Actias luna

One of north Americas largest moths, the beautiful Luna moth is found from northern Mexico all the way up to Canada, meaning they can tolerate a wide range of conditions.

The trick to raising the caterpillars is hygiene, Keep them in a tupperware box with paper towel on the bottom and clean them out every other day giving them new food in the process. Don’t worry about air holes in the boxes, they get all the air they need when you open the box. Caterpillars like about 50-70% humidity which can be achieved by slightly dampening some of the leaves before feeding them, but try to avoid condensation forming on the sides of the box. Once the caterpillars get bigger you can move them into a mesh enclosure with cut food in water jars (making sure the caterpillars can’t get into the water). Caterpillars reach full size in about 5 weeks. When they start spinning their cocoon, leave them for about 10 days to finish the process, then move the pupae somewhere cool to overwinter. An outside shed or even in the fridge works well, bringing them back inside around mid to late march to hatch out. Typically they hatch 2-3 weeks
after they have warmed back up.

Adult moths don’t feed on anything, instead rely on their fat reserves from when they were caterpillars, and as such only live 2 weeks. During that time though they will mate and females will lay up-to 100 eggs each. Eggs hatch in about 10-14 days.

Warning: Do not release these moths outside, coming from as far north as Canada they have the potential to become invasive in the UK!