Agar

Discussion forum for butterfly foodplants, and butterfly gardening in general.
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Nightpain81
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2023 1:24 pm

Agar

Post by Nightpain81 »

Does anyone have any experience of using agar jelly to raise caterpillars? When I did a painted ladies kit the caterpillars had a little pot for food so no need for leaves as food plants.

I have some eggs/caterpillars on order. They sent me out some Lackey Moth eggs earlier this month - I wasnt expecting them to send out that early so I had a panic for leaves as of course it's winter and there are no leaves on the trees. I thought my brambles would come to the rescue and picked multiple different types and reassured myself that indeed Lackey's did eat brambles and even found a picture on the internet proving this. Nevertheless though all my Lackeys died.

They've now sent me some Oleander Moth eggs ahead of expected schedule. Im thinking I'll be ok as they apparently eat privet, and I have honeysuckle growing in my garden which has leaves coming out and this is supposed to be a food plant - however, not understanding why my Lackeys died, I dont want the same thing happening with these ones.

I thought agar jelly might be a safer option, but this doesnt seem easy to source and I dont know how reliably they will eat it.

Anyone have any experience?
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David M
Posts: 17710
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:17 pm
Location: South Wales

Re: Agar

Post by David M »

Wish I could help with this, NP, but I'm afraid I have no experience in this type of rearing.
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