I'd be happy to help out with the transfer, Greenthumb and Coleup.
Plant It and They Will Come 4 Monarch Pollinator Life Cycles
I'll contact potential foster parents in the morning.
Wonderful!
Catmint if you and I can work together to get eggs/ instars to your place, then David could pick up from you and take to Lucketts on his way home. That way the precious cargo won't have to wait in a possibly hot car. Would this work for you Greenthumb?
The leaves that eggs were laid on have been holding up for the 3-5 days to hatch time and newborns eat little so that should work. Currently I have eggs 5 -7 per small GladWare container. They can stack and travel well and work till 3rd instar if necessary.
Twenty+ more eggs today and despite my growing skills at egg and cat spotting , two more 3rd instar cats 'appeared ' in my milkweed patch! Found two yesterday too.
I am so thankful that there are those out there with established Milkweed plants as even 200
fast growing first year plants are no match for these hungry, hungry caterpillars!
Gita, check the blossoms of your pot of Tropical Milkweed for eggs as I have started finding some right on the multi blossom stalk instead of a leaf! That's great that you had a royal companion while you watered. What flowers did yours seem to prefer? HD here is pretty devoid of great bllooming nectar plants.
Sounds good!
Greenthumb, when will you be in the Silver Spring/Takoma Park area? Thanks so much!
This message was edited Aug 18, 2014 6:49 AM
I found tiny little eggs on my tropical milkweed! :-)
CatMint, are those Monarch eggs?
Coleup, I don't know what I was thinking! I doubt my MW will be around when I get back from my trip. I found about 10 Tiger Moth caterpillars today.
I think so! There's actually more than one egg per leaf. Two of the 3 leaves have at least one egg on both the front and back of the leaf. I need to be able to spend more time outside inspecting the milkweed to see if I can find more eggs--this was just a quick scan this morning.
10 tiger moth cats, Muddy! Wow! And when is your trip??
I'll probably see lots more tomorrow. Maybe I'll try feeding them to the birds for breakfast!
I'll just be away for a few nights later this month, but I know I won't be able to convince anyone to pick caterpillars off plants while I'm gone : - )
Just got back from meeting up with Catmint at a half way point between us to hand off 51 Monarch eggs and newly hatched caterpillars. She will take them home and hand them off to Greenthumb tomorrow on his return trip to Lucketts, where he will raise some and hand off others to the good folks of Loudoun County Wildlife that live near him. Doing our parts to keep the migration going.
May have to repeat next week as I am still findin 20 - 25 eggs every day. In fact 20+ of those I sent out were fresh laid today! In 10 - 14 days they and the ones here will form their chrysalis cases along with those Catmint has found on her plants.
I wonder which way they will go or if some or all will stay to mate and lay another generation to join the migrators coming down from the North and then on to Mexico or perhaps Florida. Tagging many of them could begin to give some idea of where they go from here...
Well, time to go and replenish some tasty leaves for those still here!
Immense gratitude to Catmint and Greenthumb. And Muddy I've got some ideas for you, too!
Sure; I'd be glad to help. I'll also check my plants carefully for Monarch eggs even though I haven't seen a single Monarch butterfly this year.
I'm going to let the Tussock Moth caterpillars have the milkweed - something might as well benefit from it!
Muddy, I believe that last year Monarchs were still laying eggs into October around here so you may find a mama Monarch has found you!
Before you 'let' the Milkweed Tussock Moth cats strip your plants you might want to take some cuttings to root in water//potting mix while you are gone and have some new plants to set out and get established this Fall. Swamp Milkweed can be propagated this way. Milkweed leaves can be picked and kept in a zip lock bag in the veggies crisper. They also can be frozen! If you have seed pods forming you may want to protect them somehow from the Milkweed seed beetle (but I don't know how)
I decided to go with Plan C: I took the moth cats to another, larger patch of milkweed where they will make less of a dent. I don't want them to kill my plants! I hadn't thought about about rooting cuttings; I'll do that even though I might still have plants when I come back. They haven't lost many leaves yet.
I haven't seen Milkweed seed beetles, but something is killing the pods and I suspect it's the aphids. I also thought about protecting the pods. I think I'll try putting baggies, gauze and/or a lightweight fabric around some. One of those methods should work.
In addition, slugs are going after the leaves, so I'll put little containers of beer at the base of each plant.
