Monarchs!!! Please help this first time attempt!

I just bought two butterfly weed bushes (asclepias). I was so excited to see this new friend in the garden today. I see several tiny ones, but this full sized one really was a surprise. My question: I see tiny bright yellow little mite looking bugs. They are moving & appear to have little legs. I was hoping they were larve. I am not even sure of the terminology. There are all kinds of other little bugs too. Do I just let nature keep its order, or should I cover them somehow to keep the birds away? What kind of leaves will the monarch caterpillars eat?

Monarch caterpillar! Whoo Hoo! The yellow bugs are probably aphids. You can blow them off the plant with a direct shot from your hose. Just be sure you take the cats off first and then return them to the plant. Don't use pesticides as it will also kill the caterpillars! Good luck!

I read a lot of the sticky thread. I didn't know if these were something good to have. They were covering the plant when I bought them. The owner of the landscape center seemed pretty excited about them. The caterpillars that I have seen are less than a half inch long. i am afraid I will miss them if I try to get them off. They are tiny. I didn't know about cages etc when I bought the bushes. Now I feel like i bit off more than I wanted to chew! Ironically my mother just bought my girls bug cages....

The quick and easy way to raise cats ...

Just cover the inside bottom of the bug cages with some tissue (for easy clean-up of frass (cat poo), throw in some leaves, and then add cats. You just have to add leaves as the caterpillars run out of food by eating it up. Don't let them go without food at all times. When they are shedding their skin, they will climb to the side or top of the cage and sit quietly until the skin is shed and then will climb down and begin eating again. Also the leaves will wilt and need to be replaced if they are dried and wrinkled. Cats can't eat when they are that dried up. Also do NOT leave cage in the sun. It will fry the cats! Mine are inside so I can observe them! :-)

So I should use the girls cages. Any particular type of leaves? Ugh, I did confirm they were aphids... I will gather all the little cats I can find over the next few days before I hose the bush. Is it normal that there is such a difference in size of the cats at one time?

If the caterpillars are on your milkweed, then they are definitely Monarchs. They will ONLY eat Milkweed leaves. If they are given anything else they will starve and die. Most butterflies have a particular host plant. Meaning that they only eat a particular plant in the caterpillar stage. So take the cats off the plants. Pull off some leaves from your milkweed and rinse the leaves real good under running water, dry, and add them into the cages with the cats. Keep an eye on the cats to make sure they don't run out of leaves. If they do, they will starve and die. Hose the milkweed off to remove the aphids. And if the cats get to be too much trouble to hand-raise, you can put them right back on the milkweed plants and let mother nature do her thing! :-)

Thanks Becky. The plants are small. I hope they can grow as fast as the caterpillars eat! One last question - will the aphids hurt the caterpillars?

No, not usually. You may definitely need more milkweed!

I see a cycle here. If I go buy more milkweed then won't it have more caterpillars on it & then I'll need more milkweed! LOL!

Now you are learning! LOL!

I find myself 'going to buy more milkweed' on a weekly basis. Terichris, get ready for an exciting hobby (and going broke). LOL! Just kidding.

I'm trying to come up with a system of having MW for the BF cage, MW planted in the ground and MW ready to go in the BF cage when the others are devoured. Always allowing some new growing time. So far, nothing is working....they all get munched and I have to go and buy more!

Hey K, didn't you say one time you had no mw and the cats ate the Porterweed? I read somewhere that they will eat other plants but won't have the mw protection from birds that don't like the taste. I think it's the strong will to live, that all living things have, which makes them go to other food plants. I could be wrong, but it makes sense.

Terichris you are hooked now, welcome to the club!! LOL!! One thing that may be helpful is the "sticky" at the top of this Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening forum. There is everything you might want to know about bfs, starting out with the terminology. Here is two links I picked from the thread that have quick ideas on cages for hand raising.

http://home.neb.rr.com/monarchrose/raising.htm
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/747907/

Roxanne - Hmmm ... I have never heard of them eating other plants. Maybe you are thinking of a different cat. I am sure that most just either go into an early chrysalis or die.

