As most of my readers should've gathered by now I'm a little obsessed with butterflies. My obsession started after we chose our eldest's name, which means butterfly (more about all 3 kids names can be found in my post: Why all the butterflies?). After that it was a slippery slope, and we now live in a house with butterfly motifs EVERYWHERE. I often have others ask me how I manage to find so many butterfly clothes and things for and the kids. The secret is that I'm that crazy person who'll add "buttery" to most of my Google searches when purchasing something, whether for us or as a gift.
HOWEVER I'm still very much a novice when it comes to knowing about actual butterflies. I have however been completely smitten by them, moths and their caterpillars. I've started looking for them anytime I'm out and researching any new ones I don't know about. Most valuable in this, I've found, has been several Facebook groups that are focused on them. By seeing other people's photos and queries, and especially posts by true lepidoptera experts as well as enthusiasts my knowledge is slowly growing. I have a feeling this is a pastime that will keep me occupied for life though!
For me it's not just learning about them in their different forms, but also how I can incorporate their needs with my interest in gardening. Again something that has only been a light hobby previously but that I over the last couple of years have found myself wanting to learn more and more about. Not just what flowers the butterflies will enjoy but also what plants are the essential host plants for the moth and butterfly caterpillars.
Keeping in mind how relatively new I am to this I don't want this post to be a definitive guide to rearing caterpillars into butterflies. But I hope it'll show how easy (and incredibly, magically satisfying) it is to help this animal along the way. Butterflies and moths are essential insects to our ecosystem, their job as pollinators is vital. But I also think they serve another purpose, one they have since man first saw them no doubt, and that is as a gateway to our imagination.
We have over the last two summers gotten Painted Lady caterpillars from InsectLore and let the kids see them grow, morph into cocoons before emerging as butterflies (fact of the day, partly as a friend asked recently: butterfly EGGS hatch into caterpillars, while butterflies emerge from their cocoons). It's a great experience, it's easy and incredibly low maintenance. Something I recommend if you're after a fun activity with your kids. Just try to take into consideration temperatures outside and whether there's food for them and potentially their caterpillars (Painted Lady butterflies are migratory).
Fun as that experience is it is fairly "test tube feely" as the caterpillars already have their food and you're not to open their container until they are cocoons. Nonetheless amazing if you're a novice! The net InsectLore sells has come in handy lots when we've needed to move butterflies from our house in the summer or when butterflies that have been "hibernating" (technically they just go into a dormant state as they are insects) wake too early in winter and we've needed to re-home them till warmer weather returns. We had a big collection of Small Tortoiseshells this winter as they seem to like our mill wheel.
ANYWAY I digress completely from the point of this post, one I had intended on keeping short because really I had planned on getting my "moving house" post done but then butterflies started emerging and well they take precedent over most things!
Last September a friend posted on Facebook that her cabbages had been attacked by unwanted visitors. Looking at the larvae I could tell they were Small & Large white caterpillars. Despite them looking incredibly alike in their adult form they'd are VERY different as caterpillars. Due to the time of year I knew they must be the final brood of the year - depending on temperatures during spring and summer butterflies usually go through several generations in a season. This however depends very much on what species they are. How they spend winter also depends on this, some remain dormant as butterflies, others as larvae while some remain in their cocoons until it's warm enough to emerge.
Lucky for this lot of caterpillars, my friend cares more about the creatures of this earth than how her veg did (she'll be trying again this year but will net them to try to prevent butterflies from laying eggs on her cabbages). I explained to her how she could look after them while they fed and went through their instars and then what to do with the cocoons. She had so many, even after sharing with her sister, that she was kind enough to drop some off with me and now theyve started emerging I can share how it's gone: 6 months later!
SEPTEMBER 2018
I had about 30-40 caterpillars, mostly Large whites. Sadly the 4 Small whites I had didn't make it to cocoons. In fact quite a few perished, and some I had to let go into the wild has they increased in size. I kept them in a tub with cabbage and broccoli leaves, I had to replenish their food regularly and try to prevent mold (warning if you do this at home it REEKS)
Once they all turned into cocoons I closed the lid properly and put the container in a cold and dark spot of the house where I knew the temperature would remain even during the winter months. As you can see I only ended up with 16 viable cocoons (quite a few more had turned into cocoons but then decomposed immediately)
APRIL 2019
Once flowers started to really show outside and temperatures go up (also once I had started seeing other butterflies and knew whites were due to make an appearance), I moved the cocoons into our butterfly net and into a warmer part of the house.
The night of the 12th the first one emerged. There's quite a few more now. We're feeding them fruit (preferably over ripe) and the occasional fresh flower while their wings dry out and will be releasing them outside on the next sunny day.
The kids are loving it and keep going up and talking to the butterflies (mostly saying "I love you"). Even the one year old coos at them.
Here's a small identification guide to white butterflies. I've knicked it from one of my Facebook groups as I found it so handy myself. For reference Small, Large (size is not the defining feature) and Green-veined Whites are ALL three "Cabbage whites" due to their caterpillars eating plants from the Brassicaceae family (i.e. cabbages, broccoli, sprouts...), the Orange-tip is not.
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