Hi everyone, i am researching on Plutella xylostella, and was feeding the caterpillars with cabbage, but i does not know if the moth need to a specific artificial diet or simple solution with sugar or honey and water. If someone could help me with this I will be very grateful.
In nature, adults of this species feed on flowers of the Brassicaceae family just before dusk. I think that you can try with a simple solution with sugar or honey and water, e.g. dunking a cotton swab. Regards,
Rinaldo Nicoli
I feed my adults on a water and sugar (10%) solution. I just place a swab of cotton wool in a plastic case and change it every week. Sometimes I give them Lobularia maritima to oviposit and they love feeding on the flowers :)
Just use 10- 15% diluted honey, soaked in cotton wool. Changed daily to avoid fermentation and mould development.
For egg laying, take aluminium foil, squeeze reat cabbage extract, apply on the foil. Air dry foil, use a pin or anything to make lines and cut into thin stripes.
The adults will lay the eggs on the treated foil.
use 10% diluted honey and soaked in cotton ball and then tie it to a string and hang it in upper side of jar
The main problem is presence of ants. for egg laying i use Brassica leaves and it will be changed everyday :) you can see Px eggs and maybe some larvae :) good luck :)
These are good suggestions! You can absorb the sugar water into a pecie of sponge! good luck!
I have observed that 10% sugar solution is much better than honey solution on P. xylostella adults. In addition you might want to use the dental-wick source method for the cotton wool i.e put your solution in a contain with a perforated lid, insert the cottonwool through the perforation as a wick. Check also a Cornell University Shelton Lab on google, they are very resourceful on P. xylostella rearing. All the best :-)
Many thanks to all for the answers, finally i made a 10% sugar solution in dental-wick method and gave good results, best regards.
I feed my adults of Tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta on a water and sugar (10%) solution. I place a swab of cottonin a plastic petri dish and change it every week.
And sometimes i feed my adults on 10% diluted honey, soaked in cotton
Sugar water or honey solution would be okay. And a cotton soaked in water.
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