Help with Monarch babies.

We're expecting a very hard freeze here the next 2 nights. I was walking the garden seeing what I need to cover, and in looking at my milkweed I saw 2 little monarch caterpilars. They are very small, so they aren't near morphing stage. I plucked them off with some leaves and brought them in, but Im afraid my milkweed will freeze back and I wont have any food for them. I have a couple of nice milkweed plants...can I dig them up and pot them up thru the freeze, then put them back? Id hate to save these 2 little guys and then have nothing to feed them.

Halo, I would dig those up and bring them in before the weather freezes up. They produces abundant seeds, and easy to grow, I'd plan on growing some extra for my cats. this coming season. I dug up, and kept it inside where it's well lit. The plant grow fine that way. What's your zone?
Kim

Halo, it's great that you rescued them!!

Be careful when digging them up, most mw have a tap root that is hard to dig up. If they are young, they should dig up okay but the older ones may not survive. Can you cover the ones outside with a sheet or frost cloth?

Another idea is to cut them stems, put them in a baggie and store in the fridge. I have done this and they stayed nice and green for about a week.

Roxanne

Great ideas from you guys. I did dig up a young plant, stuffed it in a black plastic pot; its on my back porch. Ill cut some stems from some of the older ones that I can't dig up; hopefully I can feed that to them for a week or so. Im in zone 8b/9a. It would be tough to cover plants; I have so many, milkweed, bananas, citrus. I did dig up a small tomato that was growing; Id love to be able to save it. I know cold weather is good for us down here once in a while, I just hope I dont lose much.

Good lucks, halo.
Kim

Halo, I'm with you. I went out and picked a bunch of passion vine for my Gulf Frit caterpillars in case it froze. Found an egg while I was out there, too. It's surprising how long leaves will last in the refrigerator. Last time it got this cold I was out rounding up as many zebra swallowtail cats as I could! I know it's nice ot have this cold every so often, but I'll still be griping when I have to cover up all my bromeliads.

Melanie

We have had two or three freezes in the past few weeks here. But this weekend it got up to 63 or so, and I was surprized to look up and see a Queen butterfly! It was flying around and would light on the grass occasionally, no flowers are alive now. I put out some butterfly bait to try to feed it but it never lit there. Guess they are more resilient than we think.

It's cold here too this morning, teens - 30'ish.!!!! Brrrrrr, looking back I've this familiar looking butterfly on my plumie, some kind of Hairstreak? I'm so ready for spring, and to see my butterflies in the garden again. Halo, hope you've success in keeping some of the mw protected for your babies cats.

Could be a Red Banded Hairstreak since it is in your area.
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=1570&chosen_state=01*Alabama
If you feel it is that one and your county isn't in blue, then send your picture to them to get it documented.

Sheila, our county is the southern tip of Shelby county, and it's not recorded. Do I contact the authority from the link above? Please help. Thanks
Kim
p.s. I've noticed that we've plenty of the host plants (one mentioned; sumac).

Kim, First see if you can crop the picture to get a closer shot of the bf. Then click on this link and either ask for an ID to confirm, or send it for a report of the sighting.

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/feedback

Kim, I can't believe you still have Plumies blooming, how pretty! We've had a few cold days and nights so mine look puny.
Plus, I haven't seen any bfs in a while, and there's not much blooming anyway, so it's just as well.

And Sheila, can't believe you saw a Queen this late in the year!

Fly_girl; believe you-me, our plumies are fast asleep in our zone (even beeing overwintered indoor), lol. That was earlier in the season. If you enlarge the pic. you'll see the actuall date; Aug. 16, 2007. :-)


Thanks Sheila, now I'll have to learn how to crop the pic. first.
Kim

If you have Microsoft system, just go to the file and pull it up, right click and select edit. Go to crop and then click and hold on the lower right corner and pull it in to the middle.

Say what?, all that sounds like greek to me. lol, but let me try. Thanks my friend.
Kim

Haha, oops!

Sniff, sniff, I found the crop features on the pics. Something went wrong, and I lost the picture from my file. :(
Oh well, I'll try that again next year.

Sorry halo; we went off topic. How is your plant looking like after the move?

Kim, it may have accidentally gone to the recylcle bin, can you check?

Hope this works for you .

One flower!!! You're the best! But how do I put that back into my file? lol.

Right click on the picture and then save :)

Thanks Flower! I did it. Now to retrieve it....what do I do?

Have a look in 'my pictures' on your computer and it should be there

Tada! and it's. Also, Fly_girl, I went to the recycle bin, and restored the pics. Now I've my version, as well as one Flower cropped for me. Thanks to both.
Kim

Your welcome :)

Good job Kim!

There's an editing program called Picasa that is made by Google, I think, just download it. It's easy to use and the best part...it's free!

Sorry about the confusion Kim....glad others were online to help you.
Hey Fly can you send me the link to the Picasa program downoload? I have hear others mention it.

Everything worked out, thanks to fleurone, and Fly_girl's help. :-) Sheila, you've helped me on editting my pics. I know how to do it now. :-)
Kim

You're welcome Kim!

Sheila and Kim, here's the link:

http://google.picasa.com/

Loookeeee!!!!!!!

Bravo!!! Way to go !!! Congrats.
Kim

Lovely chrysalids halo! WTG!!!

Oh my, I was so excited this morning that I didnt get any pictures. I awoke this morning and stumbled over to get my coffee....I looked up on the ledge and saw 2 MONARCH BUTTERFLIES HANGING IN THAT CONTAINER!!

Well, that made my day, to say the least. They are now outside on a rose bush...fortunately, its wonderfuly warm this morning, just for them.

Yea!!!!! That is great news halo! I miss my bfs, so I have to take joy in yours.

Ditto Sheila, I too cheer you on, halo! Thanks for sharing the good news!
Kim

Congratulations Halo!!!

Neato, way to go halo!