!!PLEASE HELP!!

luna moth

Greetings Actias once again,

My butterfly rearing has gone south.
Ever since July 7th, My out door 5 ft by 3 ft butterfly cage has had the worst luck.
Every wild caught butterfly has only lived 3 hours- 1 day.
‘It’s been very sad to watch all the specimen die.
They have a diet of water, flowers, honey water, and banana.
The temp is 61-92 degrees F.

Species include Papilio Species ex- Glaucus & Polyxenes.
Viceroys, red spotted purples. Nymphalis species ex- Mourning Cloak
Satyrs, wood nymphs, and Polygonia. Fritillaries.

please tell me what is happening.

Raltsev

Hi Ethan
Where do you keep butterflies?

Raltsev

Papilio can usually live very long, even without food.
Maybe it's butterflies food. Can be changed to fructose solution.

luna moth

I keep them outside.
What is the fructose solution?
I may have tried that already.

Raltsev

Fructose - Wikipedia

Rudi

Show us a few photos about your buttefly cage.

where you positioned it, etc.

luna moth

It usually is in modeled shade, but today It was raining so a brought it inside.

Prem63

Hello
If it is raining it may be better to leave them outside rather than indoors, in the wild they would just sit somewhere sheltered and wait for the rain to stop. The atmosphere may be too dry indoors and if there is no sun they would not fly nor feed indoors or outdoors and if sheltering they would be better somewhere a little cool and humid, ie outside. I would not put them in the rain though.
Good luck
Best wishes
Prem

luna moth

Thanks Prem!

I tried that before and they start to flap on the floor before dying. Sometimes getting wet and not being able to fly. Even outside with little water in the shade, they still find a way to get wet.

I might try it again, though.
Thanks again

luna moth

Why do butterflies flap on the floor? Is it because of death?

Bartmantis

Maybe consider factors like..

- Sunlight? In full sunlight with no place to shelter, butterflies can overheat fast
- Airconditioning? This can he harmful to insects, since aircondition severely dries out the air
- Insecticides? This can happen unnoticed, such as flea collars of on pets
- Overheating? I assume they are native species, but 92F (33C) does sound on the very hot side. In the wild, butterflies also live in such hot temperatures, but in the wild they can thermoregulate by flying in cooler places - for example they can fly towards the shadow where it's cooler, or will fly on a higher altitude to avoid hot temperatures near the ground, and are mobile enough to fly to areas that suit their preferred temperature. Maybe stuck in a cage in 33C is too much?
- Dehydration? Butterflies can dry out faster than they can starve, especially if their food is not up to standards, and they are in a dry environment

I can only speculate though

luna moth

Hi Bart!

I sprtitz them with water quite a bit, I’m not sure if it’s drying out. Insecticides are a huge possibly, and I’m a little bit worried. 92 is hot but that is only the hot high. Even though kept in modeled shade, over-heating is a possibility too. I don’t have to many large specimens so the huge cage should be large enough, but I just don’t know. They are just dying too fast even for me to feed them. I hope we can find the answer because it’s a shame how many i’ve lost.
Thanks

Rudi

Zitat von luna moth

They are just dying too fast even for me to feed them.

Dehydrated, overfilled cage and over-heating, my opinion.

You have to offer them both sun and shade. Either by covering or moving the cage.
And the single Buddleia in the cage is far from sufficient to feed the animals, precisely because they can hardly fly a cage that is relatively small for this purpose. The cage also seems to me to be much too small for such a variety of different types. They interfere with each other.

Concentrate on 1-2 species, then make the animals as comfortable as possible and then keep looking.

luna moth

Hi Rudi,

Yes you could be right.
when I brought them inside, I took all the stuff out of the cage. They also had mIlkweed and some other perennials as well. I also put a plate of banana in there too. Is that enough?
I will try to make sure the cage is very humid and half shade and sunlight.
Hopefully that will work

kevink

When I first read your post, overcrowding sounded a possibility, it's hard to get a manufactured enclosure that is big enough.
Ideally, we'd all have conservatories. Consider making a larger cage,window screen, a stapler, some framing, I make a lot
of my own cages.
There are some other sites that might help you with North American natives- Not that you're not getting good advice here.

butterfliesandmore.net
raisingbutterflies.org
butterflyboutique.net

luna moth

Thanks Kevin!

!!PLEASE HELP!!

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