Raising Caterpillars Into Butterflies

Collecting the Caterpillars (cats):
There are two ways you can go about getting caterpillars to watch and raise into adult butterflies. The first way to obtain cats is to order them online. MONARCH WATCH is a great organization and they will ship monarch cats to you at the right time for your region. You can do some research and order other types online as well.

The other way is to collect the cats yourself. If you have the host plants for the cats you want to raise, you can collect them right from there. Not all will be easy to spot, so you might want to start out with Black Swallowtails or Monarchs. These cats will be crawling around, during the day, eating and should be easy to spot. The Monarchs will be feasting on Milkweed, while the Black Swallowtail will be feasting on fennel, dill, parsley, or rue.

When you collect your caterpillars, be sure not to pluck them off of their host plant. They hold on tight and you can easily injure them before they are willing to let go. Cut a portion of the plant the cat is on and let it continue where it left off.

Housing Your Butterflies:
Once you have your cats collected, you can use a jug or aquarium to house them. For ventilation, do not use a container with holes cut out. These can injure your cats and if you’ve collected any eggs, the small cats that emerge may be able to escape. Use cheesecloth to cover your butterfly home and rubber band to secure it. If you or someone you know is handy, you can make a lid with a wood frame and screening for the top of an aquarium. This is the process that I use for some of my cats collected throughout the summer.

You will want to add sticks around your cat home, so they can crawl up on them when it is time to pupate, although they won’t always use the sticks, they are still necessary. After the adult butterfly emerges, he or she may need a stick to crawl up onto if it falls to the bottom of the cage.

Feeding Your Caterpillars:
Now that your cats have a home, you must take some care to keep them thriving. A fresh supply of their host plant is very important. Each day, you should remove the old dried leaves and replace them with new, freshly cut leaves. There will be a lot of waste (frass) as the cats only job is to eat. This should be cleaned out regularly as well. An easy way to control this icky job is to have your cat home lined with paper towels on the bottom. The paper towels can be rolled up and thrown out. Just make sure you are not throwing out any cats when you remove the old leaves and paper towels.

Your cats will not need water. There is enough in the plant material they consume. A spritz of water into the container every so often is a good idea for humidity. Be careful not to over-spritz as too much water will create mold. Your pupae need a little humidity from time to time as well.

The Pupae Stage:
Once your cats are finished feeding, they will have one last larger pile of frass that they will release before beginning their pupating. Once that is complete, they will crawl around, looking for a good place to hang. Some will crawl for hours upon hours and make you wonder if they know what they’re actually doing, while others will take very little time to attach themselves. For the next couple of days, they will begin to look different. First, they will just attach and look as though they are just going to hang out forever, but then you will notice differences as time passes, until you finally see they are going into the pupae stage and forming their chrysallis. Most butterflies will shed their outside skin and this will make them vulnerable, so be sure to have them in a safe place. In another day or two, they will look the same as they will for the next couple of weeks.

Once it is time for the butterfly to emerge, you can usually see a difference in the color of the chrysallis the day before. The butterfly will emerge early in the morning and it will be very quick. You can let it roost where it’s at while it gets its wings. This doesn’t take long and then it’s time for your butterfly to go out into the sun and fly away.

I have kept my chrysallis right inside the cage I had the cats in and let them be until they emerged, and I have also kept them outside of cages, right in my kitchen, attached to various things. The first year I did this with Monarchs around the kitchen (I had collected some chrysallis from outside and some I had from raising the cats), I woke up one morning to about a dozen monarch butterflies all hanging in a row on a basket handle I had them attached to. I will be sure to go into more butterfly and chrysallis stories and what I’ve tried in another article.

Now that you know all about raising your own butterflies, it might be interesting to learn more about the LIFE CYCLE OF A BUTTERFLY.

BUTTERFLY FARMER HOME

TALK TO THE BUTTERFLY

RESOURCES