So yesterday my children & I were sitting around the screened pool & one let a grasshopper out of the bug cage. My husband started laughing & pointed out that we were sitting in a giant bug cage. It reminded me of the Phoenix Bontanical Garden butterfly exhibit. So I could fill the pool cage with milkweed.......LOL

Yes Fly, they will eat porterweed. During an early cold spell this year, I snipped off all the MW branches and brought the cats inside. Added porterweed to the vase as a filler to keep anyone falling in the water. They started eating the porterweed when the milkweed was running low! It was amazing. I didn't think thy would do that.

K, I thought you had noticed that and it goes against all I've read about Monarch cats, but now we know! At least it's worth a try when you are out of mw.

Teri, fill that pool cage...you'll need it!! Those Monarch cats are little piglets!

Knolan - Hmmm ... very interesting. I will have to check out Monarchs eating Porterweed when there is no MW left. I never heard of that before.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised! I was worried to death. At the time, there were over 20 cats on the MW and it was devoured fast. As the MW was eaten up, the cats moved to the porter weed and they ate it! This was in November of '07. Every single one of the 28 cats I brought in made it . A few even wandered off in my kitchen and I came home to new monarch babes a few times. Those particular ones stayed on me until they were ready to fly. I put sugar juice on my arms and set mashed fruit in the garage. Everything worked like a charm.

It is spring, so my five year old came home with butterfly worksheets from school. I had to laugh. I read the thread about people's cages & I am hoping to have mine "approved" by the folks here before I take it to my daughter's class. I have a clear 2 gallon plastic jar. I drilled about 20 holes in the top and about 10 holes around the sides of the jar. Is this enough circulation? I took a small tupperware container, soaked a florist's oasis & put it in the container, put the lid on it & poked a hole through the lid to put a branch of milkweed in. I put a little dirt & little mulch in the bottom for looks.

I plan on bringing a new branch in every morning. They are supposed to be locating an aquarium type cage this week. I will put some tissue paper on the bottom. If I do the milkweed as a branch do I need to scatter some on the bottom? I am afraid of running out of leaves! Do they need any water?

They do not need water. I would think a branch a day would be plenty if it doesn't completely wilt. Sounds like a great class project! My students love to watch the caterpillars change and turn into a butterfly! Such fun! Good luck!

I'm new to the idea of trying to provide food source for the M. Butterfiles... thanks to the past two days of our garden club plant sale. All it took was for someone to discover milkweed and to say that this was what attracted the M. Butterfiles. Now I just went and ordered 25 plants to set out.

I've been on here for the last 3 hours trying to find how to get started with raising them till they turn into butterfiles and I really need some direction on their life cycle.

I especially enjoyed this very informative thread.

I do have one question about the containers. When you have the cat's (when I first started reading this term cat's, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why ya'll were talking about the four legged animal....rofl) in the container and the lid is on the container, how do they get air??? or do they not need air??? or did I miss that you have air holes in the containers????

are there any books or better yet web sites or other threads on DG that will explain from the beginning how to get started with helping these beautiful creatures?

thanks so much for your assistance.

Welcome to the obsession! First, I'd say check out the sticky thread at the top of the forum. It's chock full of info and links to help you out. Another good idea is to hop into the daily butterflies thread. We all gather there and just chat about what's happening with our butterflies from day to day. It's a good place to ask a question because you tend to get all the experts there in one place.

Caterpillars do breathe through spiracles (little holes) on the side of their bodies. I've kept many a cat(erpillar) in Gladware with no air holes and they were fine. Granted, I do tend to open the lid a lot to look at them. Still, when I'm gone to work or asleep the lid isn't opened so they must be ok. I prefer Critter Keepers (plastic tanks they sell at pet stores to keep crickets in, etc.) for my larger cats. I still have to put cheesecloth on the top so they don't squeeze between the slits. Everyone really has come up with their own system.

Welcome to the club and don't be afraid to ask us anything!

