I was soooo excited :) I finally saw a Queen in my yard, and lo and behold I found some cats this weekend. 4 so far. I quickly got them into the cat house, because I also saw a lot of wasps in the area.
These guys are just so darned cute!
And to think that last year I was afraid to pick one up LOL
Great!!! Can you post a pic of your cat house? I'd love to have one, or make one.
Janet
Oh you are so lucky, I haven't found one yet!
All I use for a cat house is an aquarium with a screen lid. I emptied some baby food jars, and poked holes in the lids to put the milkweed in for their food. There are some really fancy cat house pictures on this forum. I searched around a bit, and can't find any of the threads that have the pics, but if you start a thread, asking to see peoples cat houses, you'll see some good stuff.
Here's my little one
I finally broke down and bought a pavilion and I just put the plant in there, pot and all. Right now I have 8 cats, I bought a milkweed today and there were 2 on it.....at no extra cost LOL
Cool set up you have there, PiggyPoo. (Love that name! I like to have fell off my chair laughing when I saw it the first time. 8*} I like the idea of the cat house thread. I'll do that now!
Great bonus there Fly Girl! YEAH!!
Janet
I've thought of building myself a larger house, so I could put the plants in, pots and all. I may have to buy some milkweed for these guys before too long, (or if I get lucky and find some more) or I will be cutting all the time. I found that the cats will only eat the flowers from the Pineneedle milkweed, but will eat the leaves on the Bloodflower. Picky little things. Worse than kids LOL
oh congrats on the cats. I had one laying but the big Monarch cats ate all the milkweed. I thought I had enough but how much is enough. I had 10 big plants
Wow!!! I have 2 Pineneedles and 1 Bloodflower. If all they will eat on the Pineneedle, are the flowers, I'm in big trouble. They are having a Butterfly show at our desert museum here this weekend, including a plant sale, so I am in hopes of finding some other milkweeds. Not that I can't find some at the native nursery here, but....it's a good reason to go to the museum :)
Congrats! They are my favorite cats. I was very confused when I looked at your pic of baby food jars and that weird plant inside them! Pineneedle milkweed?! I have never heard of such a thing. Is it really a member of the same milkweed family?? You are definitely going to need more than just the flowers on that, depending on how many cats you have.
My last Monarch cat just made it's chrysalis so I'll have to go out and search for eggs again. After I cut off stalks for them to eat I put the stalk in water and rooted it. I've got about 40 to replant! I am putting some in pots tho, which I should have done earlier this year.
Do you have A. currassavica? The Tropical/Mexican milkweed with yellow and orangish/red flowers. I've got seeds and a lot of pods growing now. I will collect some fresh seeds before they all burst this time. (that is if I don't have cats that don't eat them)
Hey Konkrete, my cats are getting pretty big, do I need to put a stick in the cage for the crysalis?
Awww... it is cute! I wish I could find a queen cat...I have such zone envy, lol.
Here's a thread with cathouses for anyone interested:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/643281/
Maureen
kk, the Pineneedle milkweed is a native plant here in Tucson. I purchased it at our native nursery. I posted a picture of it in the plant files. It is planted right next to my A. currassavica. Over the weekend, I found all the cats just on the Pineneedle, but yesterday, I found (finally) one on the A. currassavica. Definately will be needing more of something, quickly LOL
Fly_girl, you can go ahead and give them a stick. It's so much better than when they use the plant stalks.
PiggyPoo, that is so interesting! I will have to look that up in the files. It's very strange that they will only eat the flowers! I was wondering last night if the Bloodflower was the Tropical milkweed, so I guess it is. How many cats did you find?
