Silkmoth Keepers

[sporeworld]

...Polys eat oak which is also everywhere.

Hey Sporeworld,

Are you going to the LA natural history museam for the Butterfly Habitat opening on April 8...

Poly LOVE SweetGum, which is also all over SoCal. It's my preferred non-winter food source.

As for the history museum, I hadn't thought about it. Probably. My schedules pretty chaotic, so I'm not sure. Sounds good, though!

 

[CoolMantid]

What would you say about the other thing? the one about one moth eclosing before the other???

 

[sporeworld]

Moths I raised together, with the same lighting conditions (day length) all eclosed within a day or so of each other (I think the boys always come out first). But cocoons I've received from others have been all over the map!

I have no personal experience with chilling the adults to slow them down. Seems like it would work, though.

 

[agent A]

i am kinda freaked out by polys lol

still looking for columbias and wont be long before my cocoons eclose

 

[mongoslade2110]

ya im in to saturniids to i hope that we can all share are broods together

 

[automeris]

i've been raising saturniids for a wile. i raised some citheronia caterpillars last year which was fun.

 

[sporeworld]

Nice. A good start to a small sub-community!

 

[sporeworld]

i am kinda freaked out by polys lol

What freaks you out about Polys...?

 

[agent A]

What freaks you out about Polys...?

their size, the way they fly idiotically, the way they hide in a compost pile for 2 days and are found mating with not 1, but 2 males, and the way they panic lay eggs (when they are disturbed)

 

[sporeworld]

Fair enough. The size is the cool part for me, but... yeah - add that to Flash Gordon style landings, and eeek!

And, yeah... never had a problem mating them. Very... prolific.

 

[CoolMantid]

Do cocoons wiggle a lot normally? Mine are like dancing

 

[Peter Clausen]

I've been down here blacklighting about four times. There's nothing quite like it in the US.

http://nitro.biosci.arizona.edu/zeeb/butterflies/mothlist.html

No thread on this subject is complete w/o that link!

 

[agent A]

Do cocoons wiggle a lot normally? Mine are like dancing

Constantly

 

[CoolMantid]

Yah its fun to watch!

Mothing is fun. I will try soon when it gets a little warmer at night

 

[sporeworld]

I've been down here blacklighting about four times. There's nothing quite like it in the US.

http://nitro.biosci....s/mothlist.html

No thread on this subject is complete w/o that link!

Never gets old.

 

[agent A]

I was stalked by a raccoon last backlighting and I caught a mated Virginia creeper sphinx and got like 80 larvae

 

[CoolMantid]

What is blacklighting? Is it the same as mothing? Can you give me information or links in depth?

 

[CoolMantid]

Well I bought a black light and I am going black lighting tonight. So far I just found small feeder moths and a couple of flies. I hope I get some larger moths such as Shinxes, Hawks or Saturniids.

 

[agent A]

Well I bought a black light and I am going black lighting tonight. So far I just found small feeder moths and a couple of flies. I hope I get some larger moths such as Shinxes, Hawks or Saturniids.

Saturniids fly early morningish

A calling female can help u attract many of them lol

 

[CoolMantid]

I was doing it until about 11-12ish but then it started raining lol