September 3 Update

I hope you are all surviving this heatwave here in the Midwest!

According to the weather history, we have not had this hot of a start to September since 1985!

Holy Smokes! I was just entering freshman year of high school…

Back to the monarchs.

I have come across a couple of really good articles that may help you at this time of the year:
this article explains all the critters that use mw as habitat and the predators that also hang out on mw.

http://blog.hmns.org/2014/09/it-takes-a-village-a-milkweed-village/

Another great article is one that gives tips on raising monarchs with better success and less disease.
https://monarchbutterflygarden.net/common-monarch-diseases-prevention/

Things to think about next year if you continue.

There was a book written by Ba Rae and colleagues also explaining about who else uses mw. Excellent book! I encourage you to add this to your library,

http://www.amazon.com/Enlarged-Updated-Second-Milkweed-Monarchs/dp/0965747239/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1441300744&sr=1-1&keywords=monarch+milkweed+and+more

I have collected very few eggs in the past 10 days, I think the cold overnight temps last week may have pushed our gravid (pregnant) females and their mates southward.

There are still caterpillars to be had. So give your mw one last look.

I have had multiple calls on sickly and deformed bflies eclosing recently….

One disease that is common on monarchs is a parasite called O.E. it is a protozoa that has evolved with the monarchs and seems to cull out the weak individuals.
At this time of the year don’t be surprised to have a few butterflies eclose form the chrysalis with deformed wings or legs. These individuals should Not be released.
As hard as it may be for you, you need to euthanize these butterflies to reduce the risk of spreading the disease to other healthy butterflies.

Simply put them in a container and slip it into the freezer. Then put the dead butterfly in the trash wrapped up in paper towel or in a plastic baggie.

These butterflies may not be able to feed, cannot fly and will never mate so their quality of life is limited. Please do the humane thing and euthanize.
I usually have a dozen or so every year that succumb to this disease. It is not uncommon and there is nothing you can do but clean your mw before you feed your cats.

This will minimize the spores.

I would love to hear about how the summer went for you, please join me for the Monarch Season Wrap Up at the Oak Lawn Park District.

I am hosting this on Oct. 5^th at 6:30pm at the Oak View center at 110^th and Kilpatrick in Oak Lawn (where I work).

Please preregister by calling 708-857-2200

I will have mw seeds to share with you.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

September 19 Update

I am sure most of have wished your last monarchs Good Luck!

The pictures coming from different parts of the country of the migration are beautiful!

The migration has been sighted in the Indiana Dunes this week,

The Pelle Point, Ontario and Cleveland Ohio last weekend were impressive!

There has been a large group sighted in Missouri too.

It is so exciting to see all the pictures and videos on the monarch facebook pages.

People have been posting  mostly from the Great Lakes region this week.
If you would like to join any of these pages look for
The Beautiful Monarch, Monarchs and Milkweed and Butterfly Gardening

People are sharing lots of great photos.

Either everyone is looking more for the migration groups or there are definitely more butterflies.

The update on the migration can be seen daily at Journey North online

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/fall2015/monarch-butterfly-migration091715.html

Please share you sightings with Journey North, this info is important to gage the migration population.

Collecting Seeds: Now is the time to be looking for mw seeds at home. They are ripening now.
Tuberosa may be finished, Swamp is coming in and Common will be ready in the next few weeks, Tropical is ripening too.
Remember that the seed pods ripen from the bottom of the plant to the top. So the lowest pods are ripe first.
Seeds are not ripe unless they are coco brown so if you cannot easily pop the pod open, then it is probably not ready.

Check back in a day or so.
Take a brown paper bag out with you when you collect, a marker and clippers. Don’t tear the pods off, you will get a hand full of sap.

Don’t get the white sap in your mouth or eyes and remember: nothing smaller than your elbow in your ear! Hahahhaha! Sorry, I digress.

Putting your seeds in paper ensures they will have lots of air circulation to dry. There is a video on my blog showing how to clean the fluff from the seeds after a couple of weeks of drying.
Mw seeds are all very similar in appearance so mark the bag with your marker.
After cleaning, weigh your seeds if you can and put it in your notes for this year. Then share them with as many people as possible.
Maybe send them into Bring Back the Monarchs Campaign. Here is the link. http://monarchwatch.org/bring-back-the-monarchs/milkweed/seed-collecting-processing/

Or, if you like, Monarch Mommas and Poppas can send in a large group collected amount of seed. I can do that if you want.

Monday I will be presenting a lecture at the Oak Lawn Park Dist. 6:30 at the Oak View Center at 110^th and Kilpatrick in Oak Lawn.

I will be presenting the Benefits of Biodiversity, join me in a lecture and discussion on the importance of planting for pollinators. Registration is $5, come a little early to register in the office.

