Thank you, Susan! You are so sweet. I'm glad my website is beneficial. The best book I've found is "The Life Cycle of Butterflies". Today, I did a butterfly talk at a local nursery. It was for kids. I put on my camouflage pants, and Monarch Teacher Network Questionmark shirt. I told the kids I was a "butterfly rancher" and "small game hunter". We had fun! I had eggs, just hatched caterpillars, BIG caterpillars, and pupae. And I had 3 just eclosed Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies. Yesterday, a friend's granddaughter brought her 5 Painted Lady butterflies that she raised from a kit to release in the butterfly garden. We also had a good time hunting for eggs and caterpillars. I was honored that she wanted to release her butterfles in my garden. As you can tell, I'm enjoying life minus the stress of selling plants at the market. I'll be in OKC next Thursday. I'm planning on visiting you. I'll call you. I hope to get to your place fairly early--before the heat sets in. I'm meeting cousins for lunch. Sandy

What can I expect if my guys pupated too soon? What kinds of problems will happen? I ask that, because I am wondering why these two fellows seem to be frozen in ready-to-eclose mode. I am assuming they are dead. I am just wondering if this might have been caused by early pupation. I had a mass pupation approx 12 days ago. It was spooky - everyone went at the same time, like a zombie movie. They all had lots of food available at the time they pupated. But they were not the size I would expect for a mature caterpillar to pupate. I have two guys that are just hanging there. We are still in the 10-14 day range. In the past when I have had successful ecloses, they go transparent and the monarch emerges 1-2 days later. These guys turned transparent maybe 4 days ago. I can see the monarch inside. There is absolutely no odor. I thought the Black Death made them smelly. One, however, has a very dry chrysalis. No black dots. Both of them are in isolation. I will give them another day or so, because anecdotally, folks here have said sometimes they will take their time, especially if the weather has been weird. (It has been weird, but they've been inside....) I was just wondering that their apparent demise was the result of their early pupation, rather than a pathology like OE or the Black Death. Regardless of the reason, I am planning to perform the vigorous sterilization that you have recommended.

I think my very first bst had spun it's harness and pupated 2 days later. I agree tdogmom; those babies sure are slow to do everything. I thought it was just me, lol. They seem to be so laid back, especially compared to those always-on-the-run monarch cats. I had just found one bst cat, probably late 3rd instar or early 4th, that was in the same spot & position for a few days, only now he seemed a little browner. Sure enough, he's dead; my first bst casualty (*sniff*sniff*). A little brown runoff down the stem of the parsley. I'm glad I potted up my 2 flats of parsley, 4 cells to a pot, because I just dumped that pot. At least I now have 6 chrysalids and should have one more shortly. I also just got my first green pupa; my other 7 were brown, and they all pupated on screen. It's been a pretty good weekend for my bsts, but I haven't found any new cats in a few weeks :(

There are all kind of options that forum members have used. Some have used thread, some have rested them in various configurations (using sticks, paper towels, etc. to climb up on), using a pin to hold the little bit of silk left, and various glues. I have used glue dots but find that a low temperature glue gun works best. This is a method that a lot of butterfly houses use. If you are glueing dozens of chrysalides it makes it go fast. You just apply the glue to where you want to stick the chrysalis, then let it cool a little, then stick the cremaster in. Experiment a little and see what works for you. Just remember that the chrysalis is very soft and can rupture easily if handled right after pupation. Good luck, Elisabeth