Moth Conservation Project

In May 2016, I joined my local LEP club or Lepidoptera Club. That's butterflies and moths. The goal of the club is to breed our native Maryland moths, release most of them and keep a breeding pair to start over.
Other than simply enjoying the experience, people like myself breed moths for the purposes of releasing them. Silk worms and many other types of moths and butterflies have been steadily declining over the past 20+ years. The causes for decline are a combination of habitat loss, pesticides and predators/parasites. Why would someone want to help declining moths? They are pollinators and are food for other members of the ecosystem like bats and birds.

The first week of June, the club members received caterpillars from the club leaders. The club leaders are so good a breeding moths that there's hundreds off bugs and every member can have 5-15 caterpillars.

June 8-11
The first few days having my caterpillars was stressful! Prior to joining the club, I didn't know that once a caterpillar starts eating a certain leave branch it won't eat any other kind! And the Luna Moth caterpillars I took home were feeding on Walnut. I panicked because I went to the club not knowing what tree species were in my neighborhood. Everyone assured me that identifying trees was so easy and I would be fine. Wrong! I did not find this easy and I am not fine. I am freaking out trying to find the right leaves before my caterpillars starve! They already started to shed/molt so they must be working up an appetite!

6/9/16 My first day with the cats

Caterpillars eat every day, and broken branches don't stay alive very long. So one must refresh the branches/leaves every day or every other day. I am running out of time.
I downloading this guide and this guide and it did help after hours. I started to realize that every time I thought there was a walnut tree in my neighborhood, it was the Tree of Heaven. Upon reading these guides, I remembered that I taught my students how to make their own walnut ink by collecting and boiling walnuts we found plentiful in the school yard. Oh how foolish I'd been to not notice the leave structure when I had the chance! So now, I am on a mission to swing by school and snip some unmistakable walnut leaves.

6/10/16 Can you see the left over molt?

Hah! As irony would have it, once that final paragraph was written, I slammed my macbook shut and went for a jog.  I glanced at every tree on my route with despair, taking pictures of the questionable ones. And 1.5 miles into it, what to I run into? A huge black walnut tree! How did I know? Because I had flashbacks of tripping over the dropped walnuts last fall! So I snapped a twig and made for home at a great pace. My suspicions were confirmed when all four caterpillars eagerly accepted the new leaves! Caterpillars know more about trees than I do. They won't even try to eat unless you put the correct leaves. FINALLY. Relief.

6/9/16 Black Walnut leaves

June 12
Wow! That is definitely the right food. They demolished the branch I put in their cage and there is frass everywhere. Frass, that's bug poop to you.

6/12/16 Is it just me or did they lose weight while I was finding food?

June 15
Holy moly! These cats are getting fat. I wonder when they will molt again.

6/15/16 

June 16 

Seriously? They doubled their size since I got them!

June 17
Wrong. They were not ready to molt, they were ready to pupate. They roll themselves into the leaves and spin their silk to keep it bound.

July 4th
The first Luna Moth has emerged from the pupa! I came home from our "4th of July" party and there he was! I can tell he is a male because his antennae are so gaudy. Females' antennae are more dainty. But just in case, I put the cage out on the deck. If I was wrong and it were a female, her pheromones would have attracted males in the area to mate with her (through the cage).

7/4/16 Found him emerged.

July 5th

Today we got to witness a moth emerging from the pupa. It was amazing. Although, somewhere along the lines, I missed the detail regarding the moths wings expanding and drying over the course of the day. So for about 90 seconds, I was very depressed that I had reared a deformed animal and felt very sorry for him. But like many moths before him, he hung out on a branch and let his wings stretch to perfection. 

7/5/16
Watching him emerge was amazing

7/5/16
He knew to hang himself up to dry.

July 7th 

All day July 6th and 7th I anxiously waited for the fourth moth to emerge. We already had 3 males and very much hoped for a female! And at 4pm today, I got my wish. A beautiful girl emerged from her pupa. 

I was also met with a new challenge. All four moths seems very active all of the sudden. One moth actually damaging his wings trying to fly in the little cage I'm keeping them in. I don't know what all the other moth breeders do, but I ended up moving all four moths into my chameleon's outdoor screen cage for the night.

July 8th

YAY! I checked on the moths this morning and found them mating. At this point they seem to have been mating for a few hours. I don't know how long it takes but as soon as she is unattached, I'll move her into a new cage for her to lay eggs. 

Once she lays eggs, I will start a new blog post with more experienced and knowledgable comments. 

Learn more about Luna Moths: 

http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/Actiaslunarearing.htm

http://earthsbirthday.org/images/uploads/bugs/luna-moth-care.pdf

http://nationalmothweek.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Moth-Decline.pdf

http://ouroneacrefarm.com/giant-silk-moths-decline/

http://www.livescience.com/21933-moth-week-facts.html

A House for the Tortoise

Like many of The Drawing Zoo's animals, Bowser the Tortoise was given to us from another home no longer able to provide care. In August of 2015, we had about a week to set up a tortoise pen before he was to arrive. This was our experience.

