ASKING FOR HELP AND GUIDANCE WITH SENDING DISEASED CATERPILLARS FOR TESTING

[Vicki Mion]

Hi Everyone,

Our Monarch season in Brookings Oregon is over. The rain deluges have started. 

My last few caterpillars died. I can't figure out why. I thought they might have Tachinid fly since they came in as cats from the garden. But I don't see any maggots.

Not an inverted V. Not smelly. Not spewing. Just quietly keel over and die. They look like they are sleeping.

It's so sad. I'm willing to pay to get them tested but I don't know how to go about it. 

I'm afraid I'm losing my viability window for testing. Don't know if I should freeze them. 

Help please??

Thank You!!

Vicki Mion

Brookings, Or

760-670-7826

On Thursday, October 27, 2016, Vicki Mion <vick...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sending in sick/dead caterpillars or butterflies for testing - how does this work?
Thanks,
Vicki Mion
Brookings, Oregon
760-670-7826

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[Josh Yu]

Vicki,

I am so sorry all of this is happening to you. As butterfly breeders we know the hardships that sometimes seem to come out of nowhere. May I ask where you source your milkweed from? Perhaps it was pesticides? 

Josh

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[Vicki Mion]

Hi Josh!

Thank you for your reply. All our Milkweed is home grown by me from seed. Some different kinds, some from greenhouse some from backyard.

I'm just baffled.

I'm a hobbyist with a very small output of Monarchs. Every loss hits hard.

I bring in the insects as eggs, but I haven't bleached them. I will have to start doing that next year.

I rinse the Milkweed under running water but haven't bleached it. Wear gloves and change them often.

We use no pesticides in our yard. 

I have taken the "pests and parasites"class from Edith and the OA prevention from Connie. Connie mentioned we could send insects in for testing?

i appreciate you discussing this with me. What other thought do you have?

Thank you so much!!

Vicki

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[Josh Yu]

Vicki,

I am in Vancouver BC. Where I have only seen one native monarch in my life. I get mine shipped in from the East and breed them to get livestock. I only breed them for several generations, mixing new stock in to ensure no inbreeding effects take hold. Then the resulting livestock is released. I manage to raise hundreds from just a single pair of monarchs to begin with. 

This may be your only hope when it comes to preventing disease. Especially those that seem to spring up from nothing. All your practices seem to be perfect so there are no alarms there. I would have a breeding stock going so all your efforts are not wasted. You can control everything from the moment that egg is laid (all the eggs we collect are from indoor lab conditions, on cut milkweed). 

I usually have monarchs overwintering in the fridge but my stock last year did do so well towards the end of the season so they were set free. 

I would start fresh, sanitize everything with a 70% solution of alcohol (not 99% because it is actually less strong) and test everything for Oe spores and bacterial outbreaks. Any compound microscope on eBay will do. 

I let the lab mellow for several months on the off season so nothing can establish itself within. In the spring everything gets sanitized again even if I already did a before the mellow period and livestock is brought in. 

I never ever ever, especially for Painted Ladies, bring in new livestock if my existing culture is bright and healthy. This I've learned the hard way as potential for disease to be brought in increases hundredfold if you are not careful. I would only recommend this process to yourself, a person who dedicates hard work into raising these important insects. 

It is very likely Oe has seen your set up. All it takes is an infected female to leave behind spores when the egg is laid to waste you 4 weeks until one day the caterpillars stop eating and eventually don't make it. That is why you hear breeders stressing so much about bleaching the eggs and taking them off original leaves. Interestingly though, tropical milkweed will allow you to raise a majority of these infected larvae to HUGE sizes and emerge into LARGE adults when other types of milkweed result in fast infection and death. These adults as always, have to be euthanized.

Sorry for such a long email. Please let me know if this helps. I raise many other species as well, a benefit we individuals get from living in the northern regions so don't hesitate if you want to try other types of Lepidoptera but have questions. 

All the best,

Josh

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[Vicki Mion]

I know so many people are swamped getting ready to attend the annual IBBA/AFB conference that my timing is really bad with my questions.

Thank you so much Josh and Linda for your help. I was able to find the information on sending Caterpillars in for testing at the IBBA site and AFB.

I'm going to take Josh's suggestions and just put everything to bed for this season and call it done. 

I will make sure I understand how the specimen testing program works and be ready to use it next season if I get this strange plague going through here again.

Even though we have such a tiny setup here at my home, it is very watched by my community in Southern Oregon. We have brought several schools, libraries, garden clubs -- even the state Fish and Wildlife know us and have been to our home.

It's a unique situation we have here for promoting best practices regarding raising butterflies all through the state of Oregon.

I also have a special interest in getting any onus off professional butterfly breeders and have them get the respect they deserve as leaders in best practices and continuing education( My soapbox!)

Thank you Linda - I will go to those websites!

Warm regards,

Vicki

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[Dale McClung]

Hi all,

Just a note to wish you all Happy Holidays.

Dale McClung