Monarch Cats . . . Finally.

I collected 3 more small cats today each less than an inch long. In addition to the tiny cat in the picture that makes 4. Total. For the year!

I know other parts of the country have seen diminished numbers. On the other hand, a friend not far from here is releasing as many as 15 butterflies a day! We are pooling resources to ensure that we have enough MW to feed and looking for backup MW sources.

Of course I have aphids. I have noticed fewer MW bugs this year, but I do believe I am seeing the MW beetle. They are going over the neighbor's fence.

What else feeds on MW? I am seeing small brown and white cats at the terminal apex of my A. incarnata stems where I expect to find Monarch larvae. I'll try to post a photo later.

A.


EDITED to say - I watched the b&w caterpillar eat an aphid!

This message was edited Sep 13, 2011 4:10 PM

Ha ha - just brought 1 more in. While trying to get it to move from the sliver of leaf it was on into the container, I renamed it "Crabbypillar."


Good thing I'm easily amused.

I'm glad you've got better luck with Monarch's cats. So far, I've none here. Best of lucks A.

Amanda,

Are you looking for plants, cuttings, seed?
I just harvested tons of pods - there is MW all over here. They arent real easy to dig, but I could very easily send you cuttings.
Let me know.

Stephanie

Thank you Stephanie. I will let you know if it comes to that. My population is small right now, but if my friend runs out of MW I have started looking (you may have seen my posts in every forum!) for backup. The cats are appearing very late here, just in time to coincide with the typical annual decline of my A. incarnata.

It'll be okay. I will keep you posted.

It is certainly an interesting year.

Could be milkweed tussock moth on your milkweed.
I've never seen them myself, only heard of them.

Hmmm - very interesting! I wish I could say that they were the critters because they look like an awful lot of fun. :)

If they start sprouting tufts of hair I will know for sure, but they don't look that cute. I did see an aphid in what appeared to be the mouth end of one of these cats, so perhaps they do not feed on the MW. Didn't get a photo yet. The mosquitoes are voracious eaters.

I'm a little conflicted. This year I have a rodent problem out back from bird feeders. I have stopped feeding the birds entirely and the "problem" has subsided. However, there is a rogue now and then on the back porch, and I fear my collection of plastic containers for the bugz would not be safe. All the critters are indoors, not in full sun, not in 80+ degree heat. Should this be problematic?

The cats seem sluggish - I have 16+ BST cats successfully hanging in their cocoons with 6 more to go. I brought in the sleepy orange sulfur cats, but they don't seem to be adapting as well. Wondering about putting them back on the plant and maybe putting some kind of netting over it (?!). One of the 4 monarchs was so very crabby! Can't say I blame it - the plants look like hell, tall and leggy infested with aphids. Not to mention the current mystery caterpillars.

Does anyone else worry as much as I do? Prolly not, or you would all be posting at crazy hours like this. I will be a zombie in the daylight hours. -sigh-

What about a heat lamp?

Everybody looks pretty active this morning. I can put them in my iguana's room if you think temperature is an issue.

Yes, my green iguana has her own room. She's 7 ish years old and about 4' long. She has a small room on the southeast corner of the house and gets sun from those 2 directions.

She has heat and humidity "equipment" which keeps it always 75 deg. or higher in there. She won't have the skill or interest in getting into the containers, but knocking them down could be a problem. O, how did this 4 br house get so small?!

5 cats total.

I have a particular fondness for the one in the picture above. It was so tiny and seemed like it was failing to thrive. Even though I found it on A. incarnata, it has shown a voracious preference for the A. curassavica and has tripled in size practically overnight. I am glad I can offer a varied menu. :)

I have named another "crabbypillar" because I can't seem to please it.

The other three - well they might as well be stooges. They're all about the same size, so no distinguishing between them. They are happy on a sprig of A. incarnata from the driveway/front yard. That particular plant has not been hit so hard with the leaf drop and the aphids have only recently found it too.

Now if only the butterflies would find it. That plant is usually the first shrub to have cats on it. I know they're out there!!!

Thank you all for sharing. Not everybody understands how much fun it is to play with bugz. ;)

A.

Found another tonight. 6.

Nice going Amanda.

I should go look at my milkweed and see if I can find any cats. I had an invasion of the tussock moth worms earlier this summer. Once you find your cats what are you doing with them? Do they cocoon over the winter? I offered you some of my milkweed in another forum. I need to go out and look to see if I have any cats.

That's so nice of you melsalz to offer to help fellow gardener out with the raising of those beautiful butterflies. Best of lucks, to all. Please keep posted if you find Monarch cats. in your garden. So far, it's a really bad year for my garden in regard to finding Monarch. There was none to be found here. I saw a couple Monarch couple of weeks ago. But that's it.

3 more cats today, and look at my contraption to hold the stems they were on. :D

Just an interim solution. I had my hands full and been playing with bugs all morning. This brings me up to 9 for the season. BFD.

One of the sleepy orange sulfur cats look like it has started to morp (?).


Thanks for the offer Mel - I did not see it - been swamped. I have a friend who is covered up with cats and we are going to work together if she runs out of MW. My plants are in pretty bad shape, but there's enough to feed what I have. I hope we will see more monarchs before the end of the season, though it's getting late. This crew will be released so they can fly south, I think. Wouldn't know how to overwinter (?!) a monarch or why I would. I know some people try to breed them. Hadn't thought of it.

A.

Amanda,
Have you seen o this milkweed?
http://www.missouriplants.com/Greenalt/Asclepias_viridis_page.html

I just think its pretty :)

Oooo I have never seen it in person but it does look very pretty. The USDA map doesn't show it as native to NC, but I don't think the critters would mind. Some of the flowers on the less common species are just gorgeous - look like tiny orchids. I tried to grow A. physocarpus here but it didn't survive the winter. I wonder if it's supposed to be an annual, but I didn't think so.

