Posts by toukka

Last summer, I raised three Acronicta rumicis caterpillars and they made cocoons some time in August if I remember right. They were very creative with the choice of materials for cocoon making! About a week later, I moved them to a tall plastic box with a hole for ventilation. I would occasionally spray the bottle with a small amount of water because indoors it’s quite warm and the air is dry. In late September, I noticed mould on the sticks they made cocoons on. I decided to move them to a small cosmetics fridge that would keep the temperature about 8-9 degrees. There were no cosmetics or products inside.

I didn’t want to put them in the kitchen fridge because I can’t control the humidity inside. I left a hygrometer in the fridge with the cocoons and I lightly mist the bottom of the fridge about every other day. I put several LEDs on a timer to simulate a day/night cycle. I admit that occasionally I forgot to charge the batteries but mostly they have been running.

Now that spring is coming, I’m trying to find an optimal time and way of waking them up. I was thinking of slowly raising the temperature to about 15 degrees and see if they respond. I’m a bit concerned that I couldn’t keep them at a cooler environment over the winter but the small fridge simply isn’t powerful enough.

Do you have any further suggestions?

I took the caterpillars from the forest and I intend to release the moths in the same area if they hatch successfully.

Thank you on behalf of the 🐛🐛🐛

Hi,

Are there any resources about caterpillar diseases? A Google search gave me some information about poisoning that causes vomiting and black death. I had a caterpillar I found in a cut-down forest die in the matter of several days. It was a nearly fully grown fox moth, so I wanted to feed it for a bit and release it in an area where I’ve seen other caterpillars of the species. The first day it was eating quite a bit, aspen and a bit of birch. The day after it was moving and eating less. Then it didn’t touch any food and it was resting most of the time. In the evening, I noticed it wriggle three times, bending its body sharply to the left, a bit like trying to scratch its side, then sharply to the right and then again to the left. I interpreted this as it being in pain. Then the day after it stopped moving, so it has died at some point. There was no vomit anywhere. I put some water droplets several times a day and the first two days, it would go and drink some, but I didn’t see it look for water later. I would imagine that if it were getting dehydrated, it would try finding water. It was just a couple centimetres away, so even if weak, I guess it would be able to take several steps forward. Do you know what could have happened? Are there any resources to read more about illnesses? Are there any known ways of treatment for some diseases? Thank you!