I've started a second thread as the first is just getting too long. For anyone new reading this thread, be sure to skim through the first thread for some interesting observations and info:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/667947/
Questions and observations welcome!
Good move Becky!
I am so so beat! Got all the dirt mixed and spread, :-) and tomorrow I am going out to sow a few seeds.
Mostly all I've seen around here lately are Snouts. So I will be here mostly reading all the stories you guys write until I can again contribute some realtime observations.
This has been a really good thread... Thank you for starting it, and being so consistant..I will try my best to keep up with everyone's comments.
Gonna get recharged now.
It's easy enough to start Mexican Milkweed from cuttings that that's the only way I grow them usually. I try to grow a couple of other milkweed species by seed. I want to have some buckeye cats next year. This year none of the Agalinis wildflowers (host plants here in late summer or fall) came up at all. I looked all over for them. Darn drought! Anybody know what else they really use in Texas? There's lots of things listed in books, but it seems they are picky here!
Linda, I just returned a book to the library that had the plants listed by season that the Buckeye's use. (I thought I wrote it down, but didn't so I'll go look it up soon) I thought that was very interesting that they used different plants.
I did write down tho that it uses "almost all species of the genera: Agalinis, Castilleja, Linaria (these 3 first) Phyla, and Plantago.
Hey Paige, good to hear from you again.
I'm showing: Plantain, Snapdragon, Gerardia, Toadflax, Stonecrop, and Loosestrife are all host for the Buckeye cats. Sorry Paige, if I'm repeating what you said...I don't know what Genus these are in.
Deb, that's such a hard job, I bet it looks great!
Maggie - I wanted to comment on something you said in the original thread ....
I never thought about it, but you are absolutely right ...... Aphids are indeed a good indicator of a pesticide-free milkweed plant! (Or any plant for that matter!) Thanks for reminding us of a positive reason to have aphids in our garden! LOL
That's something I will remember too.
I received my milkweed bumper sticker. I haven't put a sticker on my car ever so it's kind of wrinkly, I guess it takes some practice, but I like it.
Love the bumper sticker! Remind me again where you got it from, please. I want one! :-)
On the top it has the site....www.monarchwatch.org. It was something like 5 for $8.00 or 8 for $5.00, sorry I don't remember.
In the sprit of the bumper sticker I have tons of asclepias curassavica (milkweed) seeds.also senna alata (candle bush -candletree) for sulfurs , seeds. Just send me a SASE and I'll be more than glad to share.Just remember the sticker.
Thanks, Don! Many of us that post on this forum may have seeds or plants for both, but I am hoping that others who are just lurking might dmail you for seeds! That's so very nice of you to offer them for just SASE!!!! Thank you! :-)
5 bumper stickers for $3.95....hmmm, enough to share!
http://shop.monarchwatch.org/searchresults.aspx?k=bumper%2bsticker&c=
Cool Linda, I went ahead and ordered some..
This is FUNNY!
I came home from shopping late last night and there was this Monarch cat near our doorbell. When I went out this morning, it had already turned into a chrysalis. I have been finding the chyrsalises in the strangest places!
And when I was out in the backyard this morning, I saw a Monarch underneath one of the outdoor PVC lawn chair cushions. I am thinking she must have crawled in there overnight, so I got her out and tried to let her go, but she fell like a rock to the ground. So that's when it occured me that she must have just emerged. So I lifted up the cushion and sure enough. There was the empty chrysalis shell. She's now in my cage drying her wings! LOL
This message was edited Dec 24, 2006 11:20 AM
I am noticing more Monarch chrysalis up around the facia of my house. But I am also noticing that most of them turn black and do not make it to the butterfly stage. I will be watching these two to see what happens and I will remove the one near my front doorbell and put in the hatchery. I think with the rain and the high humidity that we've had lately in my area that it makes for a high breeding ground for bacteria and cat viruses. And the temps have been near 80. My family is upset because they say it doesn't feel like Christmas with such warm temps. They want the weather to get cold. It is supposed to rain on Christmas day here and then the temps will drop down in the low 70's to high 60's during the day and 50's at night. (Which to me is still warm temps.) We've lived in Florida for 40 years and this is just Florida temps for this time of year. I don't know what my kids are thinking ...... they've lived here all their lives! I think they have been reading too many books or seeing too many movies about Christmas with snow! LOL
I noticed what was left of a couple of GF chyrsalides outside...I think something ate them. When they eclose, they leave all the outer "shell" of the chrysalis, but these had only the stem and the short part next to it. I can't imagine what does that. Those turning black that you mentioned might be a disease like OE (which is often passed on to the egg from the mother or ingested by the cat from contaminated foliage). But on the other hand, I've often heard it's bad for cats/chrysalides to be around excessive amounts of moisture also.
