qebo’s 2014 garden (2)

I’ve been neglecting my garden thread, representative of real life... Plodding along at the community garden, mostly weeding and waiting. Not doing even that in my back yard; it’s a jungle, and some sections need to be reconfigured to be more manageable. I spent two hours weeding this morning, but in the afternoon sun there are too many bees and wasps; this is a good thing, but awkward for maintenance.

At the community garden, I have achieved a pepper and a squash, with more on the way.



The dill and parsley have flowers but no caterpillars yet.


The sunflowers have been uncaged.


I had lots of swamp milkweed volunteers in my back yard so I put them along the fence at the community garden, announced that I had done so after the fact, and nobody has objected.

Here you are! :)

>2 fuzzi: Yeah, the snow at the top of the previous thread was getting obsolete.

I went over to the community garden this morning to forage for the food bank, discovered more squash and peppers.

Groundhog outside the community garden a couple weeks ago.

Hummingbird perched on a bean tower in my back yard today.

Butterfly #6
Wild Indigo Duskywing (Erynnis baptisiae)
False Indigo (Baptisia australis)
20 July 2014



Suboptimal but the best I could manage; it wouldn’t stay put. It was laying eggs, which has happened in previous years too, but I’ve never seen caterpillars.

I love the hummingbird picture. :)

I've only seen one butterfly (other than the cabbage white) in my own garden this summer. I have the same plants as last year. Weird. I've given up butterfly watching and turned to birdwatching instead. There's more action.

Watch out for that groundhog! We had one in our community garden a few years ago, and it ate all my soybean plants down to stubs. Great picture, though!

>9 tardis: The fence is supposed to protect us. Alas, it was constructed in haste by amateurs.

>10 qebo: yeah, we have a fence, too. 3 feet high, chain link, professionally installed. I think it squeezed under a gate. Also, they dig. It made a cozy home under one of our compost bins. We flushed it out with a hose, filled in the burrow, and he hasn't been back, as far as I can tell.

>11 tardis: Our fence has one piece curved into a 2'-3' trench to prevent diggers, another piece 6' above ground and bent at the top to prevent climbers, tied together at the seam near the ground with wire. The holes are big enough for rabbits to slip through, and we're overrun (plus nests of babies) with no consensus on what to do (opinions range from save them to shoot them; in reality someone occasionally catches a rabbit in a humane trap and frees it outside the fence where it can promptly come through again). Lots of groundhogs in the field outside the fence, and the garden is attractive and they are enterprising, so occasionally one gets in.

>6 qebo: I love the hummingbird picture, woo!

>8 SqueakyChu: It's been a sparse year here for butterflies, too. The only ones I've seen have been in the front yard at church.

But at home, nada butterflies. :( So, instead...I've photographed what I have most right now: dragonflies!

If any of you are on Facebook, I'll share my pics with you. Due to privacy settings on my account, I can't post them here. :(

Butterfly #7
Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma)
Echinacea
24 July 2014



I have a host, Hops (Humulus lupulus), but it's at the other end of the yard. I haven’t seen any caterpillars, but I haven’t looked all that closely either.

Butterfly #8
Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)
Dill
27 July 2014



Blurry because it was in frenzied egg laying mode. So I'll get caterpillars soon. Which is fun, but sadly none of the chrysalides from last year survived; several got through the winter apparently intact, but no butterflies emerged.

Love seeing your butterflies.

I thought of you this weekend. In one of our backyard plots we planted a bunch of zinnias, and nearby we have cosmos. We're seeing lots & lots of butterflies. I haven't tried to identify them; I'm too busy marveling at how many there are compared to previous years. Definitely planting zinnias next year.

>17 lauralkeet: Hmm, helpful to know. I have some zinnias in pots on the deck, but not mixed in with other plants.

I have daisies, Coreopsis, Day lilies, Canna lilies, Lantana, Pentas, Marigolds, and Vincas all in bloom, but no butterflies. :(

Butterfly #9
Monarch (Danaus plexippus)
Milkweed
1 August 2014



Abysmal photos, but I was on a conference call and pacing around the 2nd floor when I noticed a MONARCH!!! in my yard flitting around on the butterfly weed and milkweed, so I grabbed a camera and took photos through a screen from a distance while holding a phone to my ear and trying to sort of pay attention to the conversation. I can't even tell whether it's male or female from these photos. I went outside to check for eggs, didn't find any.

Today, definitely female, laying eggs. :-)

Nice!

Wow! So many monarchs. I've not seen one this year...and my swamp milks=weed and Joe Pye Weed are in full bloom. :(

>23 SqueakyChu: Only two. Or maybe only one; yesterday's may have been the same as the day before's. I've found two eggs so far. I'm sure there are more, considering the activity; the monarch was around for maybe a half hour, swooped away then returned several times, bounced all over the yard landing on about every milkweed plant. Now the question is, should I shelter the eggs, and if so how?

I went on an egg hunt this evening, and found... three eggs. I’m quite sure the monarch laid more, but either they’re gone or they’re not at all obvious. I cleaned out a jar I’d been using for a terrarium and added moist paper towels per instructions. Not much else that can be done until the eggs hatch. There are four leaves in the jar, but I have since determined from photographic evidence that the fourth is not an egg. I’ve been hesitant to rescue nature, but based on experience two years ago when I found lots of eggs but only two caterpillars made it to adulthood outside, I think this is worth a try. I hope that I can do better.

http://www.monarchwatch.org/rear/
http://www.mymonarchguide.com/2007/05/raising-caterpillars.html
http://www.mymonarchguide.com/2007/05/tools-of-trade.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Catch-and-Raise-Monarch-Caterpillars
http://www.learnaboutmonarchs.com/learnaboutraisingmonarchs.html

>25 qebo: Oh! I hope this works! It will be so fun to follow.

