Sterilization of Supplies

At the end of the season, cleaning and sterilisation of the supplies is important so bacteria is not left in the container to infect the caterpillars next year when the season starts.

It's recommended to wash your containers with a 5% bleach solution, run them through the dishwasher or expose them to 6 hours of UV radiation.

Given the  "black death" we fought at the end of the season this year we decided to go overboard to make sure it was all gone.

First I wiped every container down using Clorox wipes making sure I got all the webbing and any remaining splatters wiped off.  (I use paper towels at the bottom of the containers to catch the dripping off the emerging butterflies which cuts into the clean up afterwards).  Then I rinsed the container to make sure all the residue from cleaning was removed.

Then to make absolutely sure the containers don't  spread black death to next year's caterpillars, I  put them all out in the sun for UV exposure.  This has been the hard part because finding 6 hours of sun is not so easy this time of year.

Once they're done in the sun, I will stack the containers in a trash bag and store them in the attic until I need them next year.