Author: TrendsandTopics

TACHNID FLY CHARACTERISTICS

If you see a caterpillar fall off a plant and begin to squirm violently – it has just been hit by a tachnid.
Tragically, the caterpillar is doomed, but you have a chance to kill the tachnid fly.
Wait patiently for a few minutes, swat the fly if you see it.

When tachnid larva emerge from a dead caterpillar, they will attempt to burrow into the soil or hide under a pot. Once hidden, they turn into a reddish-brown, hard-shell pupa, and, after about 5 days, they emerge as an adult fly.

The only soil in the refuge cage should be in the milkweed plant pots.

Your refuge cage must not provide places for tachnid larva to hide.

Tachnid flies have red eyes, are slightly smaller than a housefly.

Tachnids don’t fly at night.

Get a supply of long-handled fly swatters, and scatter them throughout your sanctuary. Look for tachnids on flat white surfaces, often at the edge of shadow and light. They also seem to be attracted to a sprinkle of water on a white surface.

On a hot day, tachnids will cluster on the north side of a building, often in an alcove or on a door. They are slow when hot.

SALVAGE TACTICS

Salvage a fallen chrysalis:
If a chrysalis has fallen, it can be salvaged.
At the top of the chrysalis is a tiny black stem, about one millimeter in length.
Use DENTAL FLOSS. Thread will not work: thread will cut thru the stem.
Get a length of DENTAL FLOSS.
Create a single square knot in the middle of the length of DENTAL FLOSS.
Carefully tighten the knot around the stem
Use the two ends of the DENTAL FLOSS to suspend the floss and chrysalis from a plant.

If the stem if damaged while you attempt to tie the knot around it, there is still a way to suspend the chrysalis.
Get a length of DENTAL FLOSS.
Create a lump in the middle of the length by tying many square knots, one on top of the next.
Then, place a tiny drop of superglue on the lump of square knots.
Then, gently press the top of the chrysalis against the tiny drop of glue.
Wait for the glue to dry, then use the two ends of the DENTAL FLOSS to suspend the floss and chrysalis from a plant.

Salvage milkweed plants from aphids and milkweed bugs:
Aphids and milkweed bugs appear when milkweed plants get leggy and sprout seed pods.
You must trim gradually trim back leggy plants, and trim away seed pods.
The aphids and milkweed bugs will be temporarily inhibited from feeding on the trimmed milkweeds.

Salvage caterpillars from the heat:
Caterpillars do not tolerate heat.
Position the your refuge cage in partial shade.
Consider placing a cap of sunscreen cloth over the outside top of the refuge cage.

REFUGE CAGE

CAGES
Buy and use mesh cages to protect your caterpillars. The best kind will have a fine mesh screen. Get cages that have a flexible cable framework, similar to the fold-up sunscreens that are used in front windows of cars. A cage with fine mesh screening and a flexible cable framework will take literally 3 seconds to deploy.
DON’T rig up a do-it-yourself version of a cage: you will waste a lot of time, lose a lot of caterpillars, and expend much more effort than you needed to.The configuration that works is: milkweed plants, in their original pots, raised in fine-mesh-flexible-frame cages. Please just accept this advice, since it is the product of many hours of trial-and-error.

Do a search on these terms: mesh cage butterfly.
Some brand names are Restcloud, Qingo, Miraclekoo, Ueetek, Trasfit, Oxel, Petforu.
A cage of 36 inches is ideal.
When you see an newly-emerged adult fluttering around: open the cage door and let the butterfly go.

REFUGE CAGE
When you find a tiny caterpillar, bring it to the refuge cage and place it on a milkweed plant.
–The refuge cage protects the caterpillars against the tachnid flies. Out in the open, the caterpillars have little defense against the tachnids. Once a caterpillar is stung by a tachnid fly, it is doomed.
–The refuge cage protects caterpillars against multiple garden enemies, such as ants, lizards, praying mantii, and birds.
–The refuge cage keeps the growing caterpillars in a confined space, so that, if they fall off the milkweed plant they can easily crawl back onto the milkweed. Out in the open, if a caterpillar falls off a milkweed plant, it will wander off looking for another milkweed plant to climb onto, but oftentimes the caterpillar will be lost. On the other hand, if a caterpillar leaves a milkweed plant in the refuge cage, the caterpillar can be easily repositioned onto the plant.
–The inside of the top of the refuge cage provides a great spot for the full-grown caterpillars to attach to when they decide to turn into a chrysalis. In the wild, the full-grown caterpillars will leave the milkweed plant and crawl up to 40 feet away, then crawl up onto a structure or plant to find a place to turn into a chrysalis. This journey makes them very vulnerable to attack by multiple adversaries.
–The refuge cage protects newly-emerged female Monarchs from overly-aggressive male suitors. The newly-emerged female Monarch needs several hours to deploy her wings. If she is disturbed during this phase, her wings will not fully expand, her wings will remain crinkled, and she will never be able to fly.
–The refuge cage can be easily protected from the summer sunlight: get a swath of sunscreen cloth, fashioned into a cap, and placed over the top of the refuge cage. Developing Monarchs, from egg thru young adult, do not tolerate temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. They become dehydrated, turn dark, and die.

