A few questions for reares

[Christopher Conlan]

Some quick answers to your questions

1) Double sleeves or cages can help keep the various predators from 
sucking your larvae dry through the sleeve.  However, you need to put 
some sort of a spacer between the two sleeves so that a bit more of a 
gap is created between the two thus preventing access to the larvae.  
Even without a spacer the double sleeves will help some.

2.  Gloveri eats a number of plants across its range but Salix exigua 
works very well followed by Cercocarpus and Manzanita.  Prunus works 
too as do some others so you may have to experiment a little to find 
the best host available in your area.  There may be regional 
preferences in some cases so results may vary with origin of your stock.

3.  You can switch hosts when the larvae are partly grown but the 
success rate varies.  Better luck is usually had if switching from a 
less preferred to a more preferred host.  The reverse may not always 
work.  For example, I can switch E. calleta from sumac to privet no 
problem but they will not go back to sumac after eating privet.

Chris


 
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