 |
| Moth eggs! |
Look what I've found! These are moth eggs. I have been keeping an eye on them for the last few weeks or so since discovering them attached to the front wall of my flat's building. I have brought them inside as it was starting to fall off from the wall. So now I have decided to rear them. I don't know which species they will develop into, but I do have a hunch that their food plant will be lime tree leaves as they were attached just above the same lime tree shrub as where I found Vapourer moth caterpillars feeding in the last two summers. My guess is that these eggs will hatch into Vapourer moths as well.
 |
| The back view of the eggs. You can see the silk that they were attached to the wall with |
I have never reared caterpillars before, so it will be interesting to see if I will be successful or not and to see them grow from egg to whatever they will grow into. I hope they don't hatch until next year when their food plant develop leaves, otherwise they will hatch out only to die of starvation. If anyone has any tips on how to rear caterpillars please let me know. Should I put the eggs in the fridge until spring or do I keep them on the windowsill in room temperature? Keep in mind that it is winter now and I have the heating on. I will keep you posted on their development.
Best thing is to keep them outside somewhere in a safe place until the spring. It's too warm and dry indoors for them. Vapourer moths are cool. The caterpillars are the tufty, colourful variety and when they hatch the females are furry grey wingless blobs. We had a caterpillar a few years ago that we raised. When she hatched we put her outside and as if by magic 4 males found her within a few minutes. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteKeeping them outside isn't something I can really do at my flat. Perhaps I'll ask someone else with a garden to look after them until spring. Thank you!
Delete