Post # 2 / 2016, Feb. 12th

Well, I was waiting to write to you about the official monarch count in Mexico. 

However…. They have not come in yet. And I don’t know why. So we wait.
They are very fortunate that there have been no severe storms in central Mexico this winter.
There have been preliminary numbers floating around the ol’ interweb but they are not the official numbers.
Monarch Watch uses the World Wildlife Federation count in their record keeping and research.

The California numbers are in and they are up. This is a very good thing for the west coast population.
http://www.westernmonarchcount.org/data/

They have had some help!
Inmates at Walla Walla Penitentiary have been helping Washington State Entomologist Dr. David James track the migration pattern of the monarch down the coast to the over wintering grounds in Southern Cali.
Several of their migration tags have been located in Cali in the area of Santa Cruz and Monterey.
Very exciting for all those involved. These are two nice articles and video about the program.
http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20160211/ENTERTAINMENTLIFE/160219948

http://www.kvewtv.com/article/2013/sep/23/walla-walla-inmates-raise-and-release-monarch-butt/
http://entomologytoday.org/2013/09/24/washington-state-prisoners-raise-and-release-monarch-butterflies/

I cannot express in words how excited I am for this year!
I can’t wait for the monarchs to return, I am doing education in several places to get people prepared and we will be having a Monarch Fest at the Oak Lawn Park District!

Here are a few upcoming public classes I am giving…
Winter Sowing & Seed Collecting: Oak View Center at the Oak Lawn Parks: Mon. Feb 29^th 6:30pm-9:30pm.
pre registration required. http://www.olparks.com/images/ProgramGuide/2016Spring/AdultInterest.pdf
Butterfly Gardening: Griffith Indiana Library: Mon. March 21 starting at 7pm,
Easy Pruning for the Gardener: Oak View Center at the Oak Lawn Parks: Mon. Mar. 28^th 6:30pm-9:30pm.
Butterfly Gardening Workshop (all three lectures in one place!): Joliet JR. College: Sat. April 9^th: 9am-12pm
Here is the brochure for spring classes, reg info inside. http://www.jjc.edu/community-education/Documents/continuing-education-catalog.pdf

Butterfly Gardening Workshop (all three lectures in one place): Oak Lawn Park District: Mon. April 18^th 6pm-9pm at the Oak View Center,
pre registration required. http://www.olparks.com/images/ProgramGuide/2016Spring/AdultInterest.pdf
Succulent Social Hour: Bring a friend! Plant a pot of adorable little plants! Have a few snax! Friday May 13^th 7-9pm at the Oak View Center
Openhouse at Dolly’s home, Late June- Date TBA
Butterfly Gardening and Demo: Internatl’ Friendship gardens in Michigan City: Sun, Aug 21 2:00pm- a great event! All outdoors, demo, conversation and plant sale.
Monarch Fest in Oak Lawn: at the Oak View Center: Sat. Sept 17^th 2-5pm free educational and family fun event including monarch tagging, plant sale and kids activities (shhh! It’s a secret but the kids will be doing something super fun with our Artist in Residence!!!!)
Monarch Season Wrap Party: Early October date TBA
Seed Cleaning and Storage: November at the Oak Lawn Parks…date TBA

I hope to see you all  sometime this year. It is always nice to put names a faces together.

Getting prepared for this year rearing season….
Now is a good time to Winter Sow your milkweed seeds. If you need seeds send me a SASE and I will send you a few.
Come to my WS lecture to learn how to grow seeds at home outside in winter! Yes you can!

Also a good time to go over your supplies for taking care of your caterpillars this summer.
A few changes I will be making this year, I will be cutting a ventilation hole in my rearing boxes. Then covering the holes with parasitoid proof screening.
You can find this fabric here by the yard if you are interested. http://www.butterflyfarmingsupplies.com/rearing-popups/ultra-fine-screen-black-or-white-price-per-square-foot.html

I am going to do this because I think that airflow or lack of it, is one of my biggest problems. How do you do this?

Cut a hole in the top or sides of your boxes, glue the screening in and go over the edges with silicone caulk.
A few of you have already done this, so share with me what you did with a few pictures. I will share it with the group.
Consider increasing your air flow in the containers with your cats. It will improve your survival rate.

Always learning and changing this for the better is a great way to improve this hobby, passion…obsession...what have you :p

I will be growing trop mw in 6” pots on the ledge of my deck again this year. I loved having my eggs at eye level!
However, I won’t let those plants go to bloom or seed because they wilted, a lot.

