A Quick rundown on the season so far

Well what a whirlwind of a summer! After waiting through 5 tense weeks of rain, finally it has stopped. I just hope it picks up a little. Now the garden at home is too dry. Got through the rain wondering, where are all monarchs? I guess they were waiting to lay their eggs. Now it is eggapalooza!
The season started slow with only finding a few eggs to collecting 30-60 daily at work and home. I have to thank my seasonal works who are getting into the conservation thing and actively looking for eggs for me. We have milkweed at almost every park and facility where I work and so that makes collecting easy. I did this by design but also from an educational standpoint. Our facilities (park district) have kids and moms and dads going in and out all day, not to mention day camps! I want those kids visiting to say, I saw a monarch butterfly lay her eggs today at camp! We have a wonderful Naturalist that works with us and she does the bulk of the education. So anywhere I can help that out, make it more convenient.... I grow all the mw we use in the parks in our greenhouse so it is all pesticide free.
Oh and the nice garden club lady who dropped off a caterpillar, thank you. It will be well cared for by little Gwennie.
At home where I  raise these eggs into butterflies, is a little chaotic right now. We are in the tail end of a renovation project and I have no tables in the house. I can't wait to get my dining room up! I need a project space. The hatching boxes where the eggs go are literally on the kitchen floor.
When I bring eggs home, I  "process" them. By this I mean that I get a clean hatching box. I clean with bleach and make sure to rinse and dry well. I then place a paper towel in the bottom of the box and spray it with a little spray bottle. Make the paper towel a little damp.  The reason for this is too keep the eggs alive until the eggs hatch. After I get them all into the boxes, I count them,  make sure any funny looking ones get closer inspection with a jeweler's loupe.
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Any bad eggs go out. I make sure there are no aphids or anything nasty on the leaves. Then I seal the box. This is important. Seal the box, make a hydration chamber so leaves live. I also open and close those boxes at least once a day to get fresh air in. You will want to see if they are hatching anyway.  And then you wait. When they start hatching, after 2-4 days,  I start putting new food in. Wash the leaves off and pat dry. I don't always transfer every tiny cat. to a new leaf. That would be too time consuming for the numbers I am taking care of. However when I had less than 100 I would definitely transfer them. I use the tip of a toothpick. Some use a paint brush.
Feed the cats and clean the boxes daily. Period. If you do not want a bacterial outbreak and cats dying, cleanliness is the most important aspect of this activity.
For my operation, when the cats get about an inch or so in length I think about taking them out to the caterpillar house. This is a structure built by my husband, Lee. It took him about 20 hours to build and believe it not, he used no plans. We deconstructed the old cat. house and there was enough wood there to reuse into the new one. He only had to buy a little bit of wood.
While out in the cat. house the cats are fed from large cuttings of common and tropical mw. They are in vases that are weighed down with marbles and the opening of the vase is covered with plastic wrap to keep cats. from falling in and drowning.
Then they just do their thing. Eat until it is time them make their chrysalids. They wander around the cat. house for a while and settle in a spot. When they eclose, I release them the same day.
So why do I do this, all of this? I definitely have enough to do over the summer. I work full time, lecture at garden clubs, but only a few in the summer. I have a large garden to take care of and other responsibilities.
I don't want to get all sanctimonious about this and say that I am going to save this species. I have genuine sympathy for the monarch and their plight. I do this because the symbolism of the metamorphosis is important for me. I think that this species is a good ambassador for all the insect world and why we should protect them. Except aphids. I don't like aphids. Oh and mosquitoes...oh well. Most insects are really cool and beautiful. And I do it because it is fun.  Although this week it is feeling like a job. :)
Next up I will address those insects that also use mw for their home.

The hatching boxes, only 20-25 in each

Out in the Garden

The "Nursery"

The large Monarch Waystation at work, cared for by devoted volunteers!

The first batch of cats. in the house

The first batch in the house

Happy Spring!!!

