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!

Latest Pictures of the Caterpillar House

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

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!