Don’t forget that on October 5^th I will be hosting a Monarch Season Wrap-up at 6:30 at the Oak View Center at 110^th and Kilpatrick in Oak Lawn. I am hoping to get as many people there that have raised monarchs this year. I am going to present a short program on how the season went according to Journey North, Monarch Watch etc. Then I would like to have a discussion on how the season went for you. Bring your totals with you, notes, photos and anything else you want to share. If you have a Monarch Waystation, bring your certificate along.
I will have milkweed seeds to share and info on butterfly gardening. In lieu of the $5 reg fee for the meeting I will have a collection jar for the Monarch Watch.
Light Refreshments will be served.

I hope to see you there! From what some of you have been telling me, this has been a great season! Let’s celebrate it!

Some news articles I have found this week…

http://globalnews.ca/news/2229166/monarch-butterfly-conservation-efforts-target-unused-green-spaces/
http://nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/help-monarchs-with-the-right-milkweeds/?utm_content=buffer85637&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Hello Monarch Mommas and Pappas!

Well here we are, nearing the end of the monarch season.

Reports to Journey South (aka Journey North) is that the migration has begun in the most northern regions of the summer breeding grounds.

Overnight roosts of many monarchs have been reported in Canada, MN and Wi.
The migration is triggered by the angle of the sun, day length, overnight temps and quality of the milkweed.

Meaning the mw is beginning to die for the season or senesce.

When the migration generation emerges from their pupae they are in a state of diapause.
It is a physical state of sexual dormancy. Mating is an enormous drain of the butterflies, energy.

In order to live through the migration and winter in Mexico, they do not mate until next March.

This however does not mean that our rearing time has come to an end. Last year at this time I collected close to 400 eggs and cats. There is no doubt that those eggs were butterflies destined for Mexico

So, if you have not found any eggs or if you do not have caterpillar fatigue…

I urge you to clean those aphids off your milkweed and give your collection on more week.

I have not found many eggs at home this past week but I have found quite a few at work.
I am hoping that next weeks’  80 degree temps will give me my last hundred eggs.
You can spray the aphids off with your hose or squish them first and rinse your plants.
Be sure to look for eggs first.

At this time of the season, you will probably be seeing a lot of red bugs on your milkweed seed pods.
If you want to save that seed,  go out in the garden with a bucket of soapy water and shake the insects into it.
The soapy water will kill them. These are the nymphs (immature) milkweed bugs.
These insects wait until the seed is almost ready then they devour them.

Sharing mw seed with lots and lots of people is an important part of my monarch conservation efforts.
If you have seed but no one to share it with, I will take the pods.

If you are going to collect seeds to give away, here is a short tutorial…

First, the first pods that will pop open and seeds fly away on the silk will be the lower pods.
Second, the seeds are not ready to harvest until the seeds are coco brown.
So if you are checking pods and they won’t pop open easily they probably are not ready and seeds are still white.

Third, when collecting pods they should only go in Paper bags, plastic will cause the pods to mold and spoil the seeds.
Paper allows them to dry naturally. They can be in the garage in a dry place away from mice.

Fourth, cleaning the seeds is a bit messy but there is a good method that can be used about 3 weeks into the drying process.

Basically, what you will do is, over a paper bag or some container, open the pod a little and grasp the pod at the top to hold the silk in.
Then use your thumb to shuck the seeds off the fluff. After that continue letting the seeds dry in a paper bag. After a while put them in a storage container.

Fifth, sharing your seeds, after they are completely dry, by Thanksgiving, you can package the in small plastic bags, small #1 envelopes or recycled prescription bottles.

This is a great way to reuse those Rx bottles.

You can send your seeds directly to Monarch Watch, they grow mw to sell but they also give away a lot to schools and non profits.

Make sure your seed is cleaned, dried, in a Ziploc bag an sent in tear proof package
http://monarchwatch.org/bring-back-the-monarchs/milkweed/seed-collecting-processing/

Monarch Watch
University of Kansas
2021 Constant Ave
Lawrence, KS 66047

On Sept 21 I will be presenting my Benefits of Biodiversity lecture at work.

On October 5 I will be hosting a Monarch Season Wrap Up session. I would love to have as many monarch mommas and pappas as possible there.
My plan is that we can share our experiences from this season and compare notes. See if we can improve our chances even more next year.

These lectures will be at the Oak View Center in Oak Lawn and more info about them can be found here. http://www.olparks.com/images/ProgramGuide/Fall/AdultInterests.pdf

My egg and cat. collection is up to 1800 and 544 butterflies released, I have begun separating the little buggers by size so the cats. don’t eat each other.

I hope my success rate increases.

