Pieris Rapae

[Sapper]

Has anyone tried to cultured Pieris Rapae.the Small cabbage Butterfly. they are about 32mm to 48mm 1.26in to 1.89in in size. If you have a garden in Texas you will have Cabbage worms. The birds go after them so they must be tasty. Collard greens will grow year round in North TX. So I should get about 7 generation per year. I think I can make a culture for year round Butterflies. any thoughts would be welcomed.

 

[Ranitomeya]

I've kept them before and it should be possible if you have plants of the genus Brassica year-round. The chrysalids diapause in cool weather and it might be difficult to get the butterflies to mate without a large net cage outdoors in which they can fly freely without dispersing.

 

[Brian Liang]

Lol, I am keeping hundreds of them right that I have found as eggs (mostly) and caterpillars in the garden and they are extremely easy to raise (never got them to mate though, but very close). Just give them a good amount of brocolli or cabbage and they'll eat and grow in 2 weeks or less and emerge in about 1-2 weeks too. Never had molting issues, random deaths, etc., but beware of pesticides so either buy organic food plants or pick them (if your willing). I had nearly my entire batch of them killed off when I accidently made this mistake.

But overall, yes, they are very easy to keep but I don't know how good they are for the mantd. They shouldn't be too hard to find--any brocolli plant out there shuold have at least 10 eggs and maybe even a couple larvae. Check every week they should should build up again.