Congratulations on having so many Monarchs...I'm in Chester County, PA and I've planted a lot of milkweed this year, only to see one Monarch butterfly and only one caterpillar. Either they are late getting here or something else is going with them here. I'm waiting and still hopeful though.

Sue
P.S. No matter how you raise them...it's always work...but still enjoyable to see them eclose and fly away.

Here in NE Oklahoma, I'm having the same problem as you are. And it IS a problem to try to keep up with so many caterpillars. And the weird thing is that no one else I know is getting the Monarchs. I feel like you do--all the butterflies are spreading the word. The eggs/caterpillars I don't bring in don't seem to be making it, so I feel compelled to bring them all in. I don't have a stand of common mw, so I drive out into the countryside to look for wild milkweed.

So much frass . . . I started saving it in a bag to see how much. When I had about 2 pounds, I added it to the compost pile. The heat should kill out any bad stuff.

I was also trying to raise other butterflies, but now they are all fending for themselves.

I don't know if there is a better method. You can check out the Paper bag method that I use for large quantities. It at least keeps the leaves fresh and the frass dry. The cats pupate on the sides of the sacks and you can either leave them there to eclose--you'll hear them--or transfer them on snippets of paper to an eclosure container. I taped over a hundred chrysalides to a pop-up hamper two years ago. I covered all four sides.

What I'm trying to do is give away as many of the tiny caterpillars as possible to responsible parties. Come school time, I will have about 2 dozen teachers that attended the Monarch Teachers Network workshop that will be wanting livestock to raise.

It's kind of like living on a farm or ranch. Constantly feeding and mucking out the pens! Keeps one very busy.
Just know you have company and you are greatly benefitting the Monarch population.

Sandy

I am also not seeing any caterpillars survive on the milkweed outside. I'm finding lots and lots of eggs and one or two cats that had just hatched but that is it. Something must be gobbling them up very quickly, which is one reason I feel I am "saving" them.

I go out to get fresh milkweed several times a day and there is always at least a few new eggs on the pieces I bring in. I don't even look at the rest of the plants for eggs, but I am sure there are more.

The weird thing is that I don't even see many monarch butterflies. Usually just one is out there at a time, but I do usually see one every day. I see far more tiger swallowtails and red admirals in the yard even though I don't think I have any host plants for them.

I had not tried the paper bag method, but I may have to soon! They don't mind being in the dark? I have been composting all the frass too, along with any paper towels and newspaper I line the containers with. There sure is a lot of it....I didn't weigh mine though :)

I don't even know for sure how many cats I have at this point. I have about a dozen chrysalids, 15 cats that are almost ready to pupate, and at least 30-40 smaller cats and eggs with more coming every day.

Actually.... I think I may have to get off the computer now to go check on them again! It is amazing how fast they can eat once they get big.

After 17 years of raising Monarchs, for the past probably 5 years I've been using screen tents during the summer. I also started raising tropical milkweed in these tubs. I pull them in, they get eaten, I pull them out and pull another one in.

{{gwi:497907}}

The only new trick I've learned is to hit up all my friends and relatives for plastic lids they no longer have containers for(EVERYONE has some!) so that when a monarch pupates on the lid (annoying little habit), I can take off the lid and tape it to the underside of the styrofoam lid of the cooler until they eclose. Then I can reuse the cintainer with a different lid! I also make everyone eat lots of ice cream in the buckets so I have even more containers. No protests there!

When the pupa hardens, just spritz it with water, wait 10 seconds and the silk will come off easily. I then take a stick pin (ones with the plastic heads so the Monarch adult doesn't tear their wings) and put the stick pin through the silk. I pin the pupa with the stick pin through the silk in those net circular containers (stick pin side out of the container).

Molanic,

I put the paper sacks in a sunlit window, so they do get light through the sack.

Runmede, your method looks great--wish I had a lot of the mesh sided tents. You are definitely set up for large numbers. How do you keep your butterflies from inbreeding?

Sandy

Runmede, that's an impressive setup and a great idea! Makes my tubs look kind of silly :)

It's okay for Monarchs to inbreed to a certain extent (3 generations is as far as I go) same for moths. I don't release all the butterflies at home. I release some at a park 15 minutes away. I don't keep them in the tent for long. They are released. The females don't stay long and the males fight so only one male ends up staying and setting up territory. He doesn't last more than 3 weeks during the summer.

This set up is not simple. You have to make sure the wind doesn't blow it away. Today, I was duck taping some holes in the roof from the storm yesterday. It last only one season for me.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to set up a Screen Tent

The link I posted for the screen tent set up ends up taking you to the end of the page. I've listed a new link below that's better.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link for Screen Tent Set Up

Runmede, that is a pretty sweet setup! I don't think I have the room for a big tent, but I really like those big tubs of milkweed that you can swap out. I may have to come up with a bigger enclosure so I can try tubs like that outside. The enclosure I have now has a curved zippered door and a little threshold that I have to lift the pot over and kind of tip it in at an angle, which is not too easy.

I had tried using my enclosure inside to move the chrysalids to so that when they eclose I can just bring the whole thing outside and release them. The only problem was that it wouldn't fit through the doorway! I had to carry each butterfly outside in my hands. Here is a picture of the enclosure.
{{gwi:497908}}From 2009_08

These enclosures get pretty nasty after being outside for even a short period of time unfortunately. Plus being exposed to the heat means the pots dry out very quickly. Last year I set it up outside without enough bricks in the bottom and the whole thing blew over!

I'm wondering if I should get some smaller versions of this type of enclosure to use inside and have several extra smaller pots of milkweed growing outside that I can rotate inside for each fresh batch of cats. Does anyone do this? How long can a pot of tropical milkweed survive indoors