*takes front seat so she can hear better*

:)

*watching jars*

The fourth monarch sighting in five days this evening, another(?) female, again laying eggs, but even though I could see approximately where she landed several times, I found only one egg. So that's four eggs I'm tending now. I've been checking the other three multiple times per day, but so far nothing discernible is happening. Supposed to be 3-5 days to hatch, so any time now...

I put fresh leaves in the jar last night just in case, and this morning two of the eggs had black dots, which means hatching is imminent. And now with a magnifying glass I can see a tiny caterpillar (maybe 1/32 inch) moving on one leaf. I'd never find it in the wild. I tried to take photos w/o success; can't see what I'm doing well enough, and I'm afraid of inadvertently damaging the caterpillars and eggs.

That is so amazing!

I think it's eating its egg. Sometimes it's curled up, sometimes stretched out, a tiny white dash with a black spot at one end. I think the second egg may have hatched, but I can't tell for sure and I don't want to move the leaf for a better viewing angle. The third egg looks hollow now but I don't see a caterpillar. The fourth egg is newer so it'll be a couple days.

Yay!!

Don't yay too soon. Now I don't see any of the three.

Oh man! This is like reading a major drama!

There are two caterpillars! And they’re BIG! About 1/8”. Here’s one, as is (in bowls temporarily for ease of access) and zoomed in. It’s on yesterday’s leaf, which you can see is chewed up, also drying out. The internet sez fresh leaves every day because that’s their source of water. The third... the egg is hollow and detached from the leaf, I didn’t see the black dot yesterday, and I don’t see a caterpillar today, so I’m assuming it’s a goner but I’m letting it be for a bit.

Adorable! :)

Seems the reason I didn't see them last night is they'd both crawled under their leaves, and I was keeping hands off because I didn't want to hurt them.

Butterfly #10
Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)
Violets
6 August 2014



The host plant is asters, which I still have in my side strip but not in the back yard. I had a patch of asters in the circle, but half of them turned brown early in the season, and the other half were curling and yellowing, and I needed room for more vigorous plants.

Butterfly #11
Red-Banded Hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops)
Milkweed
6 August 2014



The host plant is... “rotting leaves”. Hmm, I probably have some.

Also saw another(?) monarch yesterday, female I'm pretty sure but I was supposed to be working so I didn't stay to watch.

There was an article in the Washington Post about whether or not there are fewer butterflies this year, and I read it thinking of you. Unfortunately, it did not turn out to be a very good article, imo. Two quotes from butterfly experts and then many many paragraphs about how the author felt about butterflies when he was a kid. I'll still see if I can find it online for you.

>42 norabelle414: Oh, I think I saw that, flit through as a Facebook link. I was thinking to post the link here, but then the article didn't say much.

Another monarch in the yard today, just now, I detoured outside for a few minutes before a conference call, and it landed about three feet away from me, but it's male.

This evening I found another monarch egg in the yard, on a stray 6" high common milkweed. Then I went over to the community garden to tend the milkweed I'd planted, and found a 1/4" caterpillar.

No caterpillar drama this morning. The two smaller caterpillars grew somewhat overnight. The larger caterpillar maybe too, but not so obvious. I cut away most of the old leaves, and loosely sandwiched the remaining bit between two fresh leaves so the caterpillars can crawl off easily but remain hidden, which they seem to prefer. The eggs are just sitting there, no black spots yet.

Butterfly #12
Eastern Tailed Blue (Cupido comyntas)
Violets
6 August 2014

Following closely...

The small caterpillars are closing in on 1/4”. The larger caterpillar is about 3/8”. One of the other eggs has hatched, but I can’t see what’s there so I’m letting it be for the day.

One small caterpillar transferred to its new daily home. This one sits on its cut piece for awhile. The other one crawls onto a new leaf immediately.


Babies eat and poop. The jar (which contains only one caterpillar) before cleanup.


The larger caterpillar. Zoomed in, you can see that it’s growing horns.

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing these pictures.

7th monarch sighting in 9 days. Another female. All over the yard, on both milkweed and butterfly weed. I'll go on an egg hunt in awhile.

I don't know whether this is random luck or an encouraging indicator. I have less milkweed in my yard than last year; the swamp milkweed isn't as bushy. and I removed most of the common milkweed weeks ago because it hadn't done much flower-wise and flopped on the ground after a storm. Last year I saw a few monarchs, but I never saw a female laying eggs, though I was actively watching.

A search yielded 3 eggs and 1 caterpillar. All of the eggs were on small milkweeds, 6"-12" high. I don't know whether this says more about the monarch's choices or my search skills.

As of this morning...

The three small caterpillars are about 1/4”.

The caterpillar on the common milkweed hatched overnight, and is about 3/32”. I don't know whether it cares about the type of milkweed, but I'm feeding it more common milkweed in case.


The caterpillar from the community garden is about 1/2”.


The egg that seemed to hatch yesterday but became nothing was still nothing this morning, so this makes two casualties of the 10 eggs / caterpillars found.

The three eggs found yesterday remain.

Another day, another monarch, another egg. Again, the butterfly landed on a bunch of plants, but this is all I found.

