As if the sighting of my very first Hummer wasnt glorious enough, I just witnessed a Monarch dancing around the Milkweed. she stopped then fluttered, then stopped and fluttered some more. after about 20 minutes, she left and I went to check, and sure enough I have teeny tiny white eggs underneath the leaves!!!!!!
O/M/G... I sure musta done something right to have my first garden turn out to be so successful!
Now... is there anything I should do? I dont usually like to interfere with nature, but if I can do a little something to help them along, I would sure appreciate the advice!
I've Got Monarch Eggs!!!!!
I am no expert but if you have a lot of predators for them try putting the Milkweed in a "Sock Enclosure". It is a mesh bag that covers the plant and comes in a variation of sizes. I have seen people do this to protect the eggs and cats while they grow.
oh! I had never thought about doing that! Thanks for the advice
ok, Miss Monarch laid her eggs on Monday and here it is Saturday and there is no sign that the eggs are going to hatch. There's no dark spot on the egg, nothing. However, we did have an unseasonably cool morning this past week, the morning temp dropped to 37 F. Could this have hurt them???
Sadly, I now truly believe the freak cold snap we had Tuesday morning may have killed the Monarch eggs. It's officially been a week now with no sign of caterpillars :(
However, this may have been a blessing in disguise as my Milkweed may not have been big enough to support more than one or two cats each and there were at least 4 eggs (if not more) on each plant. Still, I wish I had seen them become cats and eventually Butterflies.
That IS too bad! Another possibilty is that the mama butterfly laid blank eggs...those never hatch. I've never heard of 37° bothering Monarch eggs, so I'd go with that theory myself.
well. here is the weird thing. I went out today to check on them, and one of the eggs is completely gone, no sign of a cat at all. another is forming the 'black' head on it, so it must be getting ready to hatch, and thats all I could find. so maybe with a little luck and lots of prayers, it will make it. Still keeping my fingers crossed tho!
How exciting! Keep the updates coming :-)
I should rename this thread to "As The Leaf Turns".
I went and checked on my egg-lings yesterday evening (we had some pretty heavy winds later on) and now there is absolutely no sign of an egg.. not even the one that looked like it was ready to hatch. I dont know it the wind got it or some little bug got to them, but I am no longer holding y breath for them. I think they are gone now.
Insect or wasp predators sometimes eat the eggs or tiny cats, not to mention lizards and other hungry wildlife. Assuming the eggs are not the occasional no-stick-em (nonviable) eggs, they won't blow away, because they are glued to the leaf. The high mortality rate is why one fertile Monarch mama butterfly sometimes lays dozens of eggs in one visit to your yard.
I GOT CATS!!!!!
Went out today and discoverd 2 cats on each of my Milkweed.. beautiful Monarch cats devouring my Milkweed!!!! Glad now that I pruned them back so they bushed out, cuz they are hungry little buggers, but I am oh so happy now! they look like 2nd instars? I dont have pics, but goodness they are gorgeous!
YAY!!! :-)
Oh, I'm so happy for you! They are so special...can't wait until I see some Queen or Monarch cats later on.
Congrats, congrats, cue_chik!
Sherry
Thank you Thank you! I am so happy.. I lost that first set and was a bit heart broken, but the four cats i have now are doing fine!