I have lots of A. curassavica for the Queens and Monarchs. But I also have a native of this area, A. texana. It's the only native Texas milkweed that does well here in the Texas hill country. The Queens and Monarchs mostly lay eggs on the A. curassavica, which is fine because I want seed from the A. texana. It's not so easily propagated as the other kind and some years there's no seed. I wish it was easily rooted like the other kind, but so far I haven't gotten any to root. My Monarch catepillars are doing well. I've never had this many at one time and the 5th instar is going to be an experience! I released a female Queen this morning and have no more chrysalides or cats of those.
kk, I'd found 4 cats on the Pineneedle milkweed over the weekend, but the smallest one seems to have disappeared. I found the 5th one on the A. currassavica yesterday. I've just come home on a break from work, and it's a good thing...they need MORE food LOL
It's like raising kids all over again
They are a lot of work! This morning I had to take all my little pots of Rue and the cats out of the aquarium and clean it out. Then I had to cut new Rue, wash it, and then move some of the cats and get it all resituated. The BST's don't eat the Rue as fast as they do fennel tho, or as fast as Monarchs eat.
In my last batch of Monarchs I had a few Queen's but not as many as usual. The other day I almost panicked because suddenly I had NO Queen's flying around my yard and I have them every day! The next day a few were back but not like usual. :( boohoo! Oh, but I see one right now on the Mistflower! :) I am going out today to check for eggs. I hate when all my babies grow up!
Keep taking pics of your cats. I'm curious what their colors will be. Do they have the red on their antennae? blue in them? ...they look just black in the pic, and no blue or red...
This message was edited Sep 27, 2006 1:35 PM
Thanks Konkrete!
Those monarch cats are quite the little porkers! It's unbelievable how much they eat and how fast they grow.
I had to get something to protect them because I would see them small on the plants and the next day they would be gone. And, almost everyday I see an assassin bug on the bf weed. Yesterday I found a huge praying mantis on there and moved her across the street. I honestly don't know how any survive.
I don't know either, and don't think many actually do if I leave them outside. I have at least a spider or an assassin bug on every plant, or at least there is when I look at it. One thing I don't have, or haven't seen are Praying Mantis. ?
Linda, post a pic of your other milkweed. I promise not to beg for seeds. lol I think Antelope Horns is most common and native in my area. I need to go out and collect some seeds this year before they mow them down on the roadsides. They won't do it for a while, but they DO do it before the last of the Monarchs has left, which really makes me mad.
Here's a pic of her, you really have to look because she is so camoflauged, can you see her?
Wow, that was tricky! It took me a minute of staring and finally found her. I thought it was something in the background.
When it cools off later I'm going to throw on some bug spray and work outside. I see a Giant ST out there now. I haven't seen one in a few weeks. I'll go check my Rue for eggs.
Paige, did you relocate your spider friend that was catching Monarchs?
Hi Sheila! I DID move it not long after you left. I got the long pole with the net for the pool and scooped her on it. (oh, which reminds me to go find that egg sack) She tried to jump off once but I got her back on it. Luckily she did not try to run up the pole! I tossed her into the neighbor's flower bed.
A few days ago I found another huge one in my back bed. It looked like the other one before she laid all her eggs. Her web was in another very bad location for my butterflies so I made my husband get this one out. He didn't want to bother the first one but this one he was going to just squish or throw out in the street so trying to be a little more humane I ended up spraying it with some insecticidal soap. Ugh. No one really loves a spider but after gardening and seeing the whole other world that exists, I hated doing it. Then it started to go in the street and was slowly dying and it was horrible. :( I finally swept it over to the curb and left it. Geez, I was tearing up over a spider! I felt terrible. Last year I took off about 20 field mice in a live trap. Looks like next year I'm going to have to take the big spiders out to a field or something.
A few days after that I was telling my husband that I had accidentally squished a Monarch chrysalis that was right on the edge of my cage lid. He was asking questions and I asked why and he said "you had such a hard time with that spider the other day". lol
As for the chrysalis, that was an accident, you regretted; but the spider was purposeful elimination that you felt guilty about. You had to protect your Monarchs, since the spiders are trapping and eating them.
