dear mom,
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 9:05AM 
Cochineal is probably the first dye that comes to mind whenever I think of Mexican natural dyes. I first dyed with it in college and remember the brilliant hues of red it produced, as well as the horific smell of the dyebath. Living in Austin, I have access to this dye source all around me! I remembered seeing the cochineal insects all over the prickly pear cactus last year but I didn't make note to exactly when they appeared, so I asked "Mr. Smarty Plants"!
"Ask Mr. Smarty Plants" is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, located here in Austin. I am very impressed with the thorough answer I received!
My Question: I am a fibers artist that would like to harvest the cochineal bugs from the prickly pear cactus. I would like to know what time of year should I expect to find the cochineal bugs around the Austin area?
The Answer: Although I've often seen the fluffy white evidence of the cochineal bugs on prickly pear cactus, I guess I hadn't really paid attention to when they were most abundant so I checked with an entomologist, Valerie Bugh, and here is what she said:
"The females live inside the white fluff and squishing their bodies is what produces the red dye. The highest concentration would be when the fluff is most numerous and each piece is rather big and clean looking, indicating mature females inside. Because it is a slightly water-resistant waxy substance, the white stuff tends to last a long time, but I've seen old remains that are dried out and wouldn't be very productive because the insect inside is dead. The time of year for the best harvests will vary depending on rainfall and temperature. If we have some very hard freezes, that will delay the insects' development, as will heavy rains or scorching summer droughts. I suspect that conditions are more important than dates."
Howard Garrett's The Dirt Doctor.com page on the cochineal says that females are harvested when they are about 90 days old. Considering that mating and egg laying would happen when the weather is warm enough, say mid-March in the Central Texas Area, it would be early to mid-summer before the females would be ready to harvest (mid-June to late July).
You might be interested in reading about how modern cochineal farmers operate currently in Oaxaca, Mexico in the article, "Red Gold—Raising Cochineal in Oaxaca."
Do not be confused by the red color here on the cactus, that is the prickly pear fruit that the cochineal is feeding off of. The cochineal is located inside the white waxy coton substance. The liquid/blood of the insect is what produces the color. There are so many different ways to process the insect after harvesting, all of which produce variations of color.
One of my goals this year it to cultivate and harvest a small batch of cochineal.
note: photos on this post are not mine, I pulled them from a goggle image search.
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