Breed and release
Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2023 10:47 am
I breed and release Peacocks and small tortoiseshells and normally have an 80% success rate. Normally find loads of tortoiseshells and struggle to find Peacocks this year though its the other way round. Sometimes lose 1or 2 to parasites that normally emerge with the butterflies. This year though out of the 12 caterpillars they all made the last moult but only 2 pupated and the rest just left a floppy skin with small red at first then turned black chrysalis in the box quite worrying but saved them to see what emerges. I had a similar problem with the first Peacocks only 3 survived. I changed my nettle patch and the next batch of 25 Peacock all went up and shed successfully and 100% emerged healthily I have another 30 in the bathroom should be emerging this week.