I was at the side of my house evening before last and saw two huge wasp nests on my neighbors house. I called and told them and they said they would take care of them, but they are still there, or were last evening. I hope they will soon since the Monarchs are just starting to come around my yard. I may try an over the fence kill if they are still there this weekend. We had one large nest we took care of under our deck, and the neighbor on the other side had phone problems and they found two large nest and took care of them for her. That may be why I haven't see but one GF cat this year too.
Josephine and Mitch paid me a visit last week and I was very thrilled to have them over. I don't have too much blooming in my yard right now, but next year will be different. My DH has worked putting in a huge bed for me in the backyard this year since I have been unable to do anything since my back problems started. I have been clipping and starting new milkweed plants for one thing. It won't be anything as full as your yard was, you have a georgeous butterfly haven for sure!! I am in training on these BF threads so next year I can raise some cats too!
I hate to squish bugs too. I even hate to kill those assassin bugs that are ALWAYS on the milkweed. You know those milkweed bugs are everywhere on my milkweed too. I couldn't find that they do any real damage and they aren't predator bugs but I think the monarchs don't like to land when those things are all over the flowers. So, I have been eliminating some of those too, ick.
I relocated a couple anoles to my bfweed hoping they will help if they just will stay there. Love those little guys.
Konkrete, show us pics of your bf haven, I would love to see it!
Sheila, they have these wasp sprays that shoot this long stream from far away, you might try that if they don't. I hate to get too close to them.
Yes, Fly, I have the spray and will see if it will reach if they don't take care of them for sure! I have had Milkweed bugs a lot this year too, but used konkrete's "bucket o'death" method to kill them. (Thump them into soapy water cup.) Very effective!
Oh Piggy !! what a cutie that one is.. maybe I can see one of those next year (keeping my eyes crossed). lol
Paige, please save me some of those milkweed seeds. Hi Sheila gtsy too:)!
I have to pot up a bunch of things for next week today, lotsa coleus and a few other surprises.
Waves ~~ Hi e'erbody..Bless ya all!
:oD
They sure are cuties!!! I'm hoping I can find some more this weekend, when I have more time to spend out there looking, but for now, the 4 I have are hungry hungry critters! And growing like weeds.
Here comes maybe the dumbest question of the year, but I gotta know..
Are Queens a type of Monarch or are female Monarch's called Queens..
Duh and Thanks..
Queens are related to the Monarchs but it is a separate species. They are mostly seen in very warm areas of the country, although sometimes they stray farther north. Here in southcentral Texas, they show up about May to late June and their caterpillars use milkweed just like the Monarchs do. Here's a photo of the butterfly:
And one of the caterpillar also. In fall they can sometimes be found on the same plants as the Monarch cats.
Thanks, Linda..
I'll be looking more closely for them..
Have 3 Monarch cats on the Milkweed now..Had 4 but something got one..Darn..
Lynn
See there noni, that wasn't such a dumb question after all, they are related and they use the same host plant...No such thing as a dumb question, except maybe the one that is never asked..
These folks seem to answer in a way that puts you at ease in any case.
Chances are someone else who reads this thread might want to know the answers too.
:oD
Woohoo! 3 of the 4 cats are making the "J" this morning!!
Yyyiiiiiipppppppeeeee!
How exciting !!
I'm watching some BST's in my bathroom, about time for them to make "J"s. :o).
:oD
I saw this one today.
Oh cool picture, snuzer29!!
Yeah snuzer great pic!
when I tried taking a picture of one in Paige's garden it wouldnt be still for going crazy over the Mist flower in both front and back gardens.. Let's see if any of those turned out..
found one.. l
Yay! Just another week or so and then you'll be out searching for more eggs. I found 2 eggs yesterday that might be Queens. I'm never sure which ones are which but these 2 eggs are smaller and whiter than the last Monarch ones I had.
Debnes, don't wait for those BST's to make a "J" because they won't! They attach to things but don't hang down. I wish these pigs of mine would get thru eating! I had to buy 2 more Rue plants along with cutting almost all of the ones outside to stumps.