So I will reserve the blooming to the very large pots. I got a little frustrated last year because I was waiting for seeds and struggling with the pots drying out daily yada yada.
Lee has said he will make another cat. house for me this summer. We need more room to spread the cats. out to minimize disease.
He is constantly thinking of ways to improve the design.  I can’t wait to see what he has planned this year. I am hoping to bring one to the Monarch Fest.
Another new thing for this year; cleaning the cat house.
I had problems cleaning out the new cat. house last year because of the design. I could not easily rinse out the frass like I had with the previous design.
This year I will try vacuuming it out. I bought a tiny shop vac last fall thinking I could clean the fluff from my mw seeds. Hahahaha, silly me. Not enough horsepower on that one. More like pony power!

So I will use it for the frass. If you do this too, make sure you thoroughly look for stray cats. first. I had to do that when I was washing with the hose.
Then every few days wipe down as much of the surfaces inside the cat. house with bleach water.

As for cleaning the mw, I was using Lee’s big shop vac and the dust collecting system he has attached to it for wood working. I used it until we noticed that the floss fragments and becomes airborne. Those bits of floss are not going to look good trapped in the finish of our woodwork.
Since we will be using the garage for varnishing the wood work for the house….well let’s just say I have lots of floss on my tongue in my future.. I may try fire again.

Other changes, I have procured a bunch of small organza gift bags and will use them around my seed pods this summer so the trop mw seeds don’t fly. I lost a lot of seed to that last summer.
I will have these available for purchase at my lectures and Monarch Fest.
The Uof I Extension is hosting a seed exchange in Chicago next weekend. I will be there with mw seeds and native pollinator flower seeds. Here are the details:

4th Annual Southside Organic Gardeners Seed Swap

Saturday Feb 20, 2016 from 10 – 11:30 am

U of I Extension office, 9415 S. Western Ave, 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL

Co-hosted with Abe Lentner, featuring guest speaker, Josh Tate who will share his methods for intensive vertical urban farming.  Bring your seeds, envelopes and a marker. Extension will supply limited materials.

Please register for this free event at https://web.extension.illinois.edu/registration/?RegistrationID=13831

A new article on a blog about Dr. Chip talking about planting habitats, you might enjoy it… http://www.news-star.com/article/20160210/BLOGS/302109999/-1/blogs01

The Monarch Joint Venture ( BTW the Field Museum is now a member) has made another fantastic handout for all of us to print off and distribute.
This one deals with teaching people about the best time of the year to mow fields and meadows to benefit the monarch http://monarchjointventure.org/images/uploads/documents/MowingForMonarchs.pdf

Here is a link to their webpage and all of the other handouts they have made. http://monarchjointventure.org/resources/publications

Check out my website, I have added some content and will add more soon. www.hort4u.net

Well enough for now, I will be in touch next weekend.

Have  a great weekend and Happy Valentin’s Day Friends!

Regards,

Dolly Foster, Horticulturist

“Horton Ergo Sum”

Www.Hort4U.net

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.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00533VJSG/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=GRI0HJNXLA91&coliid=I143UQMWVJG2EK

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

I have begun collecting again....

"Hey watch out! I was here first! Find your own sunny branch!"

A newly formed chrysalis (right) and one that hatched (left) not too long after this photo was taken.

Today's first b-fly, sunning herself on the outside of the caterpillar house.

A newly hatch monarch from today

Hello Peeps, I can safely say that my monarch raising is back on track. After loosing 38 cats. (which was really sad), I left it all alone for a week and did not collect anymore eggs/ cats. Mostly because I didn't see very many in the garden- strike that I couldn't find any! So I thought I was winding down for the season. I have 2 cats in the cat house right now. One is resting before pupating and the other little guy- bless him- he is eating ravenously. So a friend of mine brought me a few cats. because she needed a sitter for the weekend (thanks Sara! ) and I took them hoping whatever killed the others would not strike these too. I have sterilized all of my containers and keeping all new additions quarantined until every cat gets big enough to move into the caterpillar house. My hope is renewed! Friday evening I spent a while out in the garden sitting on the ground scouring all of my milkweed plants to see if there were any cats. or eggs. Lo and behold- I found 16 caterpillars! Today I went out again and found 4 more and 4 eggs. YAY! The only drawback to that method is all of the aphid ick that gets on you and under your nails- ewwww!

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.

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!

Latest Pictures of the Caterpillar House

Didn't know they ate the seedpods too did you?