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Post by eurytides on May 27, 2015 17:36:19 GMT -8
I raised a few dozen on A. tomentosa a few years ago. I thought they were pretty easy and I never had to do anything special. The larvae ate young foliage with no problem and moved to older foliage when they got bigger. Supply fresh leaves, clean frass, and nature does the rest.
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Post by eurytides on May 27, 2015 17:37:29 GMT -8
I will say though, these larvae each a LOT of leaves, more so than other caterpillars of comparable size I've found. I'm not sure why that is. But just make sure you have lots of leaves handy. Females can lay like 200+ eggs in a few days.
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Post by ironhunt on Jun 10, 2015 8:15:30 GMT -8
Keep the stems hydrated if you have to use cuttings. Wrap the cut ends in a paper towel and stick that in a cup with water in it. That way the vine gets water but the caterpillars can't drown. These guys wander a lot when they get bigger. Don't use South American pipevine species. They are too toxic for the larva, but they will try to eat them and die. I have a A. Elegans plant that kills them, but my native A. Californica does just fine. I've heard that A. Tomentosa, A. Fimbriata, and Virginia Snakeroot also work well, but I've yet to try these out.
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