Fascinating. Where do you even get such things?
Eric , we get them from our backyard. We grow tropical milkweed, which they prefer over the native . We winter it over under lights in the basement.
We try harvest eggs/larvae/ young caterpillars as soon as we see them. If you don't ,they will get parasitized by wasps and there is a fly also , that will use them as hosts for their young/eggs.
After the caterpillars make their chrysalis , we then attach them to a branch via hot glue. Most hatched in my sun room on our table. We took this bunch to the beach with us because it was getting cold in TN., and we were headed that way and didn't want to leave them out in the cold.
I have a small video of them hatching but don't know if I can attach it here or not.
We only had a small "cage" to house them in as larvae and caterpillars, so it was daily feeding and cleaning caterpillar poop , and they poop a LOT !
It was an experience I'll treasure ! Last year , there were very few butterflies of any kind. Hoping to see more this year ! So happy Rick and his wife are helping this beautiful butterfly !!
