Monarchs laying eggs!

I spotted some Monarchs flittering around my milkweed today. Later I checked and I have eggs! Yeah!!! Anyone else had any sightings?

I did not see mine laying eggs but I found 3 cats on my butterfly weed last week - my first! I wanted to put them in my cat "cage" that we bought but we will be on vacation next week and I didn't want to take the chance. The next day I went to look at them and they were gone - somewhere to pupate I guess. I wish I could find them so I can kep my eye on them.

I've got 2 more cats today!!

yes, I had three caterpillars on my milkweed - two crawled off before I could contain them. I hope they make it to butterfly.

I put one caterpillar in a container a few days ago along with some fresh leaves and he is now a chrysalsis - he should be a butterfly bey labor day.

Its been a light year for me caterpillar wise - usually I get between 15 and 20.

The red milkweed was my caterpillar favorite last year. This year - not so much.

Awesome! I have "Silky Gold" milkweed and they seem to like it pretty well. I saw another Monarch this morning....

Me too! I noticed yesterday and a few days ago. She laid them right in front of me, like 3 feet away on my tropical and swamp milkweed. I lifted the leaves she touched her little butt too and there were little white pearly eggs :)

I have about 8 cats I've seen so far, I can't believe it. this is my first year growing milkweed and I am totally thrilled! The red tropical milkweed has the most for me too.

I also garden for birds, so I became worried about the cats. So, I dug up some of the tropical milkweed and potted it so I could put a net around it. They drooped at first but I think they are comming back, I sure hope so. I put about 5 cats on the potted milkweed safely behind the bird netting.

Can you guys tell me how you save your cats? I've seen some things about glass jars but I was afraid the leaves would wilt too quick. Also, when an new butterfly emerges, do you let it go right away? what's safe?

I also smash aphids daily and I wonder if they are harmful to the the eggs or the cats; see this thread: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/642048

Good luck with your cats!

Maureen

I do wipe the aphids off with a paper towel, because they are competing with the caterpillars for food. I don't mind a few aphids but if I do nothing, eventually the aphids cover the entire plant and suck it dry.

My red milkweed is not tropical. Mine is a native, local genotype, asclepias incanarta.

I usually protect a few caterpillars, so I can watch them transform.

I place the caterpillars in an insect terrarium and I put fresh leaves in everyday. And I clean out the poop every day with a clean paper towel.

Sometimes I give the caterpillars to friends and family with children. They have fun (and learn something too) collecting milkweed and watching the caterpillars grow and transform.

I've read that caterpillars left to their own devices have about a 40% chance of becoming a butterfly, and that caterpillars that are protected have about a 70% chance of becoming a butterfly.

I had one protected cat die this year. He made his j position but then never chrysalized. Just hung their and died :-(

Out of 11 cats I collected, there are 6 left - 3 are in crysalis(sis?) 2 are about to pupate and one is big but still eating. This afternoon I put 9 new cats in there. My DH built me a big cage for them. I've been cutting pieces of milkweed plants to put in for them but it always wilted so bad that sometimes the cats couldn't eat it before it was dead. So I've been trying different things and I found that cutting the milkweed stem under water works for me. I just cut the stem in the garden, bring it inside and re-cut it in a bowl of water. Then I wrap the bottom of the stem with a small piece of paper towel and stick it in a narrow-necked vase. The paper towel is so the little guys don't fall in the water.

That cutting under water worked for me last year too. I was trying to bring some inside last month or so and just could not keep it from wilting and finally remembered that trick. I never remember to pot any so tonight I went out and pulled up 2 small plants that are growing in non-garden spaces and potted them. Tomorrow I am going to pot some of the smaller ones in that same area and maybe that will give me some to bring inside. I do not like trying to feed them single leaves so if I can't get them a plant to hang on I'll just leave them outside.

I had a bunch of my chrysalises die this year. I think my cage had a virus in it. Some of the Black Swallowtail's were fine but there were still like 6-7 that turned a strange orangy color and never eclosed. The Monarchs were fine then one by one started to get the dreaded black dot. Then it progressed to a weird white color that I've never seen before. I hosed the cage out and sprayed it down with bleach/water and left it baking in the sun for a few days to disinfect it. Hopefully that worked.

I read that when you move cats you should feed them the same kind of milkweed they were born on. Does it really make a difference?

So far I have moved 10 monarch cats, 7 on tropical milkweed and 3 on a. incarnata.

What are you moving them to? From one kind to the other? Why are you moving them?

I just have one kind so I've never had to move them to a different kind of milkweed. I've heard the same thing for Black Swallowtail's, that they tend to want to eat what they first start eating. But I didn't have a problem this year with switching some of them from dill to rue. I had some crawl over to the rue from the dill themselves too, so that shows they weren't bothered.

I don't know if it's because they might not want to eat it or if there's another reason. ?

