How Do You Care for a Woolly Bear Cocoon

My younger brother and I found a woolly bear caterpillar in the woods, and we decided to keep it. We fed it apple slices, and, after a month, it wove itself a cocoon. I moved the cocoon to my empty Kritter Keeper which I usually keep my mantids in, and balanced it on a fake ivy leaf.

Here are my questions:

1. How long do I have to wait until the tiger moth emerges?

2. Do I need to mist it like a mantis ooth?

3. Anything else I should be doing?

I'd put it in a sheltered place outside and it should eclose in spring

Put it outside in a garage, but first you need to add a substrate like eco earth. Mist it once a week but not directly on the cocoon. It should hatch in spring when it gets warmer. Good luck

OK. Thank you two for your replies!

Did it eat the apple slices? I always put in random handfuls of grass and leaves. If they don't have food they like, they often pupate anyway if they were within a few weeks of doing so at the time of collection.

I was suprised at that too. If you saw him or her eat it then that is new.

Mine always eat hostas

I have this kids' book about insects and fun projects that you can do that involve insects. One project was to raise a woolly bear,and it said to feed it apples. Both times that I have raised woolly bears, I have fed them apples, and I have seen them eat it.

I wonder if they eat apple leaves...

Me too...

I think that's what they meant in the book, but they also like apples.

That makes sense then

Too bad my neighbor cut down her crabapple, now wat am I gonna feed next year's cecropias? The leaves of her cherry tree r going to my ios lol

And hickory r going to the lunas, unless my cecropia cocoon is male in which case I don't have to worry, my io is female because I saw the antenna details because the head end of the cocoon was ripped when I got it

Anyways we find tons of wolly bears under our hostas each fall

Wahoo! The cocoon finally hatched, and I now have a fiery orange moth!

yay!!! post pics!!!

Um I'm not a computer whiz, so I have yet to learn to post pics.

Thats great!