REFUGE CAGES ARE FRAGILE
If a mesh cage is full of potted milkweeds, it CANNOT be dragged to a new location. The dragging causes rips in the undersurface of the cage. To move a refuge cage, first remove the stone weights and milkweed pots, then carry it to its new location. Whenever you open a refuge cage, do it at night, when tachnid flies are not active,

MONARCH REARING MAIN POINTS

REFUGE CAGE
You need to protect young caterpillars in a refuge cage. Believe me when I say, there is only one design that works: a mesh cage that can be unfolded and deployed in a matter of seconds.
DON’T rig up a do-it-yourself version of a cage: you will waste a lot of time, lose a lot of caterpillars, and expend much more effort than you needed to.The configuration that works is: milkweed plants, kept in their original pots, raised in fine-mesh-flexible-frame cages. Please just accept this advice, since it is the product of many hours of trial-and-error.
Do a search on these terms: mesh cage butterfly.
Some brand names for mesh cages are Restcloud, Qingo, Miraclekoo, Ueetek, Trasfit, Oxel, Petforu.
A cage of 36 inches is ideal.
When you see an newly-emerged adult fluttering around: open the cage door and let the butterfly go.

TACHNIDS DON’T FLY AT NIGHT
Only open the refuge cage at night, which is when tachnid flies are not active. If you open the refuge cage during the day, and a single tachnid fly gets into your refuge cage, it will kill all the caterpillars.

ANCHOR YOUR REFUGE CAGES
Use flat rocks or flat concrete stepping stones to weigh down your refuge cages. If you don’t, a gust of wind could blow the cage over, and the hanging chrysalises will be disrupted and die. Don’t clutter your refuge cage.

DONT GIVE TACHNID LARVA ANYPLACE TO HIDE
Tachnid larva growing inside a caterpiller will wait until the caterpillar turns into a ‘hanging J’. Then, the larva will burst out, slide down a thin thread, fall to the bottom of the refuge cage, then try to slide under a pot or dig into dirt. If the larva finds a place to hide in your refuge cage, it will emerge in a few days as a tachnid fly, and the fly will proceed to kill all your caterpillars. Keep the refuge cage uncluttered. A refuge cage should contain only one or two stepping stones to anchor it, and the pots which hold the milkweed plants.

DON’T BUY MILKWEED PLANTS THAT HAVE BEEN TREATED WITH INSECTICIDE
At the nursery, look for milkweeds that have caterpillars crawling around on them, and look for Monarch adults flying around. If you don’t see any caterpillars or adult butterflies, then assume that the milkweeds have been treated with insecticide. Don’t buy these contaminated milkweeds, no matter how good they look at the nursery.

EVERY STRING DANGLING FROM A DEAD CHRYSALIS MEANS THERE IS A TACHNID LARVA LOOSE IN YOUR REFUGE CAGE
If you see strings dangling from a chrysalis, take the chrysalis out of the refuge cage immediately and dispose of it somewhere away from your yard. Then, you need to find one larva for each and every string that you saw hanging from the dead chrysalis. You really shouldn’t have any difficulty distinguishing a tachnid larva from an early-stage caterpillar: the Monarch caterpillars have 2 cute little black antennas. The tachnid larve are slug-like and move like inchworms.

MONARCH NURSERY

Leave newly-purchased milkweeds in their original pots.
Transplanted milkweeds will often die within a couple of days.

If you insist on transplanting milkweeds:
the best soil for milkweed plants is:
three-quarters composting soil
one-quarter dirt from your yard

If you insist on transplanting milkweeds:
Don’t use an excessive amount of fertilizer.
Too much fertilizer attracts ants.
Ants, at the very least, irritate the caterpillars.

Distressed Adult Monarchs:
Newly-emerged adults may need a long time to fully deploy.
Newly-emerged adults will not be able to fly in cold weather.
It may be necessary to put a distressed new adult on a potted milkweed.and bring it indoors.
Adults will stay quiet at night on the potted milkweed if the room is dark
Newly-emerged adult Monarchs can go at least 48 hrs without eating.
If you offer a sugar-water mixture that is too concentrated, adults will not be able to suck it in.
The concentration of sugar water should be one TEASPOON to one CUP of water
Place a tiny drop of the sugar/water on each of the open flowers of the potted milkweed

Which milkweed is best:
Some literature says that using the milkweed ‘cassaivea’ is not good because it carries a virus.
These sources say that it is best to use native California milkweed

Beware of California milkweed seeds
Usually, these seeds have been treated with insecticide.
The plants that these seeds produce will kill caterpillars.