Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
ladychroe

Moving a Black Swallowtail chrysalis

ladychroe
10 years ago

Hi,

This is my first time raising Black Swallowtails. We found 7 caterpillars in their last instar on my MIL's carrots, which were almost completely defoliated. We brought them in to make sure they got enough food (organic parsley) and educate my 4-year-old daughter, who is enchanted by the process.

The habitat is a plastic bin, about 14x18", with burlap overtop that is secured drawstring-fashion with elastic string. They created their chrysalises a few days ago. Most chose the sticks that we provided for that purpose. But two decided to pupate on the burlap top.

Now, we WERE planning to take the burlap off the top so we would know when the butterflies hatched. We can't easily see into the habitat with the burlap covering it. Can I move these two chrysalises? Can they lay on the floor of the habitat? (One of the others already is, it fell - should we put that up somewhere?)

I would leave them as is, but spring is a long time away and I'm afraid we will forget to check on them every day and the butterflies will be trapped in there. The box is on a screened-in porch so we'll see them if they hatch with no top.

Comments (4)

Sponsored
Iris Design Associates
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars22 Reviews
Northern Virginia Landscape Architect - 13x Best of Houzz Winner!