Caterpillar diseases

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Notodonta, 24.09.2008 20:07

This year I collected a lot of grass cocoonworms. They spread an unknown infection. It seems to me that it is transmitted not only with what is eaten, but also somehow. This summer, ALL my caterpillars often got sick and died. And it continues to this day!They refuse to eat, they get diarrhoea, and then they die and it seems to be contagious. Can anyone help the poor things? Who knows if they can be treated and how to treat them, please respond! How to protect them from this disaster??!
Thank you in advance.

Comments

Likes: 2

27.09.2008 22:58, guest: Андрей

Many caterpillars are extremely sensitive to poor ventilation and poor quality of the food plant. In general, the activation of the virus, in particular, polyhedrosis, can provoke any stress - overheating, hypothermia, lack of food for more than an hour, changes in humidity, etc. Moreover, if the caterpillars have been kept in constant, unchanging conditions for a long time, they will almost certainly get sick if they change abruptly, and if the conditions are unstable,then the caterpillars are more stable. Sailboats, some saturnia, and various xerophilic species are usually very susceptible to this. And crested whales in general are very rarely ill. I've never had this before. Try to sterilize or replace the jiggers.
And if it is a bacterial infection, then you can try spraying plants with broad-spectrum antibiotics. Sometimes it helps.

Likes: 1

21.10.2008 10:38, guest: Андрей

By the way, as practice shows, polyhedrosis is rarely transmitted to other caterpillars. That is, if you take a sick goose and put it in a cage with other caterpillars of the same species, but from a different culture, which are kept in different conditions, they will not get sick (I have tried this many times). In addition, latent viruses contain 100% of natural caterpillars. Therefore, only good conditions will help prevent mass death. Bacterial infections and those caused by protozoa are another matter. They are quite contagious and are also common in the culture. In the case of mass breeding, sometimes it even makes sense to sterilize the cages, as well as the butterfly eggs and forage plant.

Baculoviruses that cause polyhedrosis are said to be well suppressed by adding formaldehyde to the feed. However, when feeding a plant, it is unrealistic to use it, especially since it is very toxic.