Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 2 pupae of Manduca rustica coming and am interested in finding someone else who may have any overwintering rustica pupae.

hey, new to me...then I looked at a range map and saw why

I never did hear back from my buddy in CA but if I do I will ask him if he has any. How's the cage building, etc. going?

lele

I haven't built any of the cages yet. I'm still collecting materials as I can afford it. I still want to make several and may have to make them large enough to put food and nectaring plants in as sphinx can be picky about that. I'm still going to experiment with hummingbird feeders, too. It would beso easy if they'd either feed like butterflies or just not at all like saturniids, but then, where would their value as pollinators be? I just wish it was as simple as feeding their larvae is.

If I lived in a warm climate I would have screened gazebos set up for my stas and my chameleon (not in the same one! lol!) They are cheap and allow for free flying. Here's one from ebay just to give you an idea what I am talking about. Depending on light needs of tobacco you could grow it right in there. There are also inexpensive free-staning greenhousaes out there now, but I think for the $$ a couple of these make a lot of sense.

10' x 10' GAZEBO SCREEN CANOPY TENT

It's funny you should mention the gazebo or green house. I have actually been contemplating the very idea for the last several days and even pricing small 8'x12' units online. The ones I have looked at are still rather expensive, but that price includes a sturdy polycarbonate double-walled siding. Okay, that's nice, but what about cheaper materials such as old fashioned translucent fiberglass panels for the roof and heavy plastic sheeting for the sides. Both let in light and seal in heat rather well.
Yes, tobacco and many other garden plants grow very well in greenhouses. Instead of a regular gazebo, I had thought of a simple walk-in type pen, much like one I'd build for my outdoor birds, except that I'd use a fine mesh behind the chicken wire to protect the caterpillars from parasitoids as well as keep unwanted other insects off my food plants. This way, in a large enclosed habitat, a few hundred sphinx moths, even several different species, can feed and oviposit their eggs.
It may seem a bit silly and even radical to go to such expense to house, feed and maintain sphingids, but when you consider the relative value of their ova, pupae and even larvae to local customers, it is tantamount to the value of poultry, pigeons or gamebirds or their eggs I could produce in the same given space.