Monarchs!!!

This spring I got some milkweed plants off of ebay, because I read that they were the only host plant for Monarch butterflies. Ive waited all year and didnt see nary a one. But thats okay, I only had 2 plants in the midst of who knows how many acres of non-Milkweeds, so how could they find them?

But they did! This past weekend, I nearly fell off my chair near my window when I saw little orange butterflies flitting around the milkweed. I grabbed the binocs, and sure enough, they were monarchs. They were feeding on the butterfly bush and landing on the milkweed and laying eggs. I went out to see if I could see the eggs; I couldnt. When I woke up this morning and looked outside, I noticed my milkweed looked like the leaves had been stripped off of a few of the branches. I thought "wha????" then OMG!!!!!!! It must be babies!!!!!! I ran outside, and this is what I found!!! Theres 8 of them so far, I hope the milkweed lasts long enough to feed them until they magically turn into butterflies. Ill keep posting pictures as they hopefully develop.

Another one.

Happily munching...

CONGRATULATIONS HALO!!! Great shots too!

Thanks, Helen, I was really excited when I saw these. Ive never had them before. Im just a little bit worried if the plants can support all the babies I found, tho...

Thanks Halo for starting this thread. A week or so ago, I bought 4 butterfly weed plants at Lowe's on the "Please rescue me" aisle for $1.00 each. They were pretty dern pathetic, but I was assured that they'd come back with some care. Well I planted them in the ground, lost a few more leaves on those spindly things, and was rewarded this week with a few blooms. YEAH Me!!! OK so after reading your thread, I went out to check those plants and gues what, I'm gonna be a Monarch Grandma too! I might not have even looked closely had you not started this thread, so thank you!!!

Janet

I was given a couple of Asclepias plants in a trade, & they were easy to maintain indoors. In late Spring, I transplanted them into the garden, where they have bloomed all summer long. I have had more butterflies in my garden - & several caterpillars as well. I am now watching a chysalis, waiting for the Monarche to emerge. My Asclepias grown from seed have yet to blossom, so I will over winter a couple of plants indoors again this year. It was well worth it!
Julie

So happy to see all this info, as I went to a 'butterfly release' event recently and was given a packet of milkweed seeds. Brought them home and intend to plant them, but looking for info on how and when (I am in North Carolina, zone 7b). These were packaged by a monarch researcher of some sort, and do say that the seeds need to be stratified, which he defines as simply putting them in the freezer for at least 6 weeks prior to planting. I thought when you stratified something, you needed to actually have the seeds on damp moss or paper etc during this time, as well as chill them. I'm assuming you would then plant them late winter or early spring. So, how did you guys get milkweed to grow?

Some seeds need a wet stratification, others just require a cold spell. Some need an alternating cold/wet period - I find it all confusing, so I simply place all of my seeds in an unheated garage. It gets to the low 40's in the Winter, perhaps the upper 30's a couple of nights. This seems to do the trick for stratification. Zone 7 should be cool enough for stratification. You can also sow them outdoors this Autumn & let Mother Nature stratify them for you. Just remember where you sowed them, & keep an eye out for the seedlings in Springtime.
Anyone in zone 7 with some other tips?

Im not sure thats all necessary for milkweed. I have two plants that I got off of Ebay last year (yes, Im an Ebay junkie). They seeded and seeded this year, so many seeds that they looked like cotton plants.....I didnt know they did that. I didnt save any, just let them float away. The plants are in an area that is heavily mulched with pine bark fines, so its not a really great place for seeds to land and prosper, but I do have 3 baby plants growing within 15 feet of the momma plants. So they can just be planted and grow.

I have a Silky Gold Milkweed and it dropped seeds sometime before I could harvest them. All around the plant is sprouts that appear to be MW. Can any of you tell me? I have been meaning to put them on the ID forum. I am always throwing seeds of other plants in the beds, so I am not sure.

Also, this is a small cat that has appeared, is it....??????.......the Monarch???
I have also had a Giant Swallowtail and a lot of Queen's around it.

Sheila, I'm not familiar wnough with them to tell you yes or no. I'm going by the photo that Halo posted at the beginning of this thread.

I've been watching the only one I have left, out of four. He's growing so fast you can almost watch it! It's really hard to see the length of them in the photos. The first photos I posted above he was about 3/4".