Bowser is a 13 year old Russian Tortoise who weighs 1lb, 1oz and will likely not get any larger. He eats a variety of plant life, from weeds to herbs to flowers and cacti. When this species lives outside (from May-September) it is important to follow these parameters:

• Part shade, part sun
• Minimum 4'x4'x1'
• Barrier beneath cage
• Access to food and water
• Drain
• Places to dig & hide
• Escape/predator proof lid

The first step in our journey to build Bowser a happy home was to find a good location for the cage. We chose to place it between two large maple trees. After observing the sun orientation over the yard for a few days, we agreed that this placement was both sunny and shady. We outlined our idea with paver stones.

From Home Depot we purchased two 6ft long boards and two 8ft long boards that were pressure treated without arsenic. This was the hardest part of the project! We can't just use any wood. We had to find a wood that could withstand the weather, but not treated with anything harmful to Bowser. Then my fiance and I could finally put the frame together! It is very important that the tortoise cannot see through the walls of the cage. A tortoise won't understand that he's behind glass, acrylic or mesh and try to crawl through the wall, resulting in injuries. It seems counter intuitive to a person's values, but when a tortoise is in a cage or pen and cannot see through the walls, he or she just accepts the space they are in and makes a home in it. The minimum space for a tortoise this size is about 4ft x 4ft x 1ft but we don't really like doing the minimum. Our pen ended up 6ft x 8ft x 1ft. 

Once the frame was put together we placed it between the two ideal trees. At this point, I should mention that we attempted to dig around the perimeter of the cage. The idea was to bury construction mesh or chicken wire so that predators like foxes or raccoons cannot dig into the cage, nor could our very capable tortoise dig himself out of the cage. But we ran into a blessing in disguise...
The tree roots are so big, tangled and plentiful under the cage that it was near impossible to dig in that area. Talk about a happy accident! Just to be safe, I did end up lining the inner and outer perimeter of the cage with bricks as a digging deterrent.

 

What was next on the check list? A drain. This is hard to see in the pictures, but I used a pick-ax to dig a 1ft deep into the cage. It took a while to find a small area between the roots to dig down. I then, filled the hole with river rocks. Basically, we want to make sure that in heavy rain water will drain out of the cage and prevent our tortoise from drowning. Some other tortoise owners use PVC pipe under the cage to accomplish the same thing.

Next on the list was the fun part, setting up a digging and hiding area. Tortoises are built for digging. That is how they stay hidden from predators in nature and how they cool down on a hot day. They have 4 large toes/claws on each foot and unlike turtles, they are not webbed. 

I laid down a big log to create a make-shift retaining wall in the cage. Then, I filled the area with organic top soil. Just like wood, we can't put anything treated with chemicals that would be harmful.

Then I added big slabs of bark, branches and terra-cotta pots so that the tortoise had plenty of places to hide and dig to his heart's desire. 

https://thedancingturtleee.wordpress.com/about/

Almost done! In addition to sun, shade, hiding places and a digging area, tortoises also need access to food and water. The water part was easy. We added a water dish near the drain. The tortoise can eat grass but also needs weeds (see previous posts on dandelions) and flowers. So even though it was very labor intensive and time consuming, I planted marigolds, geraniums, hibiscus, hostas and weeds in and around the cage. These plants double as hiding places or shady places for Bowser to relax. I also offer him veggies from the garden to just round out the diet. 

*Note that Russian Tortoises cannot have fruit, regardless of cute memes you see. Their digestive system is so slow to glean nutrients from grasses, herbs, weeds and flowers, that if they have fruit, it will ferment in their bellies and make them sick. 

For aesthetic reasons, I painted the outside wood. 

And last but not least, a lid for the cage. My fiance build the frame of lid and I stapled this hardy plastic construction mesh to the frame. I was warned by those with experience, that chicken wire is not a safe material because raccoons can still squeeze their hands through the mesh to injure or kill your pet. In addition to the mesh, we also added a pad-lock and weights as extra security.

*Note that I do not hate raccoons or think they are "bad" animals. I value them as part of the environment, and simply do not want them to not have access to my tortoise. 

After a few months I noticed that Bowser enjoys his digging areas. He enjoys it so much that he pretty much demolished the hiding places I made for him. I rebuilt these hides a few times before I decided there was an easier way to protect him from the elements. I placed an acrylic sheet and wooden plank on the north facing side of his lid. Both additions provide shelter from the rain. The wood plank provides shade and the acrylic has a greenhouse effect, giving him a "hot spot" to use when he chooses. 

See Bowser enjoying his home here, on Facebook and Instagram! 

A tortoise-point of view

Bowser eating plantain, marigold and hibiscus

Sunning himself in the "dig area"

For more information about Tortoise care or cages see these sources:
http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Reptile-Magazines/Reptiles-Magazine/April-2008/Outdoor-Tortoise-Enclosure/

http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Care-Sheets/Russian-Tortoise/
http://animals.mom.me/ideas-outdoor-enclosure-russian-tortoises-6423.html