2 caterpillars hatched overnight, sooner than expected so maybe the eggs had been there for awhile before I found them. This makes the caterpillar count 7, with 2 eggs to go.

Fascinating stuff, Katherine.

Is the plan to nurture them through the chrysalis stage until they turn into butterflies?

>55 streamsong: Yeah. I'm afraid to put them outside where they'll be far more vulnerable; they're little things, and my yard is quite buggy. Something like 1 in 100 make it from egg to butterfly in nature. I need to get a bigger container and set up a structure for pupating. I have most of them in shallow bowls now; they're eating, not moving around. It's easy to tell when a butterfly is about to emerge from the chrysalis, the membrane turns clear and orange & black begin to show through the day before, so no problem getting it outside in time. They emerge in daylight because they need to dry their wings in the sunshine.

Speaking of vulnerable... I went over to the community garden this morning to pick produce for the food bank, and noticed a patch of white on my tomatillos, so I looked more closely...

I haven’t posted community garden photos in awhile.

Much of the action for the food bank is from the tomatoes and squash; the plants are not especially attractive, chewed up and wilting, but they are producing.

The peppers also are producing quite nicely.


The eggplants rather less so. This is it, after a winter of nurturing seedlings, and the white one was bought from Lowe’s as a replacement.


The dill & fennel & parsley & anise and such have yet to be occupied by caterpillars.


The usual view from the corner is now obscured by the sunflowers.

>57 qebo: Flickr is giving me a 404 for your pictures. Did you change the protection on them or something?

>59 Lyndatrue: Hmm, I have not knowingly changed anything. Just uploaded as usual. Are you getting the 404 for all photos in this thread?

>57 qebo:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-04_braconid_...

>60 qebo: It was something transitory, I think. I had wanted a closer look at one of the images in >57 qebo:, and then started having the problem on all of them. Flickr can be unstable, now and then (but at least it's getting better again).

Huh. I wasn't even seriously checking, and noticed a monarch egg on top of a butterfly weed leaf. Then found another under a leaf on the same plant.



The monarch hotel. Each of the four white bowls has one caterpillar. The yellow bowl has the two caterpillars that hatched last night. The glass plate has one egg on swamp milkweed and one egg on common milkweed. The red bowl has the two eggs on butterfly weed. The glass jar has the caterpillar from the community garden.

With an abundance of 1' - 4' milkweeds at your disposal, which do you choose?



Figured I may as well bring the entire plant inside.

So I thought if that’s a thing, the tiny new leaves at the tops of small common milkweeds, maybe there are more. Yes indeed. Maybe a monarch was visiting today while I was inside? Or maybe I was previously unobservant.



The revised monarch hotel.

Another monarch, another three eggs. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed now.

A black swallowtail laying eggs on the dill reminded me that I hadn’t checked in awhile. I found two caterpillars, no eggs. (Click through to see; the caterpillars are near the centers of the photos.)

Improved search technique. I’ve been relying too much on holding a mirror under the plant, and I miss the little white dots in poor light and reflections. Based on the recently found eggs, I searched near the tops of stems where new leaves are forming. Result: 13 more eggs.

You may be wondering whether I took today off work. :-) And, well, partially, unintentionally. Mondays are always interrupted with conference calls, and I've had trouble concentrating in between. So I'll call it a half day, and I've organized tasks for tomorrow.

>66 qebo:

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed now.

You alone can save the monarch population. LOL!

This evening I searched again, a bit lower on the milkweed than before, and found five more eggs. So the count is now 7 caterpillars, 29 eggs.

The three largest caterpillars: the one from the community garden, and the first two to hatch from my yard. I put them all in the jar.



Another iteration of the monarch hotel.

>70 SqueakyChu: Fortunately for my sanity, tomorrow is supposed to be rainy.

Another community gardener & family found a bunch of monarch eggs in a meadow and are raising them. She mentioned this to me maybe two weeks ago, because of the milkweed I’d planted. At that point her caterpillars were a few days old. Her house is on my running route, and when I passed by this evening she was on the porch reading, so I asked about the caterpillars and she showed me the setup. Most of her caterpillars are chrysalides now. She’d given them twigs to climb and pupate on, but they ignored the twigs and climbed the sides of the containers, a mesh butterfly tube and an aquarium. They attached to the plastic top of the tube, and to the screen top of the aquarium. She put a cardboard box on its side in the aquarium and one attached there. She’d been worried that she didn’t know how to take care of them properly, but they were fine, they figured out what to do.

At least you have a companion in your adventure. What fun!

I have a neighbor with a milkweed patch too. I haven't seen her in a couple of weeks, since before I began seeing monarchs, need to ask whether they've been getting over there too.

Good heavens! Your Monarch Hotel will be overrun soon!

As of this morning, nobody else has hatched. And it's raining as promised so I get a respite.

The community garden is in a field where I'm told there's a patch of milkweed, so that's a leaf supply.

Another community gardener cc'd me on email to a local woman who raises butterflies, has 100s of monarch eggs and caterpillars (on a 3/4 acre property). She keeps them on the plant, inside a mesh sleeve to protect from predators. I asked for more information and she'll send me a photo of the setup. I'll give this a try.

The mesh sleeve idea sounds workable (and less work for you! :)

Being a monarch nanny is hard work!

>78 norabelle414: It is! Especially since I haven't been through the full cycle and don't have a system.

