Yes, caterpillars leaking fluids is pretty much universally bad. Although, some will throw up on you and that's different, but still probably not great for the caterpillar. Sulphurs tend to use that trick the most. They really don't like when you lift them off their stem and they will cling so hard to it. So if I'm showing off a Sulphur cat I usually just pick the whole stem and display them like that. Or when I collect them off a plant I just pick the section of the plant they're on. I got tired of getting vomited on. Plus, I figure the stress isn't good for the caterpillar.
I have some bad caterpillar news today. Mom saw a "big wasp" eating one of my Monarch caterpillars. She said she was deeply traumatized. I went out there and didn't see anything. She offered to show me where it was but I figured I didn't want to be traumatized either. Also, I lost another Spicebush cat. There is just something wrong with this batch. I've never had this much trouble raising Spicebushes. Since I got them as eggs I'm thinking a genetic defect? Nothing has been sprayed on my plants so it can't be that. It's just very weird.
The Pipevine STs are doing well except for one who was acting oddly this morning. He was on the side of the critter keeper and had his head bent so he was at about a 45 degree angle which is not a normal position for a caterpillar (they tend to remain pretty vertical). I thought he was dead so I put him on a tissue but the he started moving so I yelled at him not to play dead or I might actually assume he was. When I put the new leaf in, I set him on it and he seemed to perk up a little. He's still sitting in the same spot hours later and doesn't appear to have eaten anything. But when I touched him on the head he threw his head back and forth and fighting is always a good sign of health (in people and caterpillars). And he's not molting so I'm not sure why he's not eating. All the other cats look pretty good, although I feel like they should be growing a little faster than they are.
But I do have some good news. The Polydamas I feared were duds hatched last night. Literally, I was going to bed around midnight and I always do a caterpillar check and there they were. The eggs had only started turning dark about 24 hours before so I was a little surprised they hatched as quick as they did. I thought it would take at least another day. In the picture they are all "snuggling" as Mom says. And they're in their original groupings - there were six eggs in one cluster and two in the other and you can see they stayed that way. They've since spread out but haven't eaten the new leaf I put in there so that was weird. I guess they'll get to it when they get to it.
