some cats nibble on a fresh chrysalis before it hardens.. never had silking problems though. Sometimes I can be very good at judging when 5th instars are about to go so I can group them together but occasionally I get a cat that just ends up not getting with the program and stays antsy after the others have changed lol.

[NickiM]

These guys were alone in the containers, so I know it wasn't a problem with another's silk being on them.

I've had a pretty good success rate this year, so far. Out of 56 cats I've found, 8 have died, 11 are still happily munching, 16 have pupated buy not yet eclosed, and 21 have been released. Plus, half of the eggs I found have hatched, giving me an additional 8 cats I'm raising right now. If all of the ones I'm raising now successfully eclose, I will end up releasing 56 out of 64!

[Mona Miller]

I've been reading on some lists that it can be a problem with being too close to an air conditioning vent. I know I've seen this happen when it gets too hot. I had a very bad experience when I first started setting up tents to rear outside. The caterpillars pupated on the metal inside the tent and when the day got in the 90s they couldn't pupate completely. I rushed to save as many as I could. All my tents now have the metal on the outside.

Don't rear in direct sunlight. Indirect lighting is best to rear in.

[lib66laur]

ugh. I want to sigh with relief ~ soon! I have 20 cats plus one egg and the more I read/hear this late in the season, the more frightened I am of all the problems they can have. Aside from two that just flat out died, I was very fortunate with my mid-summer Monarchs. Keeping fingers crossed and their environment clean!!