Well hello everyone! Happy Spring! I am beginning to start my summer butterfly flower plans. I thought I would share those plans with you and inspire you to do the same. First I got my paperwork today and my yard sign from Monarch Watch. My garden at home now officially a Monarch Waystation. This means that I have full filled the requirements of Monarchwatch.org to have a monarch friendly and sustainable garden. I am really excited about this. If you are interested got to monarchwatch.org. So what am I doing for the summer? Well late in the season last year I learned that not only does milkweed have sap in it that has a chemical makeup that makes them taste bad to birds, but there is some evidence that some milkweed plants have more of this chemical than others. Not only that, the chemical is a protectant from diseases that monarch caterpillars are sussespable to. So those two species are swamp milkweed and tropical (or red) milkweed. Right now I am starting seeds for both milkweed. I will be filling my big ceramic pots around the house with tropical milkweed (*sniff* I will miss my geraniums) and petunias for hummingbirds. I am really excited about doing this. I have a really large blue ceramic pot that I moved to a more prominat position in the garden and that will the new focal point of the garden. The swamp milkweed I am growing will go in various open spots in the garden. The point of all of this milkweed is that I want to collect monarch eggs more close to home. I will also be growing a few pots of dill and parsley (which is a biennuial). I want to attract swallowtail butterflies too. So I really hope this works. Last summer I had about six secret spots that I visited every couple of days for eggs. I exhausted myself running around collecting eggs. So I have a different plan this summer. More soon!

The Latest Monarch News and Blues

Well I can't believe this! I have released 86 Monarch butterflies up to today! The egg count as of tonight is 449! Unbelievable! I am also very surprised that about 80% have been collected in my own garden. I am really surprised at this since last summer I collected only 35 eggs and released about 22 monarchs. The only difference I can see is that I go out almost everyday and look at the milkweed plants.

In keeping track of the eggs collected and butterflies released, I am also keeping track of the little failures too.. I have had a few caterpillars die in the process of pupating (making their chrysalis) and three butterflies that have emerged with deformed wings. I think the caterpillars died because of our extreme heat this week. At least that is what I suspect. Unfortunately I have had euthanized the butterflies. In doing a little research, I found that the ones who emerge deformed are usually carriers of a deadly fungal disease and/or a deadly bacterium. In any case, they cannot fly or feed so euthanizing is the most humane end for those individuals.

I find it very interesting that the caterpillars do not just eat all of the leaves in the milkweed stems I have giving them. I have observed them eating the seed pods and flowers too! So cool!
Have a great day! And don't forget to smile!

Aug. 8th Update on the Monarchs

Today the highlight was not so much releasing butterflies but the number of eggs that I have collected in the past few days. I collected 50 eggs in the past 2 days. This morning my friend Zahida came over and after looking at the caterpillar house we immidiately began looking for eggs to take home with her. We found 10 eggs and 1 caterpillar! Later in the day my sister stopped by and we found 7 more! Then I went our just before dusk (after the butterflies are fininshed for the day) and I looked on all of the plants and found- get ready for this- 26 more. I even found 2 tiny eggs on one very tiny leaf. The picture is right there, that is the whole leaf.

This is getting big. The tally is 358. We released only 2 butterflies today but there are about 35 chryalis' out there. I should have many to release later this week. Unfortunately I did have 3 chrysalis' that should have hatched but they all had "the black", a bacterial infection that kills the developing butterfly. It appears in a percentage of caterpillars and developing butterflies. Just a fact of life. The majority of the butterflies should develop normally.

Cute pictures of caterpillers & update!

I collected eggs today with my nephews and niece! Thanks Julia, Steve & Andy! With the extra sets of eyes, I think we found all of the eggs fromtoday. We found 31 eggs! There was one Monarch hanging around the garden and when a second one wandered in they were sparring in mid air! The males are very territorial! ~ the egg tally is now 314! I released 2 butterflies today. So my total is 56! I took a

few cool pictures today, I hope you enjoy them.....

Hey I'm tyin' to eat here!

Wiggle while you work!













Muncha buncha Muncha buncha fritos go with lunch....














Ahhh almost out.. I am sooo hungry... flowers flowers flowers...

Update for Aug 6th

OMG I collected 14 eggs last night and 19 today! I am finding eggs more easily at home than anywhere else. In fact I went over to a "natural area" in my town. Well I deffinately didn't find any eggs because the mosquitos were crazy! So all I got was stems of milkweed to feed to the caterpillar house. Also it seems that the female monarch will not lay eggs on milkweed that is infested with aphids- yuk! So I guess they are pretty smart! And I have noticed that some of the caterpillar really din the seed pods. This big guy is diving right into his latest meal- literally!