Today I was cutting back some more Milkweed that was looking pretty scraggly. I found some Monarch cats desperately trying to find a leaf or two to eat. I brought them all in and put them in my small plastic bug cage with some fresh milkweed leaves. I was checking on them and noticed something very unusual. (I've never seen this in all the cats I have raised and we are talking probably close to 500.) I saw a cat eating the shed skin from another cat. This cat was just munching down on the little pile of skin like there was no tomorrow. I looked at it again about 5 minutes later and it had completely eaten all of the skin like it was never there. Isn't that very odd?
I've never read anything about this anywhere. Has anyone else noticed this behavior when hand-raising cats? It was really something I have never, ever seen before.
cat skins ..humm
I suppose it isn't exactly canabalism... It's only dried skin. Sure there are protiens in there the cat senses he could use. The babies of most cats eat teir own eggshell, so it could be the info just isn't documented, that is, until now..
Very interresting!
I've never seen it but that doesn't meant mine haven't done it. I imagine it's the same theory of why they will take bites, or totally eat, other cats...they taste like the milkweed. I think you are right in that it was probalby desperate to find food. (blech tho)
Paige - Actually, this cat has plenty of milkweed leaves to eat, but it chose to eat this discarded skin instead. Go figure!
Deb - I am wondering, too, if there isn't something in the skin such as a nutrient that the cat needed. And I know cats shed their skin through each instar. But I was thinking about that and ALL the cats I have raised and I don't see a lot of shed skin laying around. Perhaps it is most all eaten and that is why I don't see much of it? Maybe this isn't unusual at all? Just the first time that I have actually witnessed it. Hmmmmm .....
When I first started raising them I thought that shedded skin was a cat that had been.......eaten and I was so sad. Then I realized what it was. I've never noticed them eating it, but Deb and KB are probably right, it's bound to be full of vitamins, but double blech! Gives whole new meaning to 'more than one way to skin the cat' heehee.
ROFL! You're too funny, fly!
Nasty! I wish you would stop learning these things Becky! There are just some things I didn't need to know. I still think it's all related to the milkweed. They don't eat any other plants but milkweed. They know it and are programmed to only eat it. They don't wander off and eat aphids or ladybugs or other bugs, just other cats (or skins) like themselves.
Now, if you really wanted to know you could put one in with a totally different species of cat and see if they would cannibalize it. Yeah, that's pretty sick but it would be interesting. My bet is it wouldn't do it.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/species/Monarch.shtml
According to this site, a Monarch's first meal is its chrysalis. So it stands to reason that other Monarchs might do so as well.
Now that's really weird...... I've never seen any of my Monarch newly eclosed butterflies eat their chrysalis. I know they have to use their bodies to break out of the chrysalis. But how would they chew since all they have is a proboscis (straw-like tongue)?
I'm telling y'all ..... they eat the shedded instar skin. Next time you raise some, look around for lots of skin..... guarantee you won't find much!
You are right Becky, I haven't seen them eat the chrysalis either.
I've never seen a butterfly eat a chrysalis! And you're right, they can't do it with a tongue. That's hogwash. Which one of us wants to write them and tell them? lol
I won't have any Monarchs for a while but I'm going to watch for the skins. (blech!)
Caterpillars eat their own discarded skins all the time. It's a survival thing, not at all unusual. And I'm sure it has some good nutrients. As for one eating another cats discarded skin, that's WAY better than eating the other cat!
LOL! I sooooo agree with you Linda! lol
