10Pcs 60Ml Floral Tubes with Rack Holder for Milkweed Cuttings

I had 8 caterpillars. I didn't have a lot of milkweed in pots. There is a lot of Common Milkweed (native to where I am) growing in our yard. They don't like being transplanted to pots.These floral tubes with stand are perfect. The leaves stayed healthy and delicious for caterpillar munching. Easy to clean the frass (green poop-looks like great ferilizer but they recommend just throwing it away). I'm probably going to buy another one. :)I bought two of these. I have 20 caterpillars coming from MonarchWatch.org. ONLY BUY CATERPILLARS FROM THE MOST TRUSTED SOURCE!! Sorry Amazon, your vendors are not it. Last year we saw so few Monarchs. Most of of the milkweed went untouched. We also have a lot of caterpillar predatory wasps. So! This year I have a large 35 x 35 x 59 Inches habitat bought here from RestCloud. Good product, a bit big. I could have gone smaller, 36" or 48" high would have been fine.Yes, I recommend this product. :)

I like that these are nice and big and have flat bottoms (I haven't used the rack yet) BUT the hole in the top is big. If the cutting of milkweed isn't from a center stem with a big stem, there is space around the stem and I've lost 2 first instars as they crawled/fell down the stalk into the water. :(

These tubes were a nice addition for butterfly raising and I'm happy to have them but they're not as useful as I had hoped. The rack is too big for my enclosure so that got set aside right away. The tubes are frail and one broke fairly quickly and I'm not sure how it happened! The caps are pretty nice and I've found they are stretchy enough to fit some other bottles I have laying around so I've repurposed them and much happier. It's not super expensive and I'll find uses for the tubes (rooting herb cuttings) but for butterflies I think I'll primarily DIY containers to keep the milkweed watered here on out.

This seems like an easier way to feed caterpillars that are on the verge of forming a chrysalis. It does require close observation. For one thing, the milkweed needs to be replaced more frequently than a milkweed plant/plants used in the enclosure. So be sure that you don’t have starving caterpillars. I also found myself placing sticks on the racks to provide a pathway for the caterpillars when they were ready to form their chrysalides. Perhaps that wasn’t necessary but I had one caterpillar form its chrysalis on the center of the rack. This required me to use great care when replacing milkweed tubes. Unfortunately, when the monarch eclosed, it didn’t have enough space to hang and harden its wings properly and wasn’t able to be released.If you decide to order and use the rack, please use great care to urge the caterpillar onto the mesh container. Unfortunately, caterpillars frequently make their moves during the night & you might get an unfortunate surprise in the morning. An ill-placed chrysalis can be moved to a better location but the rack design makes that difficult. I didn’t have the confidence to do it. I do like the ease of placing milkweed in the tubes & while I haven’t used the rack again, I do find myself using the tubes to transport caterpillars from outside into the habitats & when I need an emergency supply of milkweed. Those caterpillars can go through milkweed pretty fast so the ability to quickly add milkweed can be most helpful.

It’s easy to put together, easy to take apart, relatively easy to clean. The holes in the tubes are a little bigger, so you either want to use them with more mature caterpillars, or only put fatter stemmed cuttings into them. I have a similar rack with smaller tubes whose lids have smaller holes for the younger caterpillars, but once they get a little bigger and are eating a lot more, it’s very convenient to put this rack in the habitat as well to give them plenty to eat. They do have a little bit of smell, the lids, when they come, but you’re going to wash them before you use them anyway. I have not noticed any ill affects on the caterpillar’s

I love these! I was using spice jars weighted with pebbles to not fall over, and I'd have to work to get the stem to stay upright. With this rack and floral tubes it is a piece of cake! I can use it if I just bring in one milkweed leaf with an egg on it, or a stem with more leaves, with caterpillars on them too. I can also put the cuttings in there until they start to grow roots. And of course they fit in my butterfly cage if I have caterpillars that may roam.Putting the rack together was easy once I could spot the letters that are just upraised, not a different color. Might have been sunken in - either way, not a different color.I should have gotten these sooner!

These are wonderful! I raise monarchs in the summer time, have a milkweed patch. I got out daily to look for eggs laid and bring them back to the habitat. These floral tubes keep the milkweed fresh. I check them daily to see if they need more water, but filling them once keeps it fresh for 24 hrs, and then I give a fresh trim to stems after day one when I see some wilting start and refill. I fill once and refresh water once..is all I have ever needed to do before they've devoured the plant. So much easier than a jar or vase.. I used to cover with plastic wrap to keep out fras and caterpillars from falling in.

Raising butterflies is new for me. I jumped online and read as much as I could—there are some AMAZING websites with good information! These tubes with the rack have been a lifesaver for me, and for the 33 healthy cats I am raising!I ordered 2 sets, and I am so glad I did, because I can fill new tubes with fresh cuttings and place them into a clean cage (I ordered an extra cage too…), and then transfer cats to a clean environment without much disturbance.Tip that helped me: **I always have clean tubes of water ready to go, so I can remove one cutting that is still fairly fresh, gently rinse away the frass, and slip the cutting full of cats into a new tube, without disturbing them—this also allows you to keep the cuttings with healthy leaves a day or two longer. **Another trick I learned online was to cut the milkweed stem TWICE , and run it under warm water, then put the cutting in the tube of cold water—this seems to keep my cuttings fresher for longer periods!