The photo of the little bug above is one that I took about 3 years ago when I first started this whole endeavor. It had just finished eating a baby caterpillar, which is why I started the egg collecting thing.

Well the tally goes like this: 52 butterflies released today and one extra that had wonky wings. I think it will remain in my garden. The egg count is 283! WOW!

Well my internet has been wonky for a few days so there is a lot to report! Since my last update I have been collecting more eggs at work and home. The caterpillar and egg count is now up to 203!!! I never, never thought I would ever find that many eggs! I have even found 3 swallowtail bytterflies on the one curly parsley plant I have. Alas I cannot find their chrysalis'.

But I digress...So 203 eggs but the real results will be when I release the last butterfly for their journey to Mexico. Yep folks, these butterflies are the last generation to be hatched here and they will put off mating until they reach their overwintering forest in Mexico. Normally only 10% of the eggs laid will mature into butterflies but when people take them in and rear them indoors there is a much hight success rate.

Tonight there are 40 chrysalis' and I think 2 will hatch tomorrow. I just added 7 more 1 inch caterpillars to the caterpillar house yesterday. So in the boxes in the house I have many many caterpillars in differing stages and lots of eggs. So when I add caterpillars to the house I fill it up with more new eggs! more news tomorrow...

Caterpiller Mania!

The caterpillar house is getting full! There are about 35 little guys in there eating away! The egg + caterpillar count is 170! I have released 13 butterflies. I have noticed that the caterpillars that have been living outside in the caterpillar house eat more, longer and grow much larger than the ones I have raised totally indoors. Hmmm.....

A monarch egg is usually laid on the underside of a milkweed leaf (any species can be used) and is about the size of a pinhead. The eggs can also appear on stems, topside of the leaf and inthe flower cluster. When looking at it with a magnifying lens it is yellow and conical in shape and appears to have ribs. When it is ready to hatch it will have a little black spot in it, that is the caerpillar's head. After it hatches, it eats the egg casing because there are rich nutrients in it. After eating the egg the caterpillar will eat a small hole or ring around the area. That is a good way of seeing where the caterpillars are, but you have to catch the hatchling brfore it gets eaten and that will be very soon after hatching. I look for eggs everyday and take them indoors. I have been very lucky this year that I have found about 9 caterpillars, one was 3rd instar stage and turned into the chrysalis today. Very exciting! As of this evening my total count is 98 eggs, 9 caterpillars and of those 15 are in chrysalis form. The first chrysalis will hatch tomorrow!

Caterpillar watch 2010

So this year I am taking in borders for the summer. Yep you heard me and I don't even have to cook for them! All I need to do is bring the little guys leaves every day.
This is my 4th year taking in monarch butterfly eggs. The reason why I do it is because I have seen insects eat the eggs before they hatch so if I take the eggs in the house instead of waiting for the eggs to hatch I would be much more successful at releasing adult monarch butterflies. Since they are a realtively threatened species, this helps keep their numbers up.
So where do you start? in late June, I begin checking the undersides of the three species of milkweed that I grow. They seem to favor common milkweed. A few days ago I sat in the car when I pulled up after work on a hot sunny afternoon and I observed a female monarch make her rounds through the garden laying eggs on the milkweed plants.
I bring the eggs in on the leaves and dig out my flat tupperware containers that my sis passed on to me. This way I can stack the boxes without taking a lot of room. I put 1 or 2 pieces of slightly dampened paper towel on the bottom of the box. Airtight boxes are best. The paper towel and the airtight nature of the tupperware keeps the leaves from drying up.
Once the eggs hatch they eat their egg casing first because it is rich in nutrients and they make a hole around it. that is how I know they have hatched and how I know I have missed many eggs out in the garden. Cleaning the boxes is necessary about every two days at this stage (their poops are really small) Keeping the boxes as clean as possible for their health is very important.
So far, as of today I have collected 47 eggs and found two caterpillars (pretty rare) and tonight I count 6 chrysalis' .