I'm seeing Monarchs just about everywhere, from my garden, on my way to the store, on my way to work, fluttering just about everywhere. Granted, it's only one here and there, but still great to see them around. I had quite a few yesterday; 3 on one butterfly blush and I saw 2 on the other side of the yard. I didn't see 5 at the same time and they could have gotten over to the other side quickly, as they normally do. Even my neighbor, who is nature challenged, just asked how butterflies mate. I found this strange, but then realized he saw the back to back flying. He was pretty amazed, and I was thrilled. I currently have my first 6 chrysalids of the year, 3 of which should eclose today (I can't wait to get home!) and the others should follow, and 8 cats in just about all instars. This is a personal record for me, I think the highest count I've had was 12 released in one season, and I'm already at 14, unofficially. With all this mating going on, I could've had so many more, but unfortunately, I'll be going on vacation soon, so any new cats will have to fend for themselves, which is never good. Hopefully they'll be no more casualties, only having 1 monarch issue to date. It didn't eat for 5 days and was euthanized...

Woops, forgot to list my last 5 Monarchs, released between Sept. 14 and 16th. 3 Males and 2 Females. 1 other eclosed, but was sickly - couldn't hold on to the chrysalis or branch, and I found it with mangled wings on the bottom of the container. It was not able to fly, and it was the only one that I had to euthanize. Until next year! :)

Hi Freida! I grew aesclepias incarnata(swamp milkweed) from seed. I wintersowed it and they were just getting started when the monarch momma showed up in my yard and laid her eggs on them. I happened to be out there with my kids when she was laying so I brought the plants onto my screen porch and my family got to watch them grow up.

Tom. I live in Sarasota, Florida. The tagged butterfly was in my garden. Thank you for that link. Very interesting. I saved it to pass on. It seems to confirm what I was told by the woman who responded to my call regarding the tag. The Monarch I found was released by someone in Sarasota. He lives two miles away. It was a male. She provided his address and phone #. The Butterflies are infected with a disease called OE. The University of Georgia and U Florida are running a combined study to see how prevalent it is and how the butterflies are affected. They want people to swab the newly emerged butterfly before releasing and send the swab to them. They want the butterfly tagged so it can be tracked (if possible). But they will get a better idea how prevalent this disease is. Right now they state that 85% of Monarchs in the South are infected. They also want to find out if any of the southern monarchs will head north. They suspect a large number of northern monarchs might be wintering in the southern states rather than migrating all the way to Mexico. Their statistics show that the southern states have warmed over the years moving further north and that the monarchs who would have travelled to Mexico stayed in the US south. She sent a lot of info but it is in power-point and I don't know how to link it here. If you want to email me, I'll be happy to forward the info I received. Jane