Another caterpillar hatched this evening. So that's 8 caterpillars, 28 eggs. The largest caterpillar is about 1" long and I'd guess about a week old (this is the one I found at the community garden). I went to the pet store and got a few plastic critter containers (advantage over jars is ease of access), will rearrange the growing babies tomorrow.

This morning, the newly hatched caterpillar was gone, and so was another egg. So now it's 7 caterpillars and 27 eggs.

Another monarch sighting in the yard this afternoon, but I'm afraid to look for eggs.

I'm afraid to look for eggs.

I can understand that. LOL!

This morning: 5 more caterpillars, 2 probable goners, 1 more egg (I wasn’t actively looking, but it happened to be on one of the leaves I picked for feeding). So the count is now 12 caterpillars, 21 eggs.

Milkweed salad.


The 3 largest caterpillars.


The next 4 caterpillars.


1 caterpillar (middle), 2 eggs w/ hatching imminent.


1 caterpillar (right), 2 eggs.


1 caterpillar (left), 1 egg.


The hotel.

At least the birds I have in my yard raise their own young! ...while they probably try to feed your caterpillars to their own young.

Anyway, "my" feral cats try to eat "my" birds.

Such is nature...

*sigh*

You're doing a marvelous job. I have not yet seen even one monarch butterfly in my garden this year. I keep looking, though.

>83 SqueakyChu: Yeah, monarch moms abandon their babies to fate.

Mid morning check: 3 more caterpillars, including the one on the potted milkweed. Today will be busy, as expected considering that I found most of the eggs a few days ago.

I don't see some of the others that had hatched earlier; they're practically invisible without a magnifying glass, and they crawl under leaves, and I'm afraid my clumsy fingers will hurt them, so I just wait...

Monarch status: 28 caterpillars, 5 eggs.

This morning I found a few wanderers, who had hatched overnight and I guess didn't care for the leaves on offer so they were seeking alternatives. I hope all set now with fresh leaves.

The largest caterpillar is about 1-1/2" and eating at a rapid pace.

My count:
0 monarch eggs, 0 monarch caterpillars.

;)

Keep it up, Katherine. You're doing a terrific job!

Amazingly, everyone is accounted for this morning. One more hatched overnight. I should check leaves before I pick them for feeding, because I was completely minding my own business this morning and happened to collect five more eggs. So the count now is 29 caterpillars, 9 eggs.

Yesterday’s wanderers; they’d hatched overnight and were looking for something better. They’ve been fine since I supplied fresh leaves.


The caterpillar on the tiny milkweed hatched on August 14. The first photo was taken as it was eating its egg; the caterpillar is on the middle leaf. The second photo was taken this morning; the caterpillar is between the two middle leaves.


Too many to keep track of in my head, so now I’m labeling.


Yesterday’s batch of 12 in a jar. I’ll split them up when they’re older.


The two largest. One from the community garden that’s probably a couple days older than any from my yard. One from my yard that hatched on August 7. The other from August 7 is smaller, so I put it in with a bunch of others from miscellaneous days.


The hotel today. The two small jars each hold a large caterpillar, I’m supposing on the verge of pupation. Coffee filters apparently are a preferred surface for pupation.


I have ordered mesh for sleeves. I’d like to get some of these caterpillars outside. However, they are vulnerable as is. For example, I found a half dozen eggs without actively looking a few days ago, and when I checked the next day, most of them were gone. I don’t know at what size the caterpillars become less vulnerable.
http://store.skeeta.biz/fabric-mesh/mosquito-netting/mosquito-netting---66-wide-...

Caterpillar care is occupying about 45 minutes each morning now. I hope I don’t run out of milkweed.

One little caterpillar went missing; it’s one of the batch of 12 that hatched on August 15. I went over the leaves with a magnifying glass. So, the caterpillar count is 28. The egg count is officially 12, I keep finding them by accident, but I think a couple of these are goners.

The big excitement is that the oldest caterpillar has achieved a J! This is the community garden caterpillar, which I’d separated from the others. I gave it twigs to climb on and a coffee filter lid to hang on, but instead it chose the side of the jar. The community gardener who raised a bunch of caterpillars had them in an aquarium, and despite twigs and a cardboard box and a lid, a couple of them chose the vertical walls.



And maybe this is another J. These are the two caterpillars who hatched on August 6. The one in the background is eating. The one in the foreground was in a jar too, but settled on this twig overnight, not hanging but not moving either.

J2 was just practicing, is now eating.

I was wondering why your thread was so quiet and then discovered that somehow I didn't make the leap to thread 2. Our butterflies, so far, have been scantier than last year, and our season should be just getting going as we are probably 3-4 weeks closer to cold weather than you! It has been such a cool summer, however, although I don't know if that makes any difference at all. Don't really see how it could.

Go, J1!!!!!

2:15pm: J has straighted out with twitching antennae. I thought transformation might be imminent, so I was checking frequently, every 20-30 minutes.


3:55pm: But not frequently enough. Sometime after 3:15pm, this happened. Looks kind of distorted.


4:55pm: Looks OK now. I’ll clean out the jar in awhile; hesitant to disturb it.


The August 6 brood is next... They’re both alternately wandering around and eating.

I'm worried that I'm messing with the migration mechanism. They claim that caterpillars raised indoors still migrate, but this seems based on sparse evidence. What sets them off is mostly light, but partly temperature fluctuation. So I put several containers out on the back porch. I need a better system. I did not intend to have so many caterpillars, perhaps should've just let nature take its course, but now I feel responsible.

http://www.butterflybreeders.org/public/expertanswers.html
http://www.monarchlab.org/Lab/Research/Topics/Migration/WhenToLeave.aspx

All 28 caterpillars accounted for. I think 9 viable eggs. The practicing J2 of yesterday is fully J today, attached to the top of the critter cage.