Yesterday morning, there was only one leaf left on the weed he was on. He was about 1" to 1 1/4" then. I thought I'd be helpful and move him to one of the other weeds that had more leaves. He curled up tight and let out a big ol' poop as soon as I placed him on the new plant. I thought that I must have shocked the beejesus outta him and went back into the house so he could calm down. Well, a little while later, I went out to see how he was getting along, and couldn't find him anywhere. I searched all around and thought to myself, Oh No! I've made him more exposed and eiether a lizard or a bird got him! I went back in the house feeling guilty. Came back out to look again a bit later. He still wasn't to be found. I came inside and downloaded the photos and thought, well at least I got some photos of him. Then later in the evening, I spotted him on a completely different weed! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today, just a few days later, he's at least 2".

Here are some shots of him over the past few days.

Here's a close up of his head.

Gobbling away on a leaf

Putting him in perspective. He's about as long as one of those leaves. As spindly as those weeds are, it's probably a good thing there is only 1.

Does anyone know how long it will take for him to become a butterfly? What is the next stage? Can you all tell I missed out on that lesson in biology 101?

Janet

All I know is, I brought in some of those caterpillars, and its unbelieveable how much they can eat and poop. I added some of their poop to my potted plants; if the plants go crazy, I may have to patent caterpillar poop as the newest fertilizer craze. Anyway, after feeding....and feeding.....and feeding.... I saw about 4 of them climb to the top of the box and attach themselves to the top plastic. This morning I went to look at them and ......VOILA!!!

I too ampatiently waiting for one to merge - it has been about 1 1/2 weeks so far. I suspect it will wait for a nice warm sunny day... The gold specks on the chrysalis are really pretty.

Sheila, that seems to be aphids on the milkweed in your photo. halo, I read somewhere that one experiment showed that the fresh frass (poop) isn't helpful for plants. I compost it myself. Those Monarch (and Queen also) caterpillars are pretty much just eating-and-pooping machines! I was raising some Red-Spotted Purple caterpillars recently...and wow, what a difference! Those are really easy to raise by comparison, no problem at all. Anyway, I thought you'd like this link:
http://home.wi.rr.com/monarchraising/page7.htm

This message was edited Aug 31, 2006 3:33 AM

Linda, I know about the aphids, but what is the caterpillar looking guy? Is it a Monarch, Queen cat, or something bad like leaf roller? They are tiny now. Also is this a young Milkweed bug?

I think that it's the larva of a syrphid fly (also know as hover fly). I just found out about them recently myself. Quite harmless, I'm told. I'm not sure about the bug on the second picture.

Thanks Linda.

I have those too Sheila. Someone on the tree forum told me they were Assassin Bugs. They eat other bugs and are good guys. I'm glad 'cuz they're kinda cute. :-) They are all over my Lantana and my Milkweeds too.

Janet

Nice to know Janet. I need to look up some info on the milkweed bug too. That milkweed plant has drawn more bugs this year than I have ever had before getting it this spring.

Mine are covered in little yellow aphids right now. The caterpillar disappeared. :-( I hope he returns as a butterfly. The area that the plants are in is like a jungle and I don't want to disturb things if he just fell off and is doing his thing. I've looked for him for 2 days though and there's no sign of him. I hope to be able to experience having a caterpillar again some day.

In the meantime, if you don't mind, I'll just share your all's vicariously. :-)

Janet

My cats started disappearing too. I took off several of them and brought them in the house, I now have 7 cocoons to watch and hopefully hatch out.

I did notice that the caterpillars seemed to disappear during the daytime - perhaps they seek out cooler spots dring the hottest parts of the day? I would find them again in the evening, happily munching away. But 1 disappeared altogether, & a teeny one died. Good for you to bring them indoors - also more interesting,m as you get to watch them emerge as butterflies.

I wish I had thought to bring "my" caterpillar inside. Halo, I hope you are getting plenty of pictures to share! :-)

Janet

When I came home from work this morning, and checked my little box full of cocoons I gasped!!! A butterfly!! A fully formed, ready to hit-the-road Monarch! I was so stunned. How can such a huge butterfly come out of such a little cocoon??? I took the box outside, and opened it, and he fluttered away. I was simply awestruck. then I remembered....uh oh, no pictures. I have 11 more little cocoons, so hopefully when the next one shows up I wont be so addled that I don't take some pics first before letting him go.

