Six Chrysalises, 11 big cats in the butterfly house, 6 teeny cats and 5 eggs just popping into little cats.  Today when I was feeding the big cats, I felt something squish a little bit as I moved the milkweed stalk. Aghhhhh! I didn't see one of the caterpillars behind the lattice climbing around and smashed it a little. I thought I killed the caterpillar.  It seems to be ok for now, but it let out a little dark liquid like I have never seen before.  This is this first time I have done something like this and will watch how it develops....if it does. Feeling pretty terrible right now.

I have seen a Monarch flying around in the yard the past couple of days, but no new eggs. I'm thinking maybe it was a male. Hopefully another little lady Monarch will come through here soon.

Just Another Monarch Monday Update

Today we have 11 good-sized caterpillars, some getting ready to spin the silk and get ready to make their chrysalis. This little guy was  bugging another chrysalis.  You can see it through the glass top of the butterfly house in the upper right hand corner.  I had to separate the two by taping a leaf between him and the chrysalis because I have heard of caterpillars really doing damage to a resting chrysalis. 

He seems to be looking around for a place to spin.

Here's two guys out to lunch together, just about meeting nose to nose. 

Now I have 5 chrysalises that will be opening in about 5-7 days,  6 tiny cats about 1/4 inch long, and five eggs ready to pop. That's a far cry from last years count at 282 eggs, cats, and chrysalises.  I'm kind of a little disappointed, but it will be a lot less work this year. Everyone in the area has the same story. 

Raiders of the Lost Monarch

Besides the weather and insecticides that have brought the Monarch numbers down on the charts in the last few years, the Monarch also has it's place in the food chain. There are some birds, mice, several insects, and some parasites that eat monarchs. 

It isn't known much about the insect predators, but the birds have evolved their own ways of handling the toxins in monarchs. The monarch is pretty much protected by the toxins in the food it eats.....it makes them poisonous. 

It stores the poison called cardenolides, that it gets from the plants it eats.  

How potent the monarch is depends on the potency of the plants it ate when it was a caterpillar.

However, there are some birds that still can tolerate the toxins.

My numbers from this year compared to last years have really dwindled. At this time I had 84 eggs, caterpillars and chrysalises. But even though I have only twenty this year so far, I am only behind in the number of chrysalises by 2. Wondering where the ancestors of all those little butterflies are who visited here last year and left all those eggs.

 Still waiting for more.

Just Another Monarch Monday

The Butterflies are slowly finding their way to my butterfly garden.

Today there are 5 Chrysalises in the big butterfly house. They will take about 2 weeks or so to turn into a butterfly

10 little cats getting bigger 

5 eggs waiting to hatch in the nursery. 

Last year at this time on the very same day, I had

1 egg, 57 chrysalises and 25 cats. Quite a difference. Everyone seems to have the same story. 

We Have Two Chrysalises!

Today one of my little cats got loose from the butterfly house. I don't know how, but he was walking on top of it and must have slipped thru the screen somehow. I put him back and no sooner did he start spinning a little web of silk to attach himself to. It was time to make his chrysalis. In the picture below, you can see the caterpillar attached to a little button of silk that he spun.

He then hangs himself in a "J" to prepare himself for the next part of his journey. When his tentacles go limp as in the above picture , his skin splits and he stars to spin the chrysalis molting for the last time. 

You can see the web of silk on the glass in the picture above.

Here is a sped up clip of one of my caterpillars spinning and molting his skin last year. 

Below is an up close picture of the "cremaster" which is the black little stalk that connects the chrysalis to the spun silk pad. It acts like velcro to keep the chrysalis attached.

Two spun their chrysalises today....one on the glass top and one on the lattice. 

 Three cats are left 

getting big and fat and roaming around together,

Climbing and checking out the lattice, possibly thinking about spinning the silk button there.

This one liked the lattice and made itself at home.

There are still 9 in the nursery container all just having popped out of their shell into little tiny caterpillars.  When the frass (poop) appears, you know they are no longer eggs.

My Monarch Kingdom

The little cats are now big cats 

in just about two weeks

 from the time they were brought inside as eggs. They are approaching the 2 inch mark.

Enjoying climbing around the cage 

This caterpillar just molted again.....shedd it's skin. You can see it as a black clump above the caterpillar's head. Each time the cat molts, it begins a new "instar" phase. Its skeleton is on the outside of its body, like clothes. So, as it grows, it can no longer fits in its skin and it molts.

Enjoying eating, this cat is in it's 5th instar. Pretty soon it will be looking for a spot to hang upside down in a "j" and molt for the last time. It will then begin preparing to make the chrysalis.

The nursery has the same number of eggs as yesterday. There were 5 found on July 11th and 4 found on July 10th. All look healthy!

We have one little cat that is behind the other 4 cats in their 5th instar phase. It is in it's third instar developing more color and the two pairs of tentacles are getting longer.

All are doing well!

2016                                                                        2015

Eggs              9                                                     Eggs              7

Caterpillars    5                                                       Caterpillars    40

The Tail of the Wasp

Things are picking up. I didn't see the little lady monarch today, but I found 5 eggs that she left. My count is up to 9 eggs and 5 caterpillars....still quite behind last year, but we are on our way.

It's a real challenge getting the eggs because the milkweed is loaded with honey bees, great black wasps, great golden digger wasps, paper wasps, and bumble bees. The black wasps and golden diggers are the scariest because they are about an inch and a half long. Yikes! However, I found out that they are not supposed to be aggressive. The females are the bigger ones and the ones that sting, but won't bother you unless you disturb their underground nests. Their stinger is actually their apparatus to lay eggs. The males don't lay eggs, they don't sting. The females consume lots of high energy food like the nectar from the milkweed because they seem to do all the work. When the time comes that the flowers turn to seeds, I am hoping I won't have to deal with as many wasps.

I haven't photographed them myself....being a little timid around them because they are pretty big and quite scary looking, but I found some beautiful pictures taken by littlebangtheory.wordpress.com.

The Great Black Wasp

The Great Golden Digger Wasp

I continue to wait until the sun starts going down to hunt for eggs, so I don't have to contend with the huge wasps.

2016                                                                        2015

Eggs              9                                                     Eggs              2

Caterpillars    5                                                       Caterpillars    38