Step 7: Moving In
You can be certain that your caterpillars are ready to transition from the nursery to the condo when they are about a week old and an inch long. Since they were probably the ones eating all the leaves in the nursery, I made the decision to move the two largest ones in before the others.
Two methods of safe transfer:
1) Encourage a caterpillar onto the tip of a paintbrush. They might have tiny silk strands sticking to the container, as you may discover. Reluctantly pulling away will likely cause the caterpillar to be pulled back. To break the bond, carefully lift away and, if you can, clamp the silk threads with your fingers.
Put the paintbrush tip on or close to a leaf of the host plant. The caterpillar will quickly disembark.
2) Just pick up the piece of an old food leaf that your caterpillar is clinging to and move it inside the condo. You can place it on the ground or among the leaves, and you can let him decide where to climb.
Check in every day to monitor their feeding and health. Usually, you won’t have to help them by opening the netting. To maintain the cleanliness of the food source, you can either paintbrush or tap the area where they are leaving a lot of excrement on the host plant. They will stay in the condo for about a week more, completely destroying and growing twice as large as the host plant.
Note: You can remove the netting to let butterflies enjoy the host plant and possibly lay more eggs after your caterpillars have finished their transformation and left the condo. Just be mindful that unwelcome, predatory insects might also join in once you expose your plant to the outside world. Make sure to visually inspect your plant and remove any potential hazards to caterpillars before allowing another round of caterpillars to visit.
Step 6: Easy Installation
With the seam (the one I taped) on the underside, slide the cardboard base into the bottom of your net sleeve.
Place the potted host plant atop the cardboard base, then slowly raise the net sleeve around the plant. It shouldn’t be too tight or challenging to work with because it will be fitted to your tomato cage.
Use clothespins, binder clips, or plastic plant clips to fasten the netting to the tomato cage’s upper hoop. By doing this, you’ll be able to open and close the top without having the entire thing fall.
Close your top by loosely knotting the excess netting. Take quick action to prevent undesired pests from getting on your plant while you’re not looking. To access the plant for food harvesting or caterpillar transfer, simply undo the knot. Your condo is ready for residents!.
Step 4: Plant Base
You will need to buy a host plant if you do not already have a healthy one. My first plants didn’t grow to the size I had planned, so I purchased a more mature plant that I knew could support five caterpillars. Consider carefully how many you can sustain because they will consume a lot of food as they get bigger and you don’t want to run out. Even though I was very much in favor of having twelve babies, I knew that would not be a responsible
Locate the pot into which you want to move your host plant. Although the store pot was a good size, I thought the milkweed needed a little more space to grow.
Flip the pot over and use your cardboard to trace the mouth’s widest portion.
Cut out the cardboard circle you just made.
This will be the base of you pod. Its function is to give your netting’s lower portion some structure and control.
Transfer the host plant to the desired pot. If the branches reach past the pot’s edge, you can secure them together with some plastic plant clips. When you open and close the net, there is less chance of you knocking leaves (and caterpillars) around because a tighter cluster will fit inside our netting more easily.
Install the tomato cage once your branches have grown into more of a column.
FAQ
How can I protect my caterpillars?
How do you protect swallowtail caterpillars from birds?
Will birds eat my monarch caterpillars?
Does salt help caterpillars?