Raising Monarch Butterflies

[ShokWaveRider]

We found a Monarch caterpillar and decided to make sure it actually matured rather than get eaten by the variety of critters in our garden that tend to do so.

We purchased a dedicated milkweed plant for it. Here are some photos.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Our Brand-new batch of babies:

1st Photo is of 3 freshly hatched eggs, the second is after their first Instar (Moult). Can you spot their cute little antennae?

 

[Montecfo]

Great pics!

 

[finnski1]

Great stuff. Nice of you to care for them.

 

[street]

ShokWaveRider, that is outstanding! The last two falls I have done that same thing. Thanks for sharing!!

 

[HF63]

Nice job and well done!

 

[CDRE]

Beautiful, and thanks for sharing!

 

[Dreamer]

Wow, that is great. Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures.

 

[pacergal]

beautiful

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Our Main Nursery MilkWeed Plant in the Florida Room. Only the best for the Monarchs. 3 juniors are shown on the plant.

 

[street]

I didn't see it or read about it, but I was told that the Monarch numbers were higher return in CA, then in the past years.

It is great that you are doing your part for nature. Thanks for sharing and hope to see a follow-up on those new born.

 

[f35phixer]

https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/swallowtail-butterflies-110898.html

Very Cool, here is link to my Swallowtail adventure this year. It was an epic fail trying to follow them once they moved on to Chrysalis stage. The one I watched climb red maple tree, I have been looking for it now that leaves are gone... No joy

They were still on parsley on Dec 10, the leaf blower wiped them out ;-(

 

[anethum]

In early 2007, my boyfriend & I visited a Monarch butterfly reserve on top of a mountain north of Mexico City. It was an astonishing sight to see. Millions and millions of butterflies cling to branches of 2 species of trees, and as the temperature warms up in the morning, they start to fly. The numbers of Monarchs have supposedly dropped since that time. These aren't the greatest photos, but they give an idea of what the mountaintop meadow looked like:

 

[ShokWaveRider]

These chaps are a lot bigger today.

 

[f35phixer]

interesting that monarchs antenna grow, where swallowtails, have an antenna that they deploy when threatened... i touch one with piece of grass and these orange colored things pop out..

https://outlawgarden.com/2012/05/22/please-dont-tease-the-parsley-worm/

;-)

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Our current Nursery.

 

[6miths]

Nice! Great work!

 

[street]

Outstanding!!! I hope to be able to raise a few this next year again.

 

[swakyaby]

I absolutely love your photographs, OP