larvae on drugs??!

[Chris Conlan]

>
>Huh?  I suppose these drugs are antibiotics?  Can someone fill in details?
>Is this true?  It's sort of disturbing to think that even caterpillars
>have to be given these things the same way cows and chickens do.  (At $10
>a pop, you'd think monarchs could "just say no"...)

It is very common to include antibiotics in insect cultures raised on
artificial diet.  It's probably less common to use it in situations where
foliage is used as food.  I only use antibiotics if I happen to have a very
rare or hard ot obtain species that I really want to get to maturity.  At
the first sign of any illness I'll spray some strep sulfate on the leaves
once per day for 4 or 5 days.  If no improvement in health at that point I
usually give up assuming it's a virus or something I can't really cure and
lament my losses.  It seems to work about 50% of the time.

Chris