Go J2!!

I think J2 can't help but go. I have another caterpillar in the same cage, had to remove the lid and carefully set it so J2 remained hanging without too much wobbling, and wondered what J2 was thinking, trapped in place but still conscious, presumably.

J2 has not yet transformed. The other caterpillar that hatched the same day has gotten quite interested in the top of the cardboard box, which would be more convenient for me.

J2 is now a chrysalis. Happened in the last hour or so. Of course I missed it. Hopefully with 27 caterpillars to go, I'll get photographs.

I expect J3 to occur by tomorrow morning.

Go J3!!

:)

J3 has just appeared. It was a horizontal curl earlier this morning, just dropped down. It's in the cardboard box, easily visible, so I have moved it to my office where I can watch. 4 caterpillars hatched overnight but I found only 3. So: chrysalides: 2, Js: 1, caterpillars: 29, eggs: 5.

Grrr, another caterpillar, I'm pretty sure the one I found in my yard on August 9, has settled at the top of another bin. I was hoping to do a bit of reorganization this evening in anticipation that it would be next. Well, I'll still do the reorganization; after it are many others... I ordered fabric for sleeves, and it has been shipped. I hope to have nearly everybody settled as a chrysalis before the DC meetup, with the remainders protected on milkweed plants. They need fresh leaves, can't leave them unattended for a weekend.

>101 qebo: You should bring them with you.

>102 norabelle414: Then Madeline would have to feed them. :-)

And now there's another monarch laying eggs in my yard. Sigh.

>103 qebo:

In between feeding my birds and cats?! LOL!

J3 is transformed. Of course this happened while I was out for a walk. I returned to a chrysalis with a clump of skin still attached. I tried to take a photo, but the light isn't good enough.

So the baton passes to not-yet-J4.

Go J4!! :)

>104 qebo: The word went out: free Monarch nanny services!!

J4 is on its way.

1 caterpillar missing. 0 eggs hatched overnight. Status otherwise the same except bigger. I should've taken a photo of the holey leaves this morning.

Outdoor setup partially in place. I cleared off the back porch yesterday evening, set the containers in the shadiest section. I have an idea for hanging the chrysalides.

>109 qebo:

I have an idea for hanging the chrysalides.

In a live butterfly display I saw in Wheaton, Maryland, all of the chrysalides were hung from shelves of a cabinet with a clear door (about the size of a large medicine cabinet). The door was kept closed so viewers could see the changes without being able to touch the insects. Each day, the live butterflies were released. I imagine that Plexiglas would be a suitable alternative to glass.

Go, J4! Go!!

>110 SqueakyChu: My idea doesn't involve carpentry. Though it's in a similar spirit. I have a primitive setup on my back porch for hanging tools, so I'm thinking of coopting it for monarchs.

Oh, and J4 turned into a chrysalis mid morning.

So one chrysalis is on cardboard, on is on a glass jar, two are on plastic critter container lids. The cardboard one can stay. The others can't. I watched a video about how to detach a chrysalis.

I may get a day or two off from Js...

Hooray for J4!!

>112 SqueakyChu: Now I have an experimental container for the largest caterpillar, which hatched on August 10 and I expect to go into pre-J activities within a day or two.

What's the experimental container?

>114 SqueakyChu: Patience... photos when as I get things more organized... :-)

I checked various monarch sites to see how to detach and hang a chrysalis. Advice is: detach by moistening the silk pad with a Q-tip and peeling off with tweezers, hang with dental floss tied around the cremaster (which hooks the chrysalis to the silk). This looked fraught with peril, but turned out to be easy. Or so I think. We’ll see. A couple years ago I found a chrysalis among leaf debris on the ground, tied it to a stick, carried it around to several locations, and the butterfly that emerged seemed fine.

Lid propped up so I can get at it from underneath.


This is J1.


The silk pad loosened.


Garden stakes tied onto the nails that were holding tools.


Dental floss tied around garden stakes, with both it and the strand of silk taped, labeled with # and date of chrysalis formation. This gives the butterflies two levels of shelf, the stakes and the securing 2x4s) to hang onto as their wings dry. The two monarchs I've watched emerge were both enterprising about finding comfortable locations.


The new and improved monarch hotel. This isn’t everyone. The eggs and newest caterpillars are still inside. Now that I've removed the chrysalides, I have more containers available.
The chair and table (and yard debris bags) are partially to provide shade and partially to obscure the view from the street.


The experiment. I was at an the not-very-familiar grocery store near OfficeMax (computer monitor died) yesterday, and happened upon canning jars. Hmm... because they have removable lids. So I’ve replaced the lid with a coffee filter, which the internet sez is a preferred surface. The jar seems awfully small, and this concerns me, but really the caterpillars barely move unless they need to find a fresh leaf. So not-yet-J5 is the guinea pig. If J-ing looks to be a problem, then I'll move it.

What an amazing set-up.

Go J5!!

I'm relieved to have the chrysalides outside where I don't have to tend them. They may be vulnerable, but they'll be sheltered on the porch, and they have appropriate light and temperature for migration triggers (during what phase does the trigger occur: egg? caterpillar? chrysalis? I don't know). If the August 14 (8 caterpillars) and August 15 (10 caterpillars) batches mature in the same time frame as J1-4, they'll be hanging on the porch August 26-28 and I can travel to DC with a clear conscience.

