Is is Possible to Remove Tachinid Fly Eggs From Caterpillar?

[PidderPeets]

In my boyfriend's travels today, he stumbled across a large Saturniid moth caterpillar (I suspect Antheraea polyphemus), and he brought it home for me. However, upon looking at it I noticed that it's covered in tachinid fly eggs. The caterpillar took right to cocooning after my boyfriend contained it.

Is it possible that the eggs still haven't hatched or is it already too late? Is it possible to remove or destroy the eggs to try giving the caterpillar a fighting chance?

 

[MaddiesMom]

I raise monarchs and the tachinid fly is a huge issue for them. Honestly, I have never seen visible tachinid fly eggs on the cats, just the unfortunate after effects when the larvae emerge, killing the pupating cat. If you still have time, remove them. Once they hatch they burrow into the cat and kill it. Thank you for caring for this. It's such a horrendous death for the host.

 

[PidderPeets]

I raise monarchs and the tachinid fly is a huge issue for them. Honestly, I have never seen visible tachinid fly eggs on the cats, just the unfortunate after effects when the larvae emerge, killing the pupating cat. If you still have time, remove them. Once they hatch they burrow into the cat and kill it. Thank you for caring for this. It's such a horrendous death for the host.

Unfortunately I was unable to save the caterpillar. I tried removing the eggs the day I got the caterpillar, but the eggs were impossible to remove without tearing up the caterpillar. It seems that the flies actually inject the eggs into the caterpillar from what I was able to read. I had planned to put the cocoon in the fridge right after it pupated in hopes it would kill the flies but not the caterpillar pupa, but I misjudged my timeframe and woke up this morning to about 20 large larvae crawling about the enclosure. At the very least, the flies won't be in the wild to cause any more damage.

 

[MaddiesMom]

Sorry to hear that. The tachinid fly is how I got started with raising monarchs. My daughter found a large monarch caterpillar one summer a few years ago so we thought it would be neat to watch it pupate and later emerge as a butterfly. That is NOT what we witnessed though. Once it hung upside down to pupate these maggot like things came out and killed the caterpillar. It was like a scene from Alien. That is when I researched this issue and found out a high number of monarchs are killed by these things. Now I hunt the eggs out in nature, bring them back to an enclosure, and raise them until the butterflies emerge. Then I release. I tag the last generation each summer to see if any of mine make it the 2500 miles to Mexico. So far I have had 2 survive the long journey. Researchers notified me they recorded those two in the forest down there. I think it's awesome you cared enough to help it.