LOL! I would probably done the same thing, in the excitement. Congratulations!!

With so many cocoon, they must have been very happy in your garden!

I dont know about happy, but they sure were hungry! I found the funniest thing today. I was sweeping my front porch, and I found a cocoon attached the bottom of the seat of a chair I have out there. Now how in the world did a little caterpillar crawl all the way from the milkweed plants to the porch and the chair, a good 20 feet away. funny.....

Congratulations on helping to raise a butterfly! Caterpillars, left to their own devices, often crawl that far or farther...far away from the host plant. My own theory is that sometimes predators (I'm thinking of the wasps I've seen doing this) patrol host plants when they've seen caterpillars there before. I suppose maybe the pupating caterpillar (it is fairly helpless during that process) and the chrysalis is probably safer away from that area.

That could certainly explain why I thought the cats were disappearing. They were just hiding from me! Good for them; maybe Ill find some in other places, too. That would explain why I havent seen a single one on the milkweed plant, er, rather whats left of the milkweed plant. It looks pretty well ravaged.

Congratulations on all the luck with your Milkweeds...the photos are so interesting and discussion so informative!

This season I became very interested in Butterfly gardening and milkweeds and am trying to get our garden certified as a Monarch Waystation...we had some pretty good luck with lots of BFs, but we have yet to get a good 'herd' of caterpillers...nevertheless--

For anyone interested in even more info about raising different kinds of Milkweed for monarch hosting or other butterfly nectaring, here's a good page of instructions for seed starting... http://www.monarchwatch.org/milkweed/prop.htm

To summarize the Monarrch watch page: Although some folks like to stick with completely native plants for their area, out of the over 140 MW varieties, Monarch Watch mentions that 'Asclepias curassavica' (often labeled at the garden centers as 'silky red' or 'yellow' is high in popularity with BFs and in 'garden worthiness'. Although not hardy in northern climes, it can be over wintered indoors here in Zone 6, I suppose, or readily grown from seed each spring. Some people propagate it from cuttings, too. This is an attractive plant in our garden and the BFs go for it first thing.

Asclepias 'tuberosa' (butterfly weed) is perennial in northern zones, native to most of the US and popular with midwest and eastern gardeners. We have this in our garden and it's very nice.

Monarch Watch recommends that a good butterfly garden will have a couple of different kinds of Milkweed to account for bloom season lengths. And about 15 or 20 plants, depending on their sizes...

For anybody interested in other links for Monarchs and cats, here are a few I found intersting.

Growing cats: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/646485/

Plants for the BF garden: http://www.monarchwatch.org/ws/seed_kit.html

Monarch Waystation Certification : https://shop.monarchwatch.org/certificate/waystationcert.aspx

All kinds of Catterpillers ID-ed: http://www.richard-seaman.com/Wallpaper/Nature/Caterpillars/index.html

All kinds of bugs on Milkweed: http://www.texasento.net/MWpix.htm

I will be interested to read how all your cats prospered! And see more pictures!





This message was edited Sep 4, 2006 10:43 AM

Interesting stuff there. I checked my milkweed plant again and found 2 more cats, so I brought them in with some leaves last night. One is making a cocoon and the other is hanging, so will probably start soon. I now have 11 cocoons in my little box. Im definitely going to do things differently next year, since I have found some success. Im sure the chewed up milkweed will winter over, and I had found 3 little plants that will also. I have several different bufferfly plants (aclepsia) that I was going to cut down, but now they will stay for sure. Ive had a really good National Geographic year, what with hummingbirds showing up, raising 2 batches of bluebirds....I know they fledged because the whole entire brood of 10 showed up, and seeing 2 young cardinals for the first time. I found out that young ones have dark bills, so I did indeed have 2 babies.

What a great year.

Kathy

I use the Asclepias curassavica for the cats. It does pretty well here. I also have some milkweed native to my area, but it's hard to propagate, so I'd rather use the other kind for cats most of the time. That way maybe I'll get some seed for the native.

I released 2 of these little guys today. They are sitting comfortably on my rose bush outside my back door while its raining a light drizzle. They are under the eave so they can rest comfortably until they are ready to head out. Stunningly beautiful....

Another shot...

I now have a chrysalis, one large cat & a new baby cat in my cat cage. I can't wait to watch them emerge - just so perfect!
Sometimes I think Mother Nature just tried to outdo herself :)