Melanie

I had great luck with my 2 gallon plastic jug that pretzels came in. A beautiful monarch emerged for my daughters preschool class! Since then we have had 6 cats mature. It has been so much fun!!! We did this with 3 milkweed bushes. One is planted next to a huge split leaf philodendrum which the cats seem to love for its shade. I did read somewhere that you can freeze the leaves for feeding later! I think that is brilliant!

What a nice group of people on this forum!
Thanks!

terichris - Congrats on the classroom Monarchs! Yes, I put my leaves in the refridgerator, too! Works great!!! And I have to agree with you ... a wonderful group of folks here! :-)

Last night I counted 7 cats. The plants can't recover fast enough with new leaves. Mother nature has such an odd sense of humor!

I just received my 20 milweed plants this week. Going out today to plant them.

I'm so excited about maybe seeing some. Husband is shaking his head and telling me no bugs/worms, and especially worms that do what this one does are coming in the house. Guess I just have to sneak them in....LOL

thanks everyone for being so helpful with sharing your experiences.

Is he scared of cute little cats???? Then in less than two weeks they turn in to the miracle of a butterfly!!
This is a Black Swallowtail not a Monarch, but I wanted to show my set up, very easy and clean. The wet floral foam is in the bottom of a pudding cup and wrapped with Glad press n seal. I take a toothpick and poke a hole and put a leaf or stem in. Oh, and I cut the top to where it is only a rim 3/4 inch or so and put a piece of tiny weave fabric in the opening so air comes through.


This message was edited May 25, 2008 6:07 AM

Now what do I do??? This has gotten bad! I now am on my 10th plant. Currently I have 16 cats crawling around. I found one floating in the center of a bromeliad & I almost cried. I have been running around buying new plants & still don't have enough to support the cats I have. My husband told me to stay inside tomorrow. I know I am going to need more plants by morning. Do you give in to Mother Nature? This is our first butterly adventure. What does everyone else do? Help!!!!

If you can't get any more plants, try stems of other plants, they may eat them. Knolan had some cats and ran out of mw and they ate her Porterweed. It's worth a try. Try and take a deep breath, it'll be okay, you're doing the best you can.

The other day I went out to check on them & they were litterally scattered across the yard. All of the plants were bare & we had to make an emergency run to Target. Today some were even eating the flowers. If they run out of leaves will they go into chrysalis early or just die?

Your larger one were headed to make their chrysalis I am sure. This won't immediately help, but next time when you clip the stems of the milkweed to feed them, save them in water afterward, they will root quickly and you have another plant. Plus clipping or pinching will help make a bushier plant.
Look on the bright side, if there aren't leaves, the female Monarchs won't lay anymore eggs on them right now, and they will have a chance to regrow. I have been spotting areas of antelope MW that I may have to get leaves from this year when our Monarchs come through. But hopefully I can keep a good batch of MW and won't have to.
Good Luck, and just think of those you did help out.

Many times the cats will eat the stems as well. When I prune my Milkweed, I take the cuttings and just stick them in the dirt. Most will root and become a new plant! :-)

I did stick the cuttings in the dirt with some rooting powder. Next year will be better because the plants will be fuller. This year they were each just 3-4 branches. i transplanted two to a neighbors plant...

Hope the neighbor is aware that they will eat the plant and doesn't spray!! LOL!

OK, we finally have reached a balance with cats & milkweed!!! I have new leaves coming out on the first milkweeds and all seems to be calming down! Today I found a monarch butterfly down in a bromeliad cup of water. I assumed it was dead & sadly pulled it out. It was alive, but there was damage to one wing. About the size of 2/3 of a dime. The color is also not super vibrant. I put it on a milkweed flower. It is still there an hour and a half later. It does seem to be dried out now after being in the water and has moved about 6 inches. I didn't see it eating from the flowers. My question can they fly with some wing damage? Please don't tell me I should put it out of its misery.....

Well, the monarch was female. She was around for another hour and then she was gone. I was working in the yard & I was trying to watch for birds. I don't know what happened, but she is gone.