I have a small greenhouse that might be a good place for chrysalises, if that helps. It looks like this: http://www.hayneedle.com/product/gardman5tier7x2footgreenhouse.cfm
This message was edited Aug 21, 2014 9:07 AM
Greenthumb, let me know about transfer to you this evening! :-)
My 'Little Lemon' Goldenrods have started to bloom! The other flower is a Texas Bluebonnet. There's a Monarda bradburiana seedling in the middle.
Muddy--
do you ,or will you have seeds from that Little lemon Goldenrod?
It is so cute!
The one I bought and have been growing all summer is a regular G.R.
I really wanted the small ones.
Will pull the bigger one out--anyone want it? It is close to 2' tall.
I have it in my YUK bed. Don't want this to multiply...
Will cut the heads off--I may be too late already...
G.
Gita, do you know the identity of your GR?
Just realized my response to CatMint is missing. I had typed an entire paragraph and must have been interrupted or otherwise distracted and neglected to push send. At any rate, all eggs and cats were transferred to experienced Monarch foster homes and are in good hands.
Gita, I don't have seeds now but will have lots later on because I have about 6 of these plants.
David--
Went out and got the original sticker of this Goldenrod.
I would keep it IF it is a garden variety, What I don't want--is the
kind that grows wild and causes allergies to everyone.
Here is what it says on the sticker---
Solidago canadensis "Baby Gold"--grows to 18" tall.
Space 12"-18" apart. Hardy to Z 5-10
I think I bought it because of the "Baby Gold" on the tag.
Saw one for sale in a pot at HD.
G.
Gita - Goldenrod causing allergies is a well-debunked myth. It blooms yellow at the same time as the culprit Ragweed, and is assigned guilt erroneously. If you really want to divest yourself of your Goldenrod, I will be happy to give it a good home with it's friends and family.
thanks so much for the visit, Greenthumb! Glad to hear all eggs and tiny cats are safe with their new homes!
Muddy so glad to hear about your GR blooming! Mine is still buds.
David--
IF my Goldenrod is benign--I will let it grow another year and see how it goes.
I apprecuate anything that can thrive in my YUK bed.
If there are any off-shoots-I can dig them up for you.
Not sure how these multiply....
here's a picture of it earlier. I already posted it in July.
G.
I know this thread is about butterflies but I saw a bee this morning with some weird growth on his leg and thought you all might know what it was.
Oops
it is pollen?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollen_basket
hope the link works
Cool Sally, that makes sense. Thanks :)
Nice pic Jeff and great looking pollen. Is that a dahlia bloom? Read somewhere that dahlia pollen is higher in protein than some other Fall bloomers so quite top of the list for busy bees stocking up for Winter. Also read that bees are good pollinatore because they carry a weak electrical charge that pollen 'static clins' to and brushes off on next flowers etc. Wonder if they have to load their plooen baskekets equally on both legs to be able to fly right?
nice photo of the pollen sack, Seq! I think all pollinators are welcome on this thread. ;-)
Thanks guys. Coleup, we have 11 dahlias so for and the bees are all over them constantly. That makes sense if they are higher in protein like you say.
Coleup - how is the egg hunt going? I will be making another run from Silver Spring back to Loudoun County Wednesday afternoon.
I saw this little caterpillar and his siblings on my neighbors' St. John's Wort. I haven't ID'ed him, but they said it is a moth caterpillar.
It is a wild-looking thing!
It is a saddleback caterpillar, DO NOT TOUCH!!! Moth is dull, nondescript.
Thanks for the warning! I'm glad the shrubs are in an area of their yard where their toddler isn't likely to see the caterpillars.
What happens if you touch the caterpillar?
OWWW! Stinging spines. Sting is considered one of the most potent of North American caterpillars. Yes, some caterpillars have stinging spines. For example, the Puss Caterpillar of southern US is commonly known as a "Tree Asp".
Greenthumb, hoping you and Catmint can do another transfer this week. Catmint does Tues pm at New Carrollton work for you? Probably another 50 +. You two will have to arrange Wed logistics.
Thanks, Judy
Sounds good to me Coleup!
Glad Monarch cats don't have stinging spines!
Reports from here abouts:
me almost 200
one new Waystation on my route 40 +
Elmer in Bowie 350 +
Hand raising cats provides many up close and personal experiences. Last night while cleaning out frass (poop) from a container I moved a leaf with just shy of an inch cat feeding on it. As I held the leaf, the cat pooped and instead of just moving on, it stopped eating, turned its head half around, grabbed the poop, and tossed it off the leaf!
Ewww....the Puss Cateripiller? Sounds gross.
Smart caterpillar!