Dolly 

August 9th Update...Monarch Watch Update too

I hope you are making it through our dry spell.

I know my grass is suffering but….who cares?

My garden is flourishing. ;)

Monarch Watch/ Dr. Chip Taylor has updated the Monarch Watch Blog about the summer monarch populations.
All reports seem like these past weeks have been an egg laying fest all over the summer breeding grounds.
I have included the text below for your convenience.

There is also info below on how to purchase monarch tags.

If you want to tag your butterflies (hopefully your tagged butterfly will be found in Mexico!)
Order your tags soon, Monarch watch only sells 100,000 per season.

It is not too late to register your garden as a Monarch Waystation!

There are members of our group that have just found their first eggs and cats. in the last week.

I am happy to share that my sis Bridget and hubby Bill found eggs and cats last weekend in Naperville!

This after planting for a couple of years for the butterflies J

Keep looking, the eggs that are being laid now until the end of the season are the Migration Generation,
this is the most critical time for egg collection.

Last night I had a delightful dinner with Lee and Barb & my Dad, we were checking their 5 foot tall (yes, that is what I said 5 foot!!) Swamp Milkweed!

I started looking at the flower buds and boom. 17 more eggs. Look for eggs on tight buds, colored up but not open yet.

As for my experiences this season, I was bringing home lots of eggs and cats. from work and finding 30-50 a day at home. In the last 10 days there has been a lull.

Very few new eggs and cats, Yesterday the eggs started appearing again.
I have released 199 butterflies with about 100 chrysalis’ in the cat. house and still many more eggs coming up.

I am happy to say that I have had very little in the way of cat. deaths and only one Tachnid fly ruined a chrysalis so far.
This is usually due to bringing in large 3-5^th instar cats. Just another reason why collecting eggs is important.

I may have a few more of these losses but nothing compared to years past.
Collection is up to 1296, releases 199. However I do not have 1000 cats. in play. There is a certain degree of cannibalism that is hard to avoid.

Other insects… The MW Bugs eggs are starting to hatch, you will see many little red insects with black legs appearing on your seed pods.
If you want to save that seed to share with others and plant yourself (or toss out your car window under the cover  of night…)
you will have to squish these insects. They eat seed pods and seeds.

I saw more than a few swamp mw bugs on that lg swamp last night. They will eat eggs and cats.

Is there anyone out there who has not seen any monarchs or collected cats. yet?

Well that is all for now, If you would like to see pictures that go with this email, refer to my blog.

Hort4u.blogspot.com

Have a great day!!

Dolly Foster
Horticulturist, Certified Arborist
Hort4u.net
Twitter: @Hort4u

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

July 22, Drying out....

Hello Monarch Mommas and Pappas! 

I hope this drier weather is agreeable to you all. 

It seems to be agreeable to the butterflies.

I have seen many butterflies this summer at home and at work.

Not only have I seen many monarchs but I have seen many different species of butterfly.

Red Admirals and Question marks are having a really good year.

I am hoping that most of you are finding eggs and cats. now. 

The 6 weeks of rain we have had here in the Midwest (8 inches+ in IL), really hampered the monarch egg laying. I found very few. 

When the rain stopped 2 weeks ago, collection picked up. 

I am now up to 548 eggs and cats. collected. 

Do not be daunted by my big numbers, I have minions at work (my college summer workers) :)

They are getting into this too and they do a lot of the looking while we work. 

However, there just seems to be more females laying and more gorgeous milkweed than in years past. 

I really hope you are all having successes too. 

When I first started this endeavor, I raised maybe 50 in the first year. 

If you only have the opportunity to raise 5-10, just remember they wouldn't be here if not for you.

Have you all been seeing more milkweed around the area? 

There just seems to be more on the roadsides and vacant areas. 

Could it be all the rain? 

Could it be guerrilla gardeners tossing seed bombs around? 

Have you noticed no orange aphids on your milkweed? No?

I think an unexpected benefit of the excessive rain. 

Keep an eye out, though I have seen the beginnings of them.
Simply squish those colonies as soon as you see them.

You can rinse your plant off when you are finished.
Do not use insecticidal soap on your milkweed.

If you need to see what they look like refer to my blog I will have this update with pictures there.

Hello Monarch Mommas & Pappas!
 I am posting some recent pix for you to enjoy.
First up, caterpillar house just completed by my husband.

 These are just some of the eggs I found this week on the flowerbeds of common milkweed.

 This is where to look for eggs right now, on the flower buds. Try to take the single flower bud carrying the egg instead of wasting the whole cluster of flowers. You will be missing a seed pod if you do. 

Also caterpillars, they are well disguised inside the flower clusters.

More later! Happy Hunting!