Christmas Moths (Dasypodia selenophora)

About a week ago I caught a pile of Christmas Moths (Dasypodia selenophora) and gave all the lizards a good feed.

I had quite a few moths left over so I left them in the container overnight and next morning I discovered a pile of eggs in there! I was really surprised as I have never seen Christmas Moth caterpillars or cocoons, let alone eggs. The last of the moths were fed out and I decided to keep the eggs. Then a week later (today) I discovered that the eggs had hatched and there were ultra tiny, wiggly, loopy caterpillars running around everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE. They easily scaled the plastic sides and out through the ventilation slits of the bug container. I collected what caterpillars I could find and put them back in the container, while putting roach-stay around the edges. But they can still crawl over the roach-stay, however. :shock:

So my question is this; is there any way I can keep these caterpillars inside the container? Has anyone raised Christmas Moth caterpillars before?

What is this "roach stay" you talk of?

Given how tiny the caterpillars are likely to be, I would suggest keeping them in an airtight plastic container or a screw-top jar for the moment. Opening it once or twice a week to let fresh air in would be all that is needed. However, if you really want ventilation, then something like a takeaway food container with pin or needle holes punched in the top should do the trick. Alternatively use a large jar with pantyhose material or fine gauze over the top held in place with a rubber band. You probably need to check if they are able to eat their way through this though.

Given they feed on acacias, if you don’t have wattles in your garden, you could try the local Pric-kly Moses (Acacia pulchella) or Red-eyed Wattle (Acacia cyclops), which are easy to come by in any remanent bushland.

One of the problems when they are so small is that it is really easy to throw them out when removing old food leaves. It is usually better to just leave them in there and add new ones until the caterpillars are larger. To save having to add fresh leaves too regularly, you can put sprigs of the plant in a small water container or plastic bag of water sealed around the stem.
@mad_at_arms: The “roach stay” referred to is probably fluon, which feeder roaches cannot get a grip on – it allows them to be kept in open plastic tubs or aquaria by painting it in a continuous band around the top near the rim.

Bluetongue1 said:

@mad_at_arms: The “roach stay” referred to is probably fluon, which feeder roaches cannot get a grip on – it allows them to be kept in open plastic tubs or aquaria by painting it in a continuous band around the top near the rim.

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Ditto! That's roach-stay! Thank you for the suggestions. Last night I decided to use petroleum jelly to smear around the edges. So far it's working well. The caterpillars are refusing to crawl over it, but it's pretty messy. Next time, if all goes well, I'll try out your suggestions. I don't know what type of wattle I'm using, but they appear to be eating it so far. It's hard to tell since they are so small. Hopefully soon I will have some nice fat, juicy caterpillars for the lizards to munch on. Just caught another pair of moths last night and lo and behold, they left me pile of presents this morning.

Well done on getting more eggs!

An easy way to confirm they are eating is from their droppings. With very small caterpillars it will look like a light sprinkle of really finely ground black pepper. It is most readily seen against a white background.

Here's an update! Today I decided that my caterpillars were big enough to do a proper clean out of their home. There were so many dead leaves piled in there.

Here's some pictures of them with fresh leaves in their now clean home (excuse the poor photos). From being as thick as a piece of string, to this! I counted 82 caterpillars. It's just so cool watching them grow and I can't wait for them to become moths.