Hi everyone!
I've been lurking on this forum forever, hoping that one day the milkweed I planted would let me join in the fun. Well, yesterday I saw a Monarch queen flitting about the yard, laying eggs all over the tropical & swamp asclepias in the milkweed patch! I would like to try raising at least some of the larvae indoors, as I want to protect them from predators. (Last year I noticed a fairly large monarch cat on my butterflyweed, and despite draping him in bird netting, something still got him...I want to avoid this happening again.) Right now I have several leaves w/ eggs tucked into damp paper towel in individual little containers in the house. (I plan to give fresh milkweed leaves to the larvae daily, starting as soon as they hatch.) I also have arranged a larger mesh cage to hold them as they grow. Is it safe for up to 7 caterpillars to be in the same large cage together? Does anyone have any other advice for a newbie to this neat process? Thanks in advance!
first-time raising monarch cats
Hey Junebug,
I love junebugs by the way. I am a newbie here and really don't have much advice for you. Just wanted to let you know that the advice will come, believe me. The people on this forumn are just brilliant when it comes to this kind of thing. I am just happy to hear that you are wanting to save some butterflies. I too have planted milkweed in hopes of getting a Monarch but I am still waiting. Anyways, it sounds like you are ready when the time comes for taking care of the cats. I just wanted to say hi and welcome and will come back to the post to check on you as I know you will be getting some wonderful information soon.
Leslie
Hi Junebug! Welcome to this fun and busy forum! Glad you taking the leap to raise some! Monarchs are the best to start with because they seem to be the easiest to me!
Let me tell you what I do:
I grow some milkweed in pots just so I can put the entire pot/plant inside my cage. I switch the pots of MW out when they devour a plant and put a another one in the cage. As the cats get bigger, they eat more and fortunately, they are easier to move from plant to plant. But you don't have to do that, you can just give them plenty of leaves each day. When the "little" baby cats are newly hatched from their eggs (and I do mean tiny) it's best to move them with a small paint brush or just remove the leaf they are on and put it in a small container/cage. Easier to start them in a small cage or butter container with scarf material over it to keep them from escaping. They usually eat for 2 weeks as a cat before going into the chyrsalis stage. The chrysalis stage is about 2 weeks as well. The eggs usually hatch after about 3 days. So keep watching them.
Here is a good link for an idea.
http://home.neb.rr.com/monarchrose/raising.htm
Be sure to clean out all the poop (frass) each day otherwise they can get sick. It's sorta like you wallowing in your own poo, so keep their cage clean. I am notorious for using paper towels as explained in the link. Works good for me!
After you get started you will probably have more questions, so ask away.
Melody - Ya know, we really do need a sticky at the beginning of the forum on raising and releasing butterflies! That would make it so much easier for newbies to find this information! Perhaps some of us could help give ideas and suggestions for this type of undertaking as well as links and resources for cages. Just an idea!
Hey Junebug! welcome! Thanks for asking your question!
Happy 4th, Leslie! You are so correct about this friendly and informative forum. It's really a comfortable forum environment.
A sticky would be wonderful. Great Idea, Becky!
A sticky,...with pictures of each stage. : )
~Lucy
Thanks everyone! Becky, that link was fantastic. Happy 4th all!
Becky a sticky is a wonderful idea. Perhaps it could be a posting of links to the different phases of raising them.
Such as Cages, Host plants, Larve to BF pics, BF ID links, Do's and Don'ts of caring for the cats. I am sure you will come up with several great topics to approch Dave with, you have my support. I know I have learned a lot of you, Cat, and Debnes especially. Great Idea! If you build it I they will come!
Sheila
I have photos of the whole Monarch cycle from cat to BF if you would like it.
I think a sticky is a great idea too.
Y'all are coming up with some great ideas for a sticky thread. I guess it is time to beg Dave for a sticky on this forum!
Heh, heh...Becky beat me to it.
Go for it gang...start digging up all that good info and hyperlink each thread to the new thread that Becky starts. Dave will make it a sticky.
Daylilies have a very good listing of links to their best threads. You might want to pop over there and check out how they've done it.
If you're not sure how to hyperlink...most folks here will help. Me included.
You'll need to go back through all of the pages of threads and pick out the ones with the most informative stuff.
Something that most of ya'll don't know...but will be thrilled to hear.....Dave is working on a program to let us upload VIDEO!!! How awesome will that be???? I can see that this forum will really benefit from such a addition.
Most likely, the video clips will be similar to YouTube and there will be a spot here on DG where they are stored. You'll have to link to the video. (I'm just guessing here)
Anyway, I'll bet this forum uses the feature a lot. It will be a little while yet before he gets it all up and running, but get those cameras warmed up. I can see this a real resource for schools and students.
Melody, just a though, can there be an instance where just a post, using the post number, be part of a sticky instead of referencing the whole post?
Deborah
Yes... that's the general purpose of the post number system. That way, you don't have to wade through a lot of off topic conversation to get to the 'meat' of the information.
Instead of highlighting the thread in the address page, you'll click the post # and highlight the address that shows up in the window after the post appears.
If there is only one relevant post in the thread, this is great...if you want to add other parts of that thread to your post, you can open up 2 windows and add links to several posts within a thread, but you'll have to hyperlink each one individually.
No big deal, but make sure that everything that you want from each thread is linked in your post before you hit send.
Melody - VIDEO????? WHAT????? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! Oh my gosh! I have been thinking of posting some video on YouTube just for this forum and linking to it, but just haven't done it yet! This is positively AWESOME news!!!!!! Hip, Hip, Hooray!!!! I'm so excited. Get my camera warmed up ..... heck .... I'm gonna start recording butterflies! This is just incredible news! Yippee! :-) :-) :-)
Melody - The daylily forum sticky is really well done. Maybe I should have let you do the sticky and we could just give you the links to post on it. Hmmmm .....
I particularly like the "Member's Favorite Threads" on the Day lily forum sticky. That would be a great way to do the sticky in my humble opinion. Is there a way you could modify the sticky that I already created or do I need to have you delete the entire thread and let you start one instead?
This message was edited Jul 5, 2007 11:11 AM
I'm out for a bit...got a family function to attend...back after lunch...will check in then.
Junebug,
Catbird8 and I have raised iterally hundreds of monarchs. Short bit of advice - make sure you have a really big stock of milkweed on hand. Especially later in the year, when the migrating flock goes through. Repeating earlier advice, keep a lot in pots. The common milkweed is easy to grow from cuttings - put a handful in a glass of water and watch for root sprouts. Transplant. Same with seeds, except they take longer to mature. Leave the eggs on a live plant or cut off the leaf the eggs are on and pin it to a live leaf on a potted plant. No substitute like bringing them inside for protection. Be prepared for when they go "walk-about" looking for a place to "J-up". They can roam a long way looking for just the right texture. Stick some dry twigs in the pot for them to investigate. The particularly like the casement area of our kitchen window. Takes a little over two weeks for the larvae to mature, a couple of days in the "J-up" position before becoming a chrysalis, then 10 - 12 days before emergence. The monarch takes a long time to dry its wings. Several hours. Watch for it to expel excess fluid. At first it will expel a rust colored liquid. Then clear liquid. This will indicate that the wings are fully "pumped". At that time we generally extend a finger for them to climb on and take them to a nearby plant to finish the process. We have a wicker basket on the outside by the back door that works real well. They also like to rest on pine or bottletree limbs. Hope this helps. You will learn more with each year. But, the hardest part is anticipating just how much they eat in the larval stage.
Good luck,
Rod (mate of 8)