I found a 1/8" caterpillar on a milkweed as I was picking leaves this morning, and I let it be. Alas, precedent suggests that it won't be there tomorrow.

I can travel to DC with a clear conscience.

Phew! :)

Pre-J5 remains pre, ate a lot overnight, is now settled on a twig looking upward. The three that are a day or two behind ate ALL of their leaves overnight, not a trace remained, which is alarming because I cleaned and refreshed the leaves yesterday evening; they're now munching away on breakfast, and I added a few more leaves for lunch, so I hope I didn't damage them. I'm not kidding that I may run out of milkweed; I have three mature milkweed plants that are well past their prime, leaves turning brown, aphids multiplying, so I'm relying on younger smaller plants. Fortunately the fabric for sleeves arrived yesterday, and I have extra milkweed in the community garden. Everybody was accounted for this morning, and nobody else had hatched, so that's 4 chrysalides, 28 caterpillars, 3 eggs. Everybody except the eggs is outside now. I haven't collected any eggs by accident in several days, so maybe the frenzy has subsided.

Another monarch in my yard laying eggs at this very moment. I. am. not. checking. I need to be sure I can do right by the ones I already have. Nature is cruel.

Katherine, I think you've done your part many times over in helping the monarchs already.

C'mon, J5. Let's go!!

J5 was preparing its silk pad earlier this evening. These things take time.

Just making sure that things are moving along... :)

Thanks for the fascinating reports and photos. I only see the rare Monarch here in Montana.

I had to google how many eggs a Monarch lays. One site said that although there is no way to tell with wild butterflies, captive females average over 200 eggs over the course of several weeks and that one captive female laid over 1200(!) eggs. That's a huge percentage that don't make it to butterfly-hood. Yours are lucky little beasties, for sure.

>125 streamsong: Yikes. That's a lotta caterpillars. I wonder whether I've had different monarchs laying eggs, or the same one returning repeatedly.

This morning... J5 is now official, hanging on the coffee filter. Everybody else is accounted for. I found one small bonus caterpillar in with a batch of larger others; I assume it was on a leaf I picked yesterday evening and I didn't notice. I also accidentally picked a leaf with an egg this morning. So that's 4 chrysalides, 1 J, 28 caterpillars, 4 eggs. I moved pre-Js 6, 7, 8 into separate containers; they'll be on their way over the weekend.

J5 is now C5. The freaky hanging head? That's the sloughed off skin with antennae, apparently sticking to a strand of silk. This is how to tell when the transformation is about to occur: early J has horizontal antennae, which gradually droop.



And now pre-J6 is at the top of its jar, pre-J7 is on a stick looking upward, pre-J8 (hatched a day later) is still eating.

Butterfly #13
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)
Joe Pye
22 August 2014

Go J6, J7, J8!!

J6 is in place. pre-J8 is still eating, pre-J7 ... weird, troubling... curled up at the bottom of the jar, pre-J shape but not hanging; I don't know what to do so I let it be. It's chilly this morning, caterpillars are even more sluggish than usual.

J8, go see what wrong with your brother (sister?) J7!

>131 SqueakyChu: Well, I'm still not sure what's up. I was away all day and when I returned, J6 was still J, is taking longer than the others to become C, and somebody else is at the top of the jar, and there should be a third that I can't see without disturbing the others. I should've kept them in separate jars but the small jars are more difficult to get at, and I thought they were in sync. Anyway, enough fresh leaves are in there so I can wait until morning. Caterpillar activity has been minimal on this cool and rainy day; leaves would typically be all holey by now, but they aren't. I hope everybody's OK. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer and clear.

Have you seen this? http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/140819-monarch-butterfly-way-stat...

>133 MarthaJeanne: Ooh, no, I hadn't. Thanks!

For reference, this is the setup in the National Geographic video:


J6 is now C6. J7 is in place. The other in the same jar? Status still unknown. Everybody else is accounted for. This morning is sunny, and the caterpillars were already more active than yesterday. Should be a couple days before anybody else Js, and then there'll be a mass transformation mid week. A task for today is to figure out what to do with the remaining caterpillars while I'm in DC.

Three eggs that should've hatched by now haven't, and I'm assuming they're goners, though I'm letting them sit for awhile longer. I have two more tiny caterpillars that hatched from eggs accidentally found a couple days ago.

This is what I’m using, per recommendation of the local woman who has 500 monarchs in her yard. The fabric comes in white, ivory, and black. I’m starting with ivory.


I removed the fabric from the package, refolded it, lopped off a 2’ wide length, refolded that into 2’ sections and cut through the edges to make 8 rough 2’ squares. I’ll make some bigger to cover larger portions of milkweed plants, and some smaller for the youngest caterpillars which don’t eat much.


I have a sewing machine, but the fabric is slippery and stretchy, and after considering how to keep it under control, and the annoyance involved in pinning it, I figured it’d be simpler to sew by hand. So I made 1/4”-1/2” stitches with a large needle and string. No practical need for the seam to be perfectly straight, and no compelling aesthetic need either since it will be loosely draped around a plant. I tied a knot at one end, and cleaned up the seam with pinking shears.


I bunched up the unknotted end, wrapped the string around several times and tied it, then turned the sleeve inside out. I figure I'll secure the bottom to the milkweed branch with a plant tie.


