After removing your pupae from the cold, let them warm up a couple days and look them over, and live ones will be heavy, and may even gyrate a little when picked up. This is a good sign, and means they are ALIVE!

As for as setup for them, either an aquarium or 5-gallon bucket is best for them. For this example I'll refer to the bucket - since it's taller and more portable than the aquarium, and for me it seems - a lot easier to use!

Start off by filling the very bottom of it with about an inch or so of soil from your yard, topsoil, or even sand, and on top of this place your pupae. Keep your pupae at least an inch or so from the sides, and this'll be explained shortly! On top of your pupae place about 1 - 2 inches of dead leaves. After your pupae are covered with the leaves, place three or four sticks (about 1/2 - 3/4 inch diameter) in the bucket, and position them so they stand up, and reach the top. This will give your moths something to hang from when they hatch, so they can expand their wings. Use your spray bottle and keep the surface of the leaves moist (never truly wet! as this can be deadly to your pupae!), and it'll need sprayed about every other day or so. Once in awhile dig down (before you spray!) to see how your pupae are doing, and if they're "comfortably moist".......... delay spraying for another day or so!

After they have been in this setup for several weeks, go ahead and place something like an old shirt or towel on top of the bucket - so when hatching occurs, the moths will emerge from the pupae, come to the surface above the leaves, climb one of the sticks to the top, and hang on the cover to expand their wings. Hatching usually occurs in the late morning, so it's best to look in there at night, by very gently lifting the cloth cover, and looking for moths clinging to it! Once the cover is removed, this is a good time to check the bucket if needed.

When moths are discovered it's best to immediately transfer them to a cage, and the best is a wooden-frame screen cage........ the bigger the better! Two-feet square or larger is preferred. Some breeders even set up their pupae up in such a cage for hatching - and this is probably better than the bucket - so you can always see your hatching moths! Again if you choose to go this route, just make sure your pupae never dry out completely!

From here...... you'll want to release, give away, or breed your moths, and make sure before you release any moths that you have species that live in your area! "Non-native" moths cannot be released, and even if they did survive here, there's always a chance they could do millions of dollars of damage if the species ever "took hold"! The Gypsy moth is a prime example! (A lot more about this in the "Cocoons" section).

Also such cocoons as Luna and Automeris are best placed in the bucket-arrangement, since their cocoons are thin and lose moisture easily. Rather than cover them with leaves though, simply place them ATOP the leaves.

To breed your moths, keep THIS in mind: When you remove your pupae from the fridge, look them over and remove the largest of a kind first, then wait a few days before removing the smaller ones, since the small ones will probably be males, and males as a rule hatch several days before the females. Taking the bigger ones out...... then the smaller ones later gives you a better chance of breeding them!

When it comes to detail in sexing the pupae, rather than attempting to describe how its done, I'll hopefully find some cool places on the Internet to "link" you to shortly........ but in the meantime just remember the larger ones are probably your females, since they're the ones with all the eggs!

Also I'll be adding to this page as I think of more stuff, but this should be some cool info concerning getting your pupae into moths!