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Need source: Butterfly larvae

  • Thread starter schloaty
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schloaty

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Hey, anyone know a good source for butterfly larvae?

I've looked around the internet, and only found two places that have anything besides painted ladies.

Nothing against painted ladies, but I'd like a selection!

I'd really like to rear some catterpillars with my daughter, and the bigger the better (and the more the better)....
???
 
You want to see something that your daughter will never and I mean never forget. Hatch one of the giant silkmoths, Luna and Cecropia emergence is truly amazing.
 
You guys rock. Thanks. :hail:
 
Mulberry Farms offers tomato and tobacco hornworms which become interesting moths IIRC. ANd I believe they are raisable on silkworm chow. Or you can just order silkworms...
 
I could probably find you a few cabbage whites if you like those. That's what I started out on. I thought they were awesome until I started growing Brassicas. Now they usually end up as spider food.
 
I thought Brassicas were cabbage whites. ???

Anyway, I went with a milkweed plant and a plantain along with Monarch and painted lady eggs - there are only three species they sell that they're allowed to send to NY, and they were out of the third (Eastern Black Swallowtail).
 
You need a hickory horned devil. :) They are as big as a hotdog.
 
  • #10
What do they eat? Hickory, I would immagine?

And what sort of butterfly/moth do they turn into?

I am kinda hoping to get a tomato horn worm this year in my garden (and rescue it before the parasitic wasp can get to it). They make the sphinx moth, which is cool.
 
  • #12
That thing is AWESOME!

Now where do I get one of THOSE?
 
  • #13
I saw one of those at my school before JLAP.
they get about as big as a hotdog.

every year we get tons of Black Swallowtail caterpillars on our Fennel. if you want I could try and send you some.
they end up almost killing the plants every year, but It's so amazing watching all of them turn into butterflies
 
  • #14
You're probably right, and that's why I like latin names. Brassicacae is the cabbage family; the cabbage white butterfly is Pieris rapae.

My dad found what he thought was a patch of mold on the wall. Well it turned out to be a carpet of eggs, and we raised the fuzzy black caterpillars that hatched out, and eventually they grew into arachnis moths like this. It's too bad they aren't predictable the way hornworms are. Once the tomatoes get ripe in the summer here, you see a lot of green fruit beetles. They lay their eggs in the compost and I see their grubs sometimes, but since they breed once a year they're probably a little slow for indoor cultivation. I always wanted to raise stag beetles, but they take 2-3 years and then they only live for a few months in the adult form.
 
  • #15
Hickory horned devil- hickory, walnut, butternut, bitternut, pecan. In other words, plants of the walnut family. Not to common in areas with planted trees, as these plants are not commonly planted normally. This guy needs soil to pupate. Not that common where i am- usually high in the host tree canopy. You almost always find them in the region of the host plants. well the caterpillars anyway. Fun to raise.

When i lived out east i always delighted in the big green june beetles, and the hemlock looper was always fun to play with as a kid.


Tomato hornworm is A sphinx moth. The one i see around here is the whitelined sphinx- has such a huge host range i can never find a caterpillar though. So sad

best_sphinx.jpg


If you plant snowberries, you might get lucky and find the Snowberry Clearwing, too!

http://www.birds-n-garden.com/snowberry_clearwing_hummingbird_moths.html
 
  • #16
Farmer Dave,
I would be most obliged! I think you have to be carefull shipping them.....We can talk when you find some.
 
  • #17
I'd second the suggestion on silkmoths. You've likely done silkworms before, so why not have something with a more interesting end result?
 
  • #18
You need a hickory horned devil. :) They are as big as a hotdog.

While truly impressive, they are also supposed to be difficult. Many people struggle w/ them.

Better subjects and still very impressive are saturnids like cecropia, polyphemus & luna. All are typically widely available (as are their foodplants - pretty important).

Planting fennel, parsley or dill outside in a flower bed has a very high success rate for getting black swallowtails. Leaving them on the plant will let your kid(s) search for them each time they come outside - always a fun time...
 
  • #20
Hi Ron,

I plan on getting some of those food plants for the garden this year, as even if that fails, they're food plants for ME too. :)

Incidently, my mother called me yesterday to come look at some "thing" that's on a branch outside of her house that "something is living in." If it's on her lilac tree, my bet is cecropia moth. That would be severly cool. I found one of those coccoons once up at college all those years ago. I would LOVE to do that again.

Pyro, I did check out Mullberry farms - they have really cool stuff.

If I can get my wife & daughter (the daughter will be easy, wife not so much) about the painted ladies & monarchs, then I will branch out.

I may even screen in the vents & window in my greenhouse, and make it a butterfly house as well as a greenhouse. That would be awesome!
 
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