Thanks for the link. I am interested in finding more MW that are amenable to shade. I've run out of sunny spots and the pecan tree is only getting wider.

Wow - just looked at the photo above posted on 9/16. It's amazing how fast they grow!

All 9 cats look healthy and active.

"Someone" did me a favor (?) this morning and cut down one of my tropical milkweed plants. Suppose it didn't care for the taste and left it there. The cut made by a rabbit?

Anyway - all but 1 of the cats have been eating swamp milkweed. One has shown a preference for tropical MW and won't eat Swamp MW! So today everybody gets tropical MW. Some are really chowing down. Some are like, "what the . . .?"

The 3 in the photo above are growing much faster than the others but I should start seeing some "J"s I would think pretty soon.

Will keep you posted.

A.

I'm going to put this here and on the "parsley for BST" thread:

Do you think it's "dangerous" to put my monarch cats into the mesh enclosure I have the BST cocoons in?A. One of the BST eclosed yesterday - I guess we were thinking they might overwinter so I didn't have them in any kind of enclosure. There I was all of a sudden with a butterfly in my kitchen. :)

I just wondered if a monarch cat climbed over the BST lasso it might break it or fall off - I guess I am answering my own question - especially thinking if a cat climbed up onto one and pulled it down and fell . . .. splat.

Found another cat this morning on a marginally healthy swamp MW next to the plants that are de-foliated with black leaves, aphids, and the occasional MW beetle.

It's about the same size/stage as the others so I guess they're all related. Haven't yet but expect to have a chrysalis or two by the end of the day. This brings me up to 10 for the year. Blah.

BIG FAT blah. :D

A.

Update: the last monarch cat chrysalized (?!) 2 nights ago, and I have 10 perfect green and gold jewels waiting for eclosure and release.

I am releasing sleepy orange sulfur and BST butterflies now daily. Thanks for your help this season. Every year it seems like so much trouble, but the waiting to release makes it all worthwhile. :)

A.

Congrats Amanda on your successful release of some of the butterflies. Thank you for sharing your experience with other gardeners who love butterflies too.

YEAH! I looked at some of the links you sent and I am preparing specifically a butterfly garden in hopes to "certify" the area and get a sign. :) Another project...just what I need ;)

Best wishes to you. :)

I love the signs on my gate:

"Warning Strange Dog" is my favorite. :D

Thought this year I would garden for bumble bees, but maybe next year. Can't believe the season got away from me like this! Stephanie - do you know Onalee? She is a DG member, but somehow I found my way to her online store (probably thru ebay) and bought my first collection of butterfly seeds from her. Tithonia/mexican sunflower was really the most magnificent plant! I am also a big fan of the tropical milkweeds. They are annual, but very pretty.

It's the "other" butterflies now that I need to attract. Leaving an area of yard unmowed/weeded is also a good place for certain species as they host on many of the common grasses native to the area.

Glad to get you going a little further in the buggy direction. Thanks for cheering us on, Lily. ;)

A.

I have seen Onalee around here. What is in your mix? I have mexican sunflower seed and 4 types of milkweed. I was going through a list of plants that "should" be planted and I think I have seed for 95% of them already. I also have store bought mixed of butterfly/hummingbird seed mixes.
I have swamp in my front yard - natural setting and its right at the edge of that I will be creating my butterfly garden. Less work that way I figured.

excellent! I am getting some common milkweed clumps this fall. I planted A. exalta and A. purpuraescens this year but they are small and will not bloom this season. My swamp milkweed is completely defoliated. My tropical milkweed is just now starting to bloom (I got them in the ground late), and my butterfly weed (A. tuberosa) has a spot of orange flower here and there but mostly done for the season.

I think you'll have a great time at the swamp's edge. I couldn't remember ever being so excited overwinter as I was that year planning my garden. Crazy, eh? It was rough this year with the heat/drought, but I managed to keep the host plants alive long enough to collect some cats. Well I'm sure we'll be trading info thru next year. Keep us posted.

In the meantime I released another sulfur butterfly today and keep pulling weeds. I hope to sow a bird and butterfly mix in November - that would be the best time for next season.

Let me know if there's anything else I have that you would like. Yes, the nectar plants are a no-brainer.

A.

I found 17 Monarch cats yesterday!! Yea!!!!

Wooo Hoooo!!!

Will you bring them in?

Keep us posted. ;)

A.

We had a new delivery @ my house over night too...different kind of cats tho ;)

Oh my goodness, Stephanie. How precious. :)

Congratulations!!!

The season is winding down here, as it is getting colder. Here is a photo of our procrastinators. Hopefully the weather will turn nice again, and they will have a shot at migration. Who knows, maybe w/ the drought down south these will be the ones to make it.

That's true! I'd like to be optimistic about mine too. Maybe I should ship them to you in OH? :D

A.

They are so cool looking! I just love the shiny spots!

Released the first monarch today. Two more chrysalises have turned black which means I'll be releasing two more tomorrow. :)

Such a joy to watch . . ..

My milkweed is decimated. I don't expect to find anymore caterpillars, though people in TX and parts south are still rearing caterpillars!

congrats!!

Fine, fine job! Great going Amanda. I'm so happy for you. Wooohooo!

Great to see all the efforts everyone!!

Stephanie in TX (catzgalore) if you don't want to bring them in, you can bring them up here and I will rear them. There are so many predators trying to get a meal now days. Plus I can tag them before they are released! Looks like I will be able to come to the swap Sat. btw. See you then.