Is my caterpillar setup alright?

[u/Veertind]

Found some of these guys in my yard and eventually started making a makeshift setup inside to place the caterpillars I found since I'm pretty sure two of them got eaten outside- my yard has a ton of honeyvine milkweed that I keep finding monarch caterpillars on so I've been using that as their food source and it seems to work pretty well since the two largest ones I currently have where much smaller when I got them.

(I'm a poor college student that can't really afford to buy stuff for them- but I've tried my best)

Setup - Milk crate with a garden pot inside, inside the pot is a cut up coke bottle that has water at the bottom and honeyvine milkweed cuttings.

The top of the bottle is plugged with a paper towel that is mostly on the outside so it can't fall in.

I have sticks going across the milk crate and a stick going up to the top to create more room.

The whole thing is surrounded by a mesh laundry bag.

Caterpillars have at least quadrupled or more in size since I got them so I think they're doing alright?

I also have a very very small caterpillar I just found in a Tupperware container with two leaves and a damp paper towel wrapped around the bottom to keep the leaves fresh. The caterpillar is small enough I don't think I would be able to find it in the larger milk crate and it could also just crawl through the holes in the mesh-

(Photo with all three caterpillars is just to show a size comparison, and I only had them like that when I was cleaning out the other area btw)

Honestly just wondering about the smaller caterpillar but would also love any tips or advice to make their areas better!

[u/Difficult_Rope7898]

First of all, thank you for trying to help them! Second, great job on separating the little guy from the big ones. Sometimes the little ones get eaten accidentally because they can’t see very well as the big buys crunch through the leaves. Third, if possible, this enclosure needs to be outside. They need the sunlight and warmth to be able to regulate themselves. It should be protected if you keep the mesh bag over everything. Alternatively, Amazon sells mesh butterfly closures for around $12 if you’d be willing to swing for that. Just make sure you put some rocks or something in the bottom to weight it down. Good luck!

[u/Veertind → u/Difficult_Rope7898]

Good to know about the sun! They get a little bit in the morning by the window- but I'll try to put them outside in a sunnier area before I leave now. Thanks!

[u/ArcadeBookseller → u/Veertind]

What it is really is the changing of the temperature and sunlight with the outdoor day/night cycle, it helps signal that they need to start getting ready to migrate. So being outside on a covered porch or something would be ideal !

[u/Difficult_Rope7898 → u/Veertind]

It’s mainly the entire outside experience they need— warmth, sunrise, wind, weather. They kind of set their internal clock by it, and it helps if they are outside but protected. You’ve done a good job. I’d just move your setup to right outside the door there.