It's usually the butterflies I have to put down as I generally find the caterpillars when they're already dead. But, in either case, I cut the heads off with scissors. Not my favorite thing to do, but I figure it's better than throwing it outside so it can get eaten alive by ants or have its wings torn off by a bird before they eat the body. Luckily, I don't have to do this too often. When we get a breakout of OE in the Monarchs then, yeah, it gets bad and I have to do it because they're diseased and messed up. And that's if they even make it out of the chrysalis. Sometimes I have to cut their heads off when they're still half stuck in the chrysalis. But you know they're completely incapable of life as a butterfly at that point, plus they're infected with a spore they will only spread to other butterflies, so it's for the greater good. Hate that phrase, by the way. Since our butterflies are pretty well protected in the flight cage, we can release them if they have minor problems. Like, today there was a Malachite who had some curling near the bottom of the wings. Even Dominic noticed it. But I pointed out that it could still fly - and it did right across the flight cage - so it was fine. In nature, maybe not so much. Also, we try to keep the lab as clean as possible. I wash my hands a lot, too. Mostly because handling frass is yucky, but it also cuts down on me transmitting anything from one tank to another.