Mine are just starting to come in but haven't seen any eggs yet

Has anyone had any luck rooting milkweed in water? We have monarchs all fall/ even during our mild winters here in Houston, and I've been desperate for more milkweed in the cooler months. I also want to bring them in to cages to help their survival rate and need more plants for that. I'm really interested to hear how you make it work! Thanks so much for sharing your expertise.

I'm moving them tropical to tropical and incarnata to incarnata to protect them from birds. I garden for birds and have alot of feeders and plants for them and get alot of birds in daily.

I moved the cats from the tropical to some tropical I put in a pot and covered with bird netting. I moved the incarnata cats to a terrarium and have been supplying them with fresh leaves and cleaning up behind them.

They seem to be eating quite well, although I'm concerned as to where they will put their chrysalis. Can they hang it from the milkweed or a twig, or do they need a flat surface?

I put sticks in for some of mine to pupate (no Monarchs yet down here, only raising Queen cats on milkweed), but some I transfer to a larger cage with a wooden frame that they can use to pupate on. The Monarchs really seem to prefer a horizontal surface, I think...45 degrees to horizontal is good. On occasion I've seen them use the plant if they don't find anywhere else. The tropical A. curassavica plant will root pretty easily from cuttings. I do that myself. I don't know if any other species will. I have heard of people propagating from root cuttings of some species, but I don't personally know how that works. The stats I've heard on butterfly eggs laid outdoors is 2 to 5 percent will actually result in surviving to the butterfly stage. It's probably higher once the egg hatches into a cat, since even eggs are sometimes eaten by other insects.

I have rooted milkweed using a tip that has been passed down thru Dave's. After you cut the milkweed you burn the end of it until it closes and stops leaking. (since milkweed is poisonous I do this outside) Just put it in some water and it will root quickly.

Moving them to the same milkweed shouldn't hurt them at all. I move mine all the time. You can move small ones using a paintbrush. Just an fyi if you don't know, the larger cats are known to eat the smaller ones so try to keep them separated until they are one of the later instars.

Both Monarch's and Queen's have to make their chrysalis hanging down so they can't just attach to the side of a cage. They can do it on a stick but if it's not at a good angle they won't be hanging right. When I have them in a my wooden cage or the aquarium they always go to the top.

If you want to take them out of the cage to eclose, like giving them to someone or taking them to a school etc., you can put something specific in there for them to pupate on. For example one year I didn't put the top on the aquarium (net with plastic screen on top) and put in little vases with pieces of Purple Heart. They would attach to the plant and hang beautifully and I could move them around and watch them.

Once I also cut them off of the net that they attached to and tied the net to a string across a little pail. So the chrysalis was attached to the net, the net was tied to some string and it was across the opening so the chrysalis was hanging down. Then I gave those little pails to a group of my gardening friends and they got to watch their own butterfly eclose.

Ohmygosh I had no idea they would eat the little ones. I am going to have to move this one little guy I put in with two big ones yesterday.

My terarrium doesn't have the very top peice so I put some hardwarware cloth on top of it. One of the cats is over an inch long so I'm thinking maybe I should but in a larger milkweed branch at a 45 degree or less angle. Or maybe I will put a peice of wood over the top opening wrapped in bird netting so they can attach to that.

Koncrete--please bear with me but I'm not getting what you mean by "put in little vases with peices of purple heart." I'm kinda slow in some departments, lol. Does that mean you took flower vases and hung them down in the aquarium? Sounds like you made some very nice gifts for people though!

You didn't "get" the easiest part. ;) I do have little 97 cent vases I got from Wal-Mart that I use because they are small. Purple Heart (or Purple Jew) is a plant that will live in just water and their leaves branch out making a perfect place to attach a chrysalis.

Your cats will probably attach to that cloth over the top of your aquarium so if you don't want them on it put something else across it.

Ok, went out and stuck a piece of PH in the vase to show you.

Wow thank you very much! I think I finally got it :)

I may just try your idea in the pot I have with the tropical milkweed. There are 3 cats there over an inch long and I hope they hang themselves any day now, I had no idea their appetites were so voracious and I'm worried about running out of leaves!

Thanks for all your help...I found even more cats today and I want to save them all, lol.

You are very welcome! I have been doing this for about over 3 years now and love it! I wouldn't have had any clue what to do or any success doing it if it were not for other butterfly gardeners that passed all their info and experience on to me. Feel free to ask any and all questions. Everyone here is just as excited for you and willing to help. We all learn from each other!

Wow! I am so excited over the response I received!! I love all of your ideas and am really excited to watch my monarchs pupate. It's great to have a place like Dave's to go to and share ideas and talk to many different people.

Well in the end I had 39 catterpillars and I lost 5. Two cats died for some reason, one got stuck in the middle of pupating and two did pupate but they fell and died. It was sad. I did have a fun time this year, I had 15 more than last year and of coarse my favorite part was letting them go. Anyone else keep track of their survival rate?