Construction took about 5 minutes per sleeve. They should be cleaned after each use and probably aren’t sturdy enough to be run through a washing machine, but they’ll do as an experiment for the remainder of the season.

Now I just need enough milkweed...

Sewing for a caterpillar! I don't even sew for myself any more. You're a real trooper, Katherine.

Go, J6!

>136 SqueakyChu: I removed them from nature, so I'm responsible for their welfare. Also anything I do this year is a useful learning experience for the future.

Fascinating chronology, Katherine!

It's also a great learning experience for me and others as we follow your adventures!

This year I'm spending more time learning about birds than about insects...mostly because of the scarcity of butterflies in my own environment.

So what happened to J7, last seen in a pre-J curl on the floor of the jar? J7 is now C7! Looks like a normal chrysalis except it’s not attached to anything. Which means I can’t hang it with string, because I rely on the silk pad to keep the string from slipping off. I’ve read that super glue will attach it, but I don’t happen to have any, so I set J7 in dish for now. I hung C6 and C8, and left a place for C7.







Monarch status: 8 chrysalides, 27 caterpillars, 4 eggs (1 looks about ready to hatch, 3 I suspect are goners).

Next in line for cheering: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 - the August 14 hatchlings.

I went over to the community garden this morning to forage for the food bank, and also assessed the milkweed. It's less mature than the milkweed in my yard, which at this point is a good thing; the leaves are newer and the aphids are fewer. I think supporting 10 caterpillars while I'm away is feasible, though I'll need to make some larger sleeves.

Go J9, J10, J11, J12, J13, J14, J15, and J16! Phew!!

>142 SqueakyChu: Don't expend too much energy too quickly. They're not J yet; ETA tomorrow. And a day later will be 17-26.

I vote that if they're not "J" yet then they should be called I9, I10, I11, etc.

Go I9, I10, I11, I12, I13, I14, I15, and I16!

:)

I'll cheer the other Is later...

Are you going to set up a webcam for when you're in DC? :D

>144 norabelle414: Hah. I is for instar. :-)

C7 WAS KIDNAPPED!!! Between 10:45 when I returned from the community garden and 12:45 when I stepped onto the back porch while coffee was cooking. Did a squirrel think it was a peanut or an egg? Somebody will be disappointed to discover butterfly goo. I checked around the general vicinity, didn't see an abandoned chrysalis.

>146 SqueakyChu: Oh, I wish I could!

Jose said it was probably a bird who kidnapped C7. Birds know what a chrysalis is. A bird will peck at the chrysalis until it opens, and then they take out what's inside. Jose said he's seen birds do this.

Now you have to build a protective cage!

*sigh*

>149 SqueakyChu: Ew - butterfly goo is edible? So my hanging Cs are vulnerable too. Sigh indeed.

From http://www.beautifulwildlifegarden.com/sleeping-beauties.html ...

" All kinds of critters will eat a chrysalis or cocoon – mice, birds, squirrels, raccoons, insects, etc."

>147 qebo: & >149 SqueakyChu: Murder most foul in the caterpillar crèche!!

I think I'm loving the caterpillar drama just a little too much. It's better than television!

>151 SqueakyChu: Ew. Cream filled snacks. It's the tasty truffle of the animal world.

It's amazing **any** Monarchs survive to be butterflies!

I found C7. I pulled out the bins to clean and refresh leaves, and noticed a bit of reflection; the chrysalis was in a crack behind a box behind a bin. So maybe the neighbor's cat knocked it out of the bowl and it rolled? I dunno. I put it in a closed jar w/ coffee filter lid for now.

>154 streamsong: Yeah, it's something like 1%. Thus the 100s of eggs just to keep the population stable.

Hooray for the found C7!

>157 SqueakyChu: Yeah, though I'm worried about C7; it didn't attach to a silk pad, and now it has been knocked around. I fear the butterfly will have issues.

Trial run of the mesh sleeves. 4 sleeves, 1 caterpillar per. These are the August 19 hatchlings, who will J & C around August 31. They're about 1/2"-5/8" now.

All caterpillars accounted for. The August 14 batch has become sluggish but isn't yet migrating to the top of the bin. The August 15 batch is voracious. There are a couple of oddities, caterpillars that are much smaller than others in the same bin / hatch date, but they're still eating. All of the eggs are goners; some have been doing nothing for far too long, and the one I thought was about to hatch yesterday turned black w/o caterpillar.

Aargh, the August 14 batch got more active during the day, and I've had to supply more leaves. Why won't they just J and be done with it? It's time, and they're BIG.

Another round of cleaning and feeding this evening. Not easy finding decent milkweed now; I'm cutting most leaves and small branches from the few relatively aphid-free plants, but I don't care whether I completely kill the plants because there are sure to be plenty more next year.

I went over to the community garden to check the caterpillars. Can't see them through the mesh, which adds another layer of protection from predators. I untied one sleeve; the caterpillar was fine and about 50% bigger than yesterday.

Aaaaaagh! No Js yet. Some preliminary exploration beyond the milkweed leaves. Now I’m getting worried, because I’m leaving on Friday morning, and they have to be J or C by then, or else they’ll need to be fed.

However... I glanced up and... one of these things is not like the others...





I didn't expect this quite so soon, 10 days. I doubt I'll see the actual emergence, it happens quickly, but I'll see the butterfly hanging around afterward drying its wings, can make sure the setup is OK, adjust if there's any trouble.

Wow! Go, C1!

>165 qebo: I'm close to speechless. Thank you for this gift to the morning.

