elephant hawk moth caterpillar home?

[devonia]

My garden is simply crawling with these amazing caterpillars. They seem to be living on the weeds growing out of the gravel (there are alot of them!!!). They seem much more active in the evening, are these creatures nocturnal like their moth counterparts I wonder??

I am hoping to capture one and create a microcosmic habitat so that the family can watch it metamorphose. I've found its food supply, so that should be fairly straight forward. I was wondering if anyone has any tips for the right kind of container, atmosphere, temp etc.... I was thinking of a large sweety jar (the kind that I kept stick insects in as a child) and planting the weeds in a little soil at the bottom, spraying water mist perhaps once a day and providing some sticks and branches for it to hang its crysalis?? What do the experts think, any hints and tips???

[charlieb]

Originally Posted by devonia

They seem much more active in the evening, are these creatures nocturnal like their moth counterparts I wonder??

Yes - the main predators of caterpillars tend to be birds which are less active at night, so it would make sense.

Originally Posted by devonia

I am hoping to capture one and create a microcosmic habitat so that the family can watch it metamorphose.

Elephant Hawk-moths are large caterpillars, I would recommend keeping them (one per) in a large ice cream tub or as you suggest a (large) sweet jar. They pupate amongst leaf litter, so twigs won't be necessary - two or three inches of leaf litter should be okay. I wouldn't worry about planting the plants - the caterpillar will eat through the lot in a day - daily cuttings will be required!

Atmosphere and temperature aren't too much of a problem at the larval stage, however when it has pupated in the leaf litter I would recommend placing the container outside in a shed or sheltered position. The conditions during pupation are far more important than during the larval stage. It'll also mean that it'll hatch out at the right time - from May onwards next year. Mid-april next year would be a good time to begin to keep a daily watch on it - you can bring it indoors by May if it hasn't already hatched. It will need some sturdy twigs to sit on when it has hatched to allow it to pump out it's wings (might be an idea to put some in the container when you put it outside in case you miss the emergence).

Again, as they are large caterpillars they will make a lot of mess! Hygiene is the most important thing with regard to rearing - it'll need daily cleaning (might be an idea to postpone the leaf litter and just place a few kitchen tissues in the bottom of the container to make it easier to clean out. You will know when it will want to pupate amongst leaf litter because it'll stop eating and start wandering).

Good luck, and be prepared for a long wait (and possible disappointment)!

[devonia]

Thank you for your advice, It'll be great fun to put it all together.

When do they usually get ready to crysalize (what time of year?)? They seem to be wandering away from their food source now. I was watching them today and wondering why they were'nt feeding but crawling accross the gravel. Is it determined by size? Some of the ones in the garden are absolutely enormous (at least 3 inches)?

[charlieb]

Sounds like they are ready - now's about the right time, but you may see them into September as well.

As caterpillars grow, they shed their skins - the pupa is just another "skin change". From my limited knowledge I would say it's size that causes it (and the previous skin changes) - they just get too big for their current skin! As you have seen though, there is also a change in behaviour, I suspect there are some chemical hormones involved somewhere...

[Emma and H]

Hi...just joined up whilst looking for advice on keeping catepillars. Whilst in the garden at the weekend we found an elephant moth hawk caterpillar (identified on the internet!). We are in the process of doing our garden, so at the moment it is just mud and gravel, we found the caterpillar at the bottom of the garden on the soil. Been trying to gather information on how to care for it on the internet, but finding it all very confusing!! At the moment it is in a large plastic container (lid on but with holes, it escaped yesterday without the lid!!) have put about 2 1/2 inches of soil int he bottom then gathered the small 'weed like' plants growing near where it was found and also some big leaves from the grape vine we have, adn a couple of twigs sticking out of the mud. We don't have much in the way of plants in our garden at the moment!! ANy advice would be greatly appriciated, my 3 year old is very excited, but unfortunately I have zero experience in theis kind of thing!!!

Thanks!
Emma and Harrison

[charlieb]

Read my post above, that should give you all the info you need - in case you stuck for plants to feed it, they will eat rosebay willowherb, bedstraw and fuchsia.

Once it has finished eating, it will pupate in amongst the soil and leaf litter, so don't panic if you can't see it. It will hatch out next May/June - it's best to keep it outside once it's pupated to make sure it comes out at the right time (when all the other Elephant Hawk-moths are coming out).

[fallenredangel]

me and my son found one of these last night on our doorstep and captured it as they'd reared caterpillas at school we though this one may be fun....been trawling the net all day to find out what it is and loan behold we have a hawk moth caterpilla too....thankyou for all the useful information I've found on this thread... my main worry was what it eats as we'd found it on the concrete and also how soon it was likely to hatch which I've now found is next year sometime so no worries about missing out on it....fascinating little creature though...really long too and keeps banging against the edge of the ice cream box, lol. just got to try and find these plants now, they must be in my garden somewhere cause the caterpilla was found there.
thanks again for all the advice :-)
angel

[Babsyork]

Found an Elephant Hawk Moth on one of my potted fuschias at 12.30 today. Apparantley fuschias are one of their favourite food plants. Since then it has eaten a whole wilting flower and a leaf.

I've never seen such a lovely caterpillar, but saw one of the moths many years ago.

[boonhead]

I found a hawk moth caterpilar yesterday and got him a tank and fuschia and willow herb he was eating at first last night but today he just did laps of the tank and has now burrowed into the soil,after reading other comments on the forum iam assuming hes ready to pupate can any one explain to me how this works i know butterflys form a chrysallis but i have never been aware that moths burrow into soil are there any links that explain the process its really interesting , such amazing caterpillars the way they blow up there heads to warn off predators so cool , i have called mine dumbo and hopefully next year will see my elephant fly

[emily3451]

my daughter and i have just found this wonderful caterpillar,i knew what it was,because when i was a child (Many years ago!)my brother and i found one.excited we found a large jar and kept it fed on wiilllow herb and fuchia,not long after we thought it had died!!to our amazement it was in the jar as a beautiful moth,soo now that is what we are going to do,just so they can see what it turns into.