Raising Caterpillars to Butterflies

Posted by Anne Fletcher on

Raising caterpillars to butterflies is a great activity for families, especially now as we parents try to figure out remote learning, inventing educational projects for our kids.

We've raised about 6 caterpillars this summer, all of them cabbage whites until now, and it's become a fun activity that my daughter and I do together.  Here's our routine.  (Feel free, of course, to adapt to your family's rhythms!)

Step one:  Caterpillar hunting.

We started our caterpillar / butterfly journey with the cabbage whites that lay their eggs on (and can destroy) brassicas.  We watched as the butterflies laid eggs that hatched on our broccoli and kale seedlings.  Then, instead of either killing the caterpillars or leaving them to eat the seedlings to the ground, we brought them indoors and fed them from our more mature kale plants until they turned into butterflies.

At the same time, in a much longer term project, I started native California narrowleaf milkweed from seed last year.  The plants are finally big enough to attract Monarchs to lay their eggs.  I found the first caterpillar a couple months ago, and showed my daughter.  Ever since then, she checks the milkweed plants regularly, as part of her routine in the garden.  Now she always finds the Monarch caterpillars first!  It's a fun, low-stress activity that gets us looking closely at details in the garden, watching for caterpillars, and tracking them as they grow.

I should mention here that Monarchs in particular are endangered and should mostly be left alone, and mostly we do.  The Xerces society, one of the most trusted insect conservation organizations, recommends against captive breeding and raising of Monarchs.  But they say it's ok to raise one or two, especially as part of teaching children about Monarchs and conservation.  So we decided to bring the one pictured below into our kitchen, and raise it like the cabbage whites.

monarch caterpillar

monarch caterpillar 

monarch caterpillar

 

Step 2:  Create a caterpillar habitat

monarch caterpillar habitat

The Joyful butterfly has a nice, detailed description of everything you need to keep your caterpillars happy indoors.  The things to remember are:

  1. Feed the caterpillar the same plant you find it on.  Monarchs, for example, can only eat milkweed.  Cabbage whites only eat brassicas.  If you don't know what kind of caterpillar / butterfly it is, just keep feeding it from the plant it was on when you found it.
  2. Keep it safe from drowning.  If you want to keep a cutting of the host plant in water, make sure the water is covered by a lid with a small hole in it, or perhaps some foil.  You can also just add fresh leaves to the habitat every day.
  3. Caterpillars don't need water.  They get all the moisture they need from fresh leaves.
  4. Clean out the poop!  Caterpillars poop a LOT! And their habitat can get unhealthily dirty.  Periodically, remove the caterpillar gently, clear out the frass (the name for caterpillar poop), and put it back with fresh food.
  5. Keep it ventilated.  You can keep caterpillars in jars, as long as there are air holes in the lid, or you can use mesh or fabric to cover the top like we do.  You can also keep caterpillars in the open, just on a branch of the host plant on a table.  But beware that caterpillars in the open may wander off.
  6. Keep it out of direct sun so the caterpillars don't overheat.

monarch caterpillar habitat

 monarch caterpillar habitat

Step 3: Watch your caterpillar turn into a butterfly.

After a week or so of eating, your caterpillar will look for a spot to pupate.  It will attach itself to a branch or the underside of a horizontal surface, create a chrysalis, and spend about another week transforming.  

While the caterpillar attaches and builds the chrysalis, it's quite vulnerable.  Take care not to shake or move the habitat for the first few days of pupating.  Once the chrysalis has fully formed, you can gently move it to a bigger habitat if it will need more space when it hatches.

The butterfly emerges slowly and then spends a couple hours drying its wings before it's ready to fly.  Make sure that whatever habitat you've chosen has enough space for the butterfly to stretch its wings before you release it, and a big enough opening that it won't damage its wings as it flies away.

Monarch butterfly

monarch butterfly

 

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Comments


  • Hello! We saved a light brown caterpillar with a black head from a stream of water next to the road by our house, it didn’t have any plants so we put it in a large vase with an open top, some leaves from our yard tree and some clovers and other sprigs of weeds and such. Thank you for your posts! We are looking forward to nursing it to chrysallis and seeing what he becomes!

