Moths and Caterpillars

[PlasticGalaxy]

Simple question, are there any people here who like insects? I love caterpillars, moths and butterflies. Trying to sell myself on beetles but they always end up leaving me squeamish.
I'd love to know if anyone here raises bugs! So far I've raised antherina suraka, elephant hawk moths and death's head hawk moths.

Goliath the Madagascan Bullseye, Bubble the Death's Head and Pigeon the Elephant Hawk.

Worm the Madagascan Bullseye, then a size comparison of a fully-grown elephant hawk, pre-pupal madagascan bullseye and half-grown death's head caterpillar.

And to anybody wondering, yes! They are all very much considered pets to me!
If you have any caterpillar, moth or butterfly pictures, please reply with them here!!

 

[Crunchycrouton]

Simple question, are there any people here who like insects? I love caterpillars, moths and butterflies. Trying to sell myself on beetles but they always end up leaving me squeamish.
I'd love to know if anyone here raises bugs! So far I've raised antherina suraka, elephant hawk moths and death's head hawk moths.

View attachment 131381View attachment 131382View attachment 131383
Goliath the Madagascan Bullseye, Bubble the Death's Head and Pigeon the Elephant Hawk.
View attachment 131384View attachment 131385
Worm the Madagascan Bullseye, then a size comparison of a fully-grown elephant hawk, pre-pupal madagascan bullseye and half-grown death's head caterpillar.

And to anybody wondering, yes! They are all very much considered pets to me!
If you have any caterpillar, moth or butterfly pictures, please reply with them here!!

Super cool! I'm into mantids. Don't have any at the moment, last year I had a couple. I'm gonna get into the moths soon! I really want some Chinese moon moths (Actias dubernardi).

 

[Guyb93]

Simple question, are there any people here who like insects? I love caterpillars, moths and butterflies. Trying to sell myself on beetles but they always end up leaving me squeamish.
I'd love to know if anyone here raises bugs! So far I've raised antherina suraka, elephant hawk moths and death's head hawk moths.

View attachment 131381View attachment 131382View attachment 131383
Goliath the Madagascan Bullseye, Bubble the Death's Head and Pigeon the Elephant Hawk.
View attachment 131384View attachment 131385
Worm the Madagascan Bullseye, then a size comparison of a fully-grown elephant hawk, pre-pupal madagascan bullseye and half-grown death's head caterpillar.

And to anybody wondering, yes! They are all very much considered pets to me!
If you have any caterpillar, moth or butterfly pictures, please reply with them here!!

Honestly.. I’d feed them my fish ahahahh

 

[madmark285]

Simple question, are there any people here who like insects? I love caterpillars, moths and butterflies. Trying to sell myself on beetles but they always end up leaving me squeamish.
I'd love to know if anyone here raises bugs! So far I've raised antherina suraka, elephant hawk moths and death's head hawk moths.

That's interesting, so what's involved in raising moths and butterflies? You would love this exhibit at a local museum, Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

Super cool! I'm into mantids. Don't have any at the moment, last year I had a couple. I'm gonna get into the moths soon! I really want some Chinese moon moths (Actias dubernardi).

I've never had any kind of luna moths before! Actias dubernardi are my all-time favourite of the luna moths though.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

Honestly.. I’d feed them my fish ahahahh

Seeing people feed hornworms to their reptiles makes me pretty sad to be honest lol. They're full of character, really.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

That's interesting, so what's involved in raising moths and butterflies? You would love this exhibit at a local museum, Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden

Oh wow, thank you for the link!! That sounds wonderful.

Aaaand... Keeping moths involves biting your nails as the caterpillars chomp through all of your plants, then trying your best to hand-feed the adult moths when they don't understand that they're not in the wild. It's very fun, really!

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Wow, those are some cool looking critters. My daughter is seriously into raising monarch butterflies. She actually got our last place, out in the country, registered as an official monarch waystation. It's fun watching them hatch out and then letting them go.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

Wow, those are some cool looking critters. My daughter is seriously into raising monarch butterflies. She actually got our last place, out in the country, registered as an official monarch waystation. It's fun watching them hatch out and then letting them go.

Monarchs are absolutely stunning, wish they were native to my country though! Maybe I'll source a native species this spring/summer and then I'll be able to release them once they hatch!

 

[madmark285]

Oh wow, thank you for the link!! That sounds wonderful.

Aaaand... Keeping moths involves biting your nails as the caterpillars chomp through all of your plants, then trying your best to hand-feed the adult moths when they don't understand that they're not in the wild. It's very fun, really!

So do you have a habitat for them or just let them fly around the house?

Very interesting....

 

[Colin_T]

If you like creepy crawlies, you would love my place. It is crawling with things and I didn't bring any in, they just keep coming in here by themselves and it does my head in. I got ants, millipedes, roach's, beetles, spiders, moths, crickets, grasshoppers, a mouse, lizards, and a bunch of other things I try to step on but usually miss.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

So do you have a habitat for them or just let them fly around the house?

Very interesting....

It depends on the species... For my antherina suraka, I allow them to fly around in my upstairs bathroom since it gets very humid in the summer and the temperatures are just right for them.

However, I tried this method with two of my death's head moths and they both worked they way up through a hole in the cupboard ceiling and... Let's just say that I think there are death's head caterpillars upstairs in my loft now. So... From then on I started keeping them in a 2ft tall enclosure.

Unfortunately, I've only had one elephant hawk moth reach adulthood so far, so I kept that one in the enclosure. I'm looking to get some more elephant hawk larvae in the future so that I can kick-start my own population of them in my village (they're widespread almost everywhere in my country except for where I just so happen to live).

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

If you like creepy crawlies, you would love my place. It is crawling with things and I didn't bring any in, they just keep coming in here by themselves and it does my head in. I got ants, millipedes, roach's, beetles, spiders, moths, crickets, grasshoppers, a mouse, lizards, and a bunch of other things I try to step on but usually miss.

I'd love to see the kind of moths you get! Where I am all we get are little brown ones with a few underwings scattered around.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

Here we go again.

I have been keeping butterfly, moth and other insects/arthropod since I was 5 or 6.


Do you know you can fix butterfly wings by gluing them with other dead butterfly wings (of the same species)

Yes, I am aware. And I've been keeping them since I was around fourteen.
I'm not sure why the condescending "here we go again" was needed though... Unless I'm misreading your tone. ?

 

[Barry Tetra]

"here we go again"

Just a nostalgia feeling I always have when seeing abunch of old photos of my pets.

Edited so other won’t feel it that way

Anyway, as I was saying this, I like it when people share their photo of insects, I used to get called “weird kid” by many people as they were disgusted by scorpions and beetles.