Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: 2013 Monarch Migration, 1 by coleup

coleup wrote:
One of my customers on my afternoon paper route has devoted the area around her mailbox to butterflies and has variour milkweed growing. too. This is where I usually see Monarchs. Not this year though. Spotted just one about a month ago and on Sat counted 16 cats!

By yesterday most of the plants of 'tropical Milkweed' had been eaten to the stems but the more common MW which is in decline already because of high heat and little moisture/rain showed little activity and no cats. Talking with the owner, we decided to relocate some cats to a common mw plant of their own. They seemed to take to the new to them mw by the time I left.
Will check progress today.

My concern is that they will run out of food shortly. I do know of a nature reserve area nearby with lots of mw and plenty of tussock moth cats but few Monarchs cats observed and no mbutterflies.

Should I relocate some of these cats there? (I can't pick fresh leaves from that reserve)
Do the 16 cats I can moniter daily need any protection from pedators or are the pretty safe now?
I can collect seeds if anyone is interested. Also have some seeds from a plant labeled 'Slender Milkweed'

Pics: only Monarch sighted, fat Gen 4 cat, Milkweed Tussock Moth cats

This message was edited Sep 17, 2013 9:58 AM