Beautiful!

Wow! That's totally cool. Best Bon Voyage wishes!

Yay!!!!!

The butterfly is gone. So that's about 2 hours it hung (literally) around.

All 8 of the August 14 caterpillars, and 3 of the 10 August 15 caterpillars have migrated to the top of their bins, so they're going to let me go to DC. :-)

Fantastic and fascinating! Thanks for sharing this.

So so sooooooooo awesome!!!

An abundance of J-ing.

4 of 4 from August 14


4 of 4 from August 14


3 of 5 from August 15 (the 3rd is on the lid)


3 of 5 from August 15


It is quite a relief to be feeding 4 caterpillars instead of 18.

1 from August 16 (no photo).

The remaining caterpillars are:
4 from August 15 (in bin outside)
1 from August 17 (in bin outside)
4 from August 19 (in sleeves at community garden)
1 from August 21 (on plate inside)
2 from August 23 (on plate inside)

The task for tonight is large sleeves for the caterpillars that will J & C while I’m away.

so they're going to let me go to DC.

*breathes sigh of relief*

4 large sleeves (double the size of the others) made for the August 19 batch. Others should be OK in smaller sleeves. The transfer will occur tomorrow evening.

I’m done with caterpillar feeding! Anybody who still needs to be fed this evening goes over to the community garden.

8 of 8 August 14 hatchlings:




8 of 10 August 15 hatchlings:

Are all of these Cs open to the air so the butterflies can then fly away? If so, what keeps them safe from predators?

Thank you so much for sharing the story of these insects' lives. Indeed fascinating!

The general setup is cardboard box inside container w/ lid. Difficult to photograph the container; too much reflection, and I remove the boxes briefly to clean. I'll leave these Cs in the containers while I'm away; it's only a few days, so nothing will happen. When I return, I'll probably hang them with the others. So far, nothing has disturbed the hanging chrysalides, and I think better to have them open so the butterflies don't need tending and are free to fly away when they're ready.

I love your hanging shelf. It looks so professional! I really wish you had a webcam, though, so we could watch the Cs (although they won't be doing anything) together from here! :)

>178 SqueakyChu: I expect some of the hanging Cs will become Bs while I'm away. It'd indeed be fun to watch from afar, though the transformation is so quick what's really needed is a replay of the crucial moments. I thought with 35 caterpillars surely I'd see the J-to-C transition, but I can't watch constantly.

All August 14 hatchlings are C now. One more August 15 hatchling has migrated to the lid; the one that remains was smaller than the others for some time, but has recently caught up in size. August 16 is C now. August 17 is big but still eating.

Oh, and I've been remiss in swallowtail caterpillar hunting. There is one, and it's big.

I'd say to stick to the monarchs for now! :)

The last August 15 hatchling is migrating; I found it between the box and the wall, but within a few minutes it had decided this wasn't a good place to settle, and now it's on the lid.

A black swallowtail caterpillar on the dill.

My caterpillars are cooperating. The August 17 hatchling migrated to the lid about an hour before I had to get over to the community garden, so that's that for all of the caterpillars on the porch.

The four August 19 hatchlings at the community garden seem fine. I gave them larger sleeves to cover more leaves, since they’re likely to go into feeding frenzy mode while I’m away. I transferred the August 23 hatchlings and the caterpillar I’d found in my yard onto milkweed plants with smaller sleeves.



I got super glue and attached C7 to a piece of cardboard and tied it with dental floss; seems sturdy enough, but note that it’s smaller than the others and oddly shaped.



Look what’s happening with C2 and C3. They’ll be out tomorrow morning, but maybe not before I leave.

Oh - this is very cool, I love watching your Monarchs! Many years ago I was lucky enough to be in that part of California where some Monarchs overwinter. The trees covered with butterflies was an amazing sight!

August 14 hatchlings 8/8 C.
August 15 hatchlings 3/10 C, 7/10 J.
August 16 hatchling 1/1 C.
August 17 hatchling 1/1 on lid preparing silk pad.
August 19 hatchlings 4/4 at community garden.
August 21(?) hatchling 1/1 at community garden.
August 23 hatchlings 2/2 at community garden.

Caterpillars 27/27 settled in place. I am out of the caterpillar business, and off to DC.

The two chrysalides of yesterday evening are further along this morning, clear cases with wings showing through, but it's chilly and overcast so I'll probably be gone when the butterflies emerge. No photos of the current status, or rather I do have photos but my computer did an auto-update overnight which messes with its ability to read an SD card, so I have to reboot and I don't have time.

C2 & C3 on Friday morning.



Today.



C2 & C3 are gone, also C4.



The remaining hangers.



All 20 in containers are C as expected; I'll get them out in the open within a few days.

I’ll check the 7 in the community garden later today.

So nice to wake up this morning to immediate coffee; the rule has been that I must clean and feed the caterpillars before I can have coffee, and that’s been a 30-45 minute enterprise for a couple of weeks.

So nice to wake up this morning to immediate coffee;

The reward for all of your diligence!

Hey! I gave up my immediate coffee for two whole days this past weekend. :)

Katherine, I've lost my garden thread, but I put a photo of one of my gulf fritillaries on my book thread.

>189 ronincats: Off to check it out... Your garden thread is here.

Katherine, I'd vote for your thread to be dubbed most interesting on LT. I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying your butterflies.

>191 streamsong: Well it's certainly more interesting than my neglected book thread!

Thanks, Katherine!

Continuing the monarch saga in a new thread...