I had an amazing day the other day finding SIX caterpillars of different ages in my yard. That’s a lot for me, especially this year. The wasps hover around my milkweed something fierce and eat them so fast. I also have never been able to keep a caterpillar alive who is less than say, a 5 days old because when they are that tiny they just can’t seem to get what they need from my milkweed set-up.
Here’s what I’ve tried. If you have some tips, please leave them in the comments!
I have a screened cage that’s about 2 ft x 1 ft x 16″ high. The caterpillars always make their ‘J’ on the wood strips along the top.
In the past I’ve put the milkweed in jars of water and the cats drowned.
So then I poked stem sized holes into lids over the water. That works so-so. I quickly use up all my top stems though and really need to be able to just use single leaves too. But when I put them in the hole, they shred a little and then wilt quickly after that.
This year I thought I had the answer. I received a bunch of florist foam and put that into two large bowls. Filled them with water to the top and the leaves were o.k. for awhile, but they really don;t seem to last even 24 hours.
Help? Anyone?