This is my first year raising Monarchs, and I never took note before as to when they came and went in my area. They've been eating me out of house and home with the milkweed, but now there are no more cats on my plants, even tho Monarchs are still in my garden as much as ever. Could the lack of babies be related to those red and black bugs on my milkweed? I read where someone said get rid of them, but I read somewhere else that they do no harm. They're certainly doing no good, as they seem to co-exist peacefully with the aphids...
Any thoughts, anyone?
Peggy
No more baby cats
Peggy, those bugs are milkweed bugs. They won't bother your cats at all but they will suck your seeds pods dry, so kill them. They can fly but if you just walk right up to them and grab them you can usually catch them. I've developed this skill just this year. :) You can also put some water in a bucket and add a little orange oil or a drop or so of soap and thump them into the water.
If you've had cats then you will probably have more. I have had Monarch's all season, which is longer than usual for me, and I'm just now starting to get a bunch of eggs. Do you know if you get them on their way back to Mexico? That's when I start seeing them in greater numbers. I think they are starting to trickle down already.
KK, Yesterday I went out to check the milkweed for new cats and I found two. Just then I heard the mailman drive up to deliver the mail and what was in the mail but a small mesh cat house I ordered last Friday.... a few days before I had potted up a milkweed stem that had resprouted after the cats ate all the leaves (didn't know they could do that, lol, all the 'sticks' I tossed before!) Opened up the cage, put in the mw plant and transferred the 2 cats, and just like that was open for business again.
While I was doing that, saw a Monarch touch her butt to a leaf, so when she left I saw the egg - was never sure before what the egg looked like. It's so little!! So then I saw several eggs and put them in the cage. That's sure a delicate operation....How do you do it? Bet you're going to say "with great care" :)
I think that was your 'bucket o' death' method I used on the red and black milkweed bugs earlier this summer. That's the reason I don't have ten thousand mw bugs now, just some new ones. So I'm on my way to fetch the B o' D right now. Of course I'm going to check for cats and eggs first.
When I'm going to take eggs off on their leaves, I stick the leaf stems in little containers of water with lids that have little holes in them. I've seen too many eggs/tiny cats that didn't make it because the eggs take a little time and by the time they would hatch the leaves are crisp and dead.
Linda, did you ever try to take the egg off the leaf? It's probably better to do it your way and take the leaf with it, keeping the leaf alive.
Here's the new cage.
I have just moved the eggs of a cloudless sulfur on its cassia leaves. I put the stalk in water. The eggs are so tiny that I would be afraid to try to separate them from the leaf. Karen
Yes Peggy, that's my "bucket o' death" method. LOL! I've developed a quicker hand this year and have been just plucking those bad boys off and tossing them to my HUGE garden spider. She loves the fast food! I'm still rinsing the aphids off the top of my plants in water tho.
I have been collecting eggs the last few days. I have been so busy tho and haven't been able to watch them and I don't have near as many cats as I should. I can't say what's happened to them tho. First instar cats are notorious for wandering off. You'd think being that small that they would stay next to the food, but nooooo. I should have put a lid on them.
Linda, I think I have a wrong mental image of your leaves and eggs under water. How are you doing this? It is horrible trying to find the eggs and cats when I've let the leaves dry out.
Tonight I collected 16 more eggs. Since I'm usually in a hurry I take the whole leaf and just leave the eggs on it. Tonight I cut little squares of leaf with the eggs on them with tiny sewing scissors. Since the time is coming when I'll need all my leaves, I'm going to start collecting just the square of leaf with the egg and leaving the rest of the leaf on the plant. Not taking the whole leaf too will leave some of the aphids outside.
Peggy, you'll have to let us know how that bug hut works. I'm not sure it's big enough for me. You're eye will will spot the eggs easily now that you know what you're looking for. Look under leaves and on the very new growth.
Karen, did you start a thread about your eggs? My cassia better get busy growing.
Karen, yes, the eggs are so tiny, but I was trying to move them and they are stuck on the leaf. I dropped them a couple times - and they hatched anyway, so we'll have to see if they are all right as they get larger.
KK, your idea of taking just a little square of the leaf is great since I have so little milkweed I have to conserve as much as possible.
Your spider and the milkweed bugs - eeeeewwwww!!! (Spending a minute getting over it). Okay.
I got the smallest mesh house they have because I thought I'd use it as a nursery and transfer them later to the big cage. But it's so nice I'm thinking I want a bigger one, too. I'm worried there may be something wrong with the chrysalises I have now in the big wood-and-screen cage so when these guys eclose I'm not going to put any more cats in it til I scrub it out real good. The mesh cages look easy to keep clean and disinfected.
Peggy
KKB, I happened to have some saved 35 mm. film containers, and I cut an X opening on the lid and fill with water. Then stick the stem into the hole. I have on occasion collected the tiny hatched cats off the leaf with an artist's brush to get two cats on one leaf, but that's kind of iffy. Some of those tiny cats do travel away from the food. The Two-tailed Tiger cats are especially bad about that, so an enclosed container is important. I haven't even seen that butterfly this year...wondering if I'll find any eggs at all this year.