Jersey tiger food

[James_O'Neill]

Arghhh!! now I have 20 little jersey tiger cats :sad: Found one dead at the bottom of the box. However, I suppose to bring a brood of 23 eggs this far with 3 deaths is quite an achievement. I would have expected about 15 to have died, but they are quite easy little fellers (touch wood). Still, it means one less moth...:sad:

[James_O'Neill]

Disaster! oh Disaster! I shouldn't have posted the last post, even if I did say 'touch wood'! I put the 20 Jersey tigers into a larger box with nettles and mesh windows....they just frazzled and dried up! I now have 8 JTs and I moved them back to their old quarters with some water and humidity...makes me want to give up lepidoptery, set all my larva cages on fire and go and sit in the dark corner rocking back and forth for the next 10 years....

Well, maybe I am a bit dramatic, but I will look after the remaining 8 with my relatively undivided attention (of course I must look after the other species as well). I will make sure they have the perfect conditions. The reason why is because I don't have a second chance. once they are gone they are gone. I won't be able to get anymore.

[simpson]

HI, IMO it is far too ealy for them to feed. However within a few weeks when awake from dormancy i would supply bramble and soon after nettles will be found sprouting, though i have found that the tigers seem to like the older fooliage best. I would have not brought them inside, they may need to be exposed to harsh weather in order to go through their motions. Personally i would leave them outside and forget about them for a few weeks. Disturbing the cats whilst "hibernating" could be counter productive. good luck.

[Dave McCormick]

IMO, Tiger moth cats are one of the hardest to rear as most don't survive the winter. The best thing to do is not to do anything too much (don't be over protective with them), just put them in a pot with their foodplant (best a growing one) and leave them to their own devices and just check the plant is watered and when they are ready to feed they should and if you leave them to feed by themselves (best in netted cage outside, not in direct sunlight) and put a couple of stones in the pot in the cage for the cats to hide under when it gets cold, so they can hide from the cold and they should be ok, and they should survive. Its similar with garden Tiger, I have been rearing them over winter and I just have a round netted cage and I put a bucket in bottom, filled with soil and some dandilions in it and a couple of stones, placed in a certian way so the cats will rest under if they get cold, then I have just left them, I water the plants often, but so far, I had 15 and only lost 2, which is not bad. (I had mroe before and lost most because I kept checking them and kept trying to find foodplants to ge thtme to feed and doing pretty much what you have been doing James)

So if yours were not feeding and you tried to get them to feed before, chances are, they were not ready yet to feed, you should just do as I did, put growing foodplant in with them and when they are ready, they can feed. Sorry you lost some, but if you don't know what your doing with certian species (tigers being hard to keep overwinter because of not knowing how to handle them) you can fail like this, so thats why I have only ever raised a few at a time, to make sure a few can survive.

[James_O'Neill]

Erm, sorry to contradict, the JTs were outside all winter and have been feeding for the last month. I realise now that what they needed was simply humidity and without it, they dried up. Only the biggest survived.
Also, they never really had a diapause. They were active all winter and never curled up and went to sleep. They would eat when it got slightly warmer, and they would be crawling around the container, even when the water inside froze (it got really cold then). My conclusion is that the JT is hardy to cold weather, but NEEDS HUMIDITY. It also does not have a dormant period, and feeds when it gets warmer. I suppose then, in some aspects, it is different from most Tiger moths.

[Dave McCormick]

Ah well that could explain it, I reguarly spray my cats and pupae to stop them drying up and dying, if you do it right you won't get mold and they will survive, I just lightly spray a mist of water over mine every 2 days or so and put more water on the soil itself to let the plants grow.

[James_O'Neill]

I'd just made a big mistake in giving them too much air circulation and no humidity. The rest are fine now and are growing, most definitely, so maybe I will be able to keep the population going after all :dance:

[Dave McCormick]

Good luck, hope the rest survive