Newbie from New York, looking to get more info on rearing

For the most part, I figured I missed the boat as most moths hatch around May-June.  Since I am from NY, usually there is only one brood up here.  As far as I can see, I do not have any host plants around me for silk moths and there is no Milkweed around here either.  From what I seen, there isn't much.  We have an abundance of the small grey and white moths and also the Cabbage White Butterfly, but I am not interested in those.  The Gypsy Moth can easily be found too, but again...being around those all my life, I am not interested in those either.  There is a small park that leads to a lake though and I have yet to check that out.  The lake is adjacent to a lake that belongs to a state park and while the first lake is under control of the state, the lower lake isn't supervised, so more then likely anything around there is free game.

So you rear them in a sandwich bag?  Isn't that a bit too small?  I am sure that you have to open the bag every so often to let in fresh air, right?  I am assuming that would be when you change out the leaves from old to fresh.

Yes, I have read about parasites and that is a bit of a concern if I decide to go indoors.  I don't like the idea of a wasp getting loose inside the house.  I know with butterflies, because they don't make a cocoon it is easier to see if a chrysalis isn't developing right and it could be quarantined beforehand.  With a moth this is somewhat harder, unless there is a way to tell if you remove the pupa from the cocoon.   I was reading about this one type of small wasp in which the female wasp can lay hundreds of eggs inside of the pupa and when they hatch in a matter of minutes there is a swarm of small wasps flying around the chrysalis.  So yeah, properly identifying a parasite is key for me as I don't want a disaster and have a house full of wasps.

Yes!  It was for a brief moment when I was at an intersection just as I was making my turn from the parkway on to the main road.   There are many trees around the off ramp and it is a pretty shaded area.   I was sitting there checking for traffic and just when a space opened up and I started to move forward, there it was.  It was large and black and fluttering...definitely not a bird and given the time of day, probably not a moth either.   It definitely didn't have any orange so it wasn't a Monarch.   So I figured it had to be a Black Swallowtail as they supposedly in my area.    I could imagine it being frustrating.   Or sometimes I go on the parkway and see a whole bunch of the Cabbage White Butterflies flying around but across the way on the other side of the road, the occasional Monarch shows up.   Wrong side of the road...Grrrrrrr.

Oh, yeah, I figured that would be with most leps, right?   However, I have seen guys take a female moth and put it in a cage with large 1/2" openings in the screen.  Then they set the cage out at night and the female gives off her pheromone.  After a few hours there are usually several male moths flying around the cage to get at the female.   But because of the large spacing in the screen, the male could mate with the female right through the screen.

I think being that it is late in the season, I am wondering if I might be better off planting some Milkweed and perhaps a couple of Sweet Gum saplings to get started for next year.   I have a fellow in Jersey that is rearing Luna Moths and I was thinking of getting some cocoons from him so this way my boys could witness them hatching.   Should I get a female, I DO want to try that experiment and see if I could call in a wild male.  (I.E. bringing the caged female to that aforementioned park).   If I can, then that proves that there ARE Luna Moths in my area.

I am thinking about planning an evening outing to that park and I want to see what kind of trees they have in the wooded area around the lake, they might have Sweet Gum or walnut trees in there.   If they do, then they might have Luna Moths there.

Thanx,

Diaval