    McKenzie on
  • How do i keep a caterpillar? It’s a white one with black spots on it but what if I accidentally touched it ?
    And my Caterpillar is going to hang upside down is it possible it will turn into a butterfly?
    What if it dies when it is making a crystallis?
    ———
    Orta Gardens replied:
    The best thing to do is raise your caterpillar on the same kind of plant material you found it on. Then go online and see if you can figure out what kind of caterpillar it is. There are so many! That will help you figure out how best to care for it, and what to expect.

    Usually touching a caterpillar doesn’t hurt it, if you’re gentle. If it looks like it’s about to make a chrysalis, the best thing to do is leave it alone. Shaking the enclosure, moving its plant material, etc can disrupt the chrysalis attachment process.

    Sophia on
  • I live in Maine where Fall will soon be upon us. While working in my garden this morning I saw at least a dozen larvae caterpillars on my flock of milkweed. Will they make it to the butterfly stage? Any suggestions about how to help them survive would be appreciated. Thank you!
    ———
    Orta Gardens replied:
    I would just leave them alone and hope you don’t get an early frost. The caterpillars you have now are likely the last generation to reproduce in the North this year, and will migrate all the way to Mexico!

    Judy on
  • Help. I have about 50 caterpillars on my broccoli plant, I have let them breed and they have eaten all the leaves. Will they be ok or do I need to move them?
    ———
    Orta Gardens replied:
    I would pull them off the broccoli if you want the broccoli to survive. Those are almost for sure cabbage white butterfly caterpillars which are a major pest for all brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, kale, etc.)

    Here’s how to identify the cabbage white caterpillar: 1. It’s on a brassica. 2. It’s light green and smooth, and can be hard to see against the leaves of the brassica.

    The butterfly is white with one or two dark spots on the wing. It’s not at all endangered or scarce, and is in fact considered a major problem in agricultural areas.

    It’s a fun butterfly to raise indoors with kids because they’re easy and abundant, but too many of them will destroy your brassicas.

    Jade on
  • I have twice tried to raise a caterpillar and both times they gained loads of weight and got much bigger (didn’t see any evidence of moulting). But they then stopped eating and started wandering around the habitat and trying to escape. The first one succeeded and committed suicide in a spider web. I thought the current one was fead today as he was smaller again and curled up but he is now moving. Hasn’t shown any interest in the twigs for pupating. What am I doing wrong?
    ———
    Orta Gardens replied:
    When they start wandering around, they’ve either run out of food and are looking for more, or are ready to pupate. Usually a caterpillar will attach to the underside of whatever habitat you’ve given them to pupate, rather than vertical twigs. Maybe it needs something more textured on the habitat lid to attach to?

    Jennifer Sims on
  • do you know anything about white marked tessock moth caterpillars? i have a couple and im not quite sure how to raise them.
    ———
    Orta Gardens replied:
    I’m sorry I don’t have anything more specific about white marked tessock moth caterpillars, except the usual advice to feed them more of whatever you found them on. Good luck!

    Sophie on
  • My husband shucked some corn at the grocery a few days ago and put it in a plastic bag and then into the refrigerator at home. I pulled it out to cook tonight and there was a caterpillar burrowed into one end of an ear of corn. My son was recently obsessed with the book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar ” so I would love to foster it and help it to evolve into a butterfly. I see you said to feed it the plant you originally found it on but as this was an ear of corn which will likely start to rot, I’m not sure I should do that. Any recommendations on what to feed it? It’s a solid green caterpillar if that helps at all
    ———
    Orta Gardens replied:
    I know this comment is from a long time ago – sorry for the delay! Software issues.

    Anyway, if it happens again, it’s most likely a corn earworm caterpillar, which you would raise on corn. The ear you found it on might survive long enough to get the caterpillar to chrysalis stage . . . Or you might have to get it some more corn!

    Kristy on
  • I am counting 6 of the most beautiful caterpillars eating my parsley, and I am letting them. Do you think there is a good chance they will turn into butterflies?

    ———
    Orta Gardens replied:
    An excellent chance they’ll turn into gorgeous anise swallowtail butterflies!

    Inge on
  • please do raise the caterpillars inside because they will have a better chance of surviving, only 1% make it to adulthood.

    Willaim on
  • Hey!! I have some citrus butterfly caterpillar on my citrus plant there are 5 caterpillars and I was thinking of raising them

    Sharannya patil on

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