How do caterpillars drink water

This also gives the caterpillar a way to climb back onto its food plant should it fall off. To keep the caterpillar's food plant fresh, place the stems in a small jar of water. Fill any space between the stems and the lip of the jar with wadded paper towels or cotton balls to prevent your caterpillar from falling into the water and drowning.

Put the jar with the food plant into the caterpillar jar. When the butterfly or moth emerges, it will need a place to cling while it unfurls its wings and dries them. Once the caterpillar pupates, you can tape a paper towel to the wall of the jar or aquarium to give the adult a place to cling.

Place the tape at the top and allow the paper towel to hang freely to the bottom. Sticks also work well for giving the butterfly or moth a place to hang.

You don't need to provide water; caterpillars get their moisture from the plants they consume. Cover the jar opening with a fine mesh screen or cheesecloth and secure it with a rubber band. If you don't know what kind of caterpillar you've found, feeding it can be tricky. Most caterpillars are herbivores, eating only plants. Some caterpillars feed on a variety of food plants, while others consume only a specific plant.

You can't force a caterpillar to eat something different—it will simply stop eating. Trial and error may be required to find the proper food for your caterpillar. Your first and most important clue is where you found the caterpillar. If it was on a plant, there's a good chance that's its food.

Take some cuttings of the plant, including new and old leaves as well as flowers if the plant has bloomed. Some caterpillars prefer old leaves to new ones, and others may feed on the flowers.

Offer the cuttings to your caterpillar and see if it eats anything. If the caterpillar wasn't on a plant at the time you found it, you'll have to make some educated guesses about what to feed it.

Start with the nearby plants, taking cuttings and offering them to the caterpillar. If it eats one, you've solved the mystery and should continue to collect that plant for feeding.

If you're stumped about the caterpillar's food preferences, try introducing one or more of the most common caterpillar food plants: oak, willow, cherry, poplar, birch, apple, and alder. Some herbaceous plants, such as dandelions and clover, are common hosts for larvae. When all else fails, try a few bits of apple or carrot. Whatever your caterpillar eats, you'll need an abundant supply. A caterpillar's job is to eat and grow.

As it gets bigger, it will eat more. You must keep a fresh supply of food available to the caterpillar at all times. Change the food once most of it has been eaten or if it starts to wilt or dry out. Since caterpillars eat a lot, they also produce a lot of droppings called frass. Whatever you choose, it will need to have some form of ventilation to keep the environment from becoming too moist and the frass caterpillar poop will need to be cleaned out daily.

Of course you always have the option to utilize both methods. You can keep them in the open until they get close to pupation then place them in a container until they form their chrysalis. Depending on what they pupate on within their enclosure, you may be able to move the chrysalis back into the open ie. Here are some considerations for the fresh food requirement in your caterpillar house. If you take cuttings from the host plant they will usually last for several days if the stems are in water.

You can do this by using floral picks or you can take a plastic container like a small butter container or cool whip container and poke holes in the lid. Fill the container with water then put the lid on and place the stems in the holes. This helps hold the food plant up, keeps it in water, prevents the caterpillars from falling in the water and drowning, and keeps the caterpillars up in the food and out of their poop frass. Instead of using water, you could just add fresh food everyday.

Of course, if your caterpillars are on a potted plant outdoors you could just bring the whole plant inside. You can keep it in the open or if you have a fish tank or other large container you can set the whole pot down inside. Another idea is to use a vase and put plastic wrap over the top then stick food plant and some sticks to pupate on through the plastic wrap.

You may have to criss-cross some more plastic wrap across the top around the sticks and stems for additional strength. The next requirement for a caterpillar home is a place to pupate or form their chrysalis. Just place a few sticks in the enclosed container so the caterpillar can find a place to pupate. If you are raising your butterfly caterpillars in an open environment then you can supply sticks by just pressing some down in the dirt. If you are using a potted plant for food then you can put sticks in the dirt of the pot.

If you are using a plastic container with water for the food plant then you can just put a pot of dirt with sticks stuck in it right next to the plastic container and then aim some of the sticks into the food plant. Wherever they do pupate, they need to have space to hang their wings when they emerge from the chrysalis. We have had some pupate on a stem with a lot of surrounding leaves.

To help them out we have removed the leaves so they have plenty of room to hang and expand their wings. You can also use a pin to hang the cocoon. Hang the pupae on a wooden stick or something where a butterfly can get a hold of so no metal or plastic.

All the sides of this enclosure should be made of mesh or fabric to ensure that the butterfly can walk up on the walls if it happens to drop to the ground.

The pupae of these butterflies are not covered in a cocoon. You cannot easily hang them on a thread because it can harm the pupae. Butterflies stay between around 8 days to some months in their chrysalis stage.

Make sure the temperature and humidity are suitable for your species of butterfly. This is different for all species, so check out our species list to see what your species needs.

When you get butterflies out of your pupae, you can choose one of two things; release the butterflies in nature or keep them as pets. You can only release species of butterfly that are native to your country. When you want to keep butterflies, you have to meet the needs of this beautiful flying creature in temperature, food and space.

For butterflies, every enclosure is too small. Therefore, make sure you have the biggest enclosure you can accommodate or afford. Species that are not able to fly need less space than flying species. The enclosure should not consist of glass or plastic, because the butterflies cannot walk on this and will continually flap against the glass. An enclosure made of mesh or mosquito netting is more suitable. Some people let their butterflies fly around in a room of their house.

When the room is safe for the butterflies, this is a great way to keep them. Keep in mind that butterflies need and want to fly. This means they will try to fly against the enclosure, sometimes excessively. This will harm their wings. Some species of butterflies do not eat at all. Only the caterpillars eat, while the butterflies itself have no mouth!

These species are common in captivity, because they are easy to keep. Species that do feed as adults, need nectar or a sugary solution to drink from. Nectar can be given by offering fresh flowers of the species that the butterfly visits in nature. It is easier to supply a sugary solution to feed your butterfly.

You can dissolve sugar or honey in water in dilution of 7 parts water and 1 part sugar. Mix this solution well and refresh it every day. You can offer the sugary solution in a cup that is covered in mosquito netting. The solution should reach to about 0,5 to 1 cm of the netting to make sure the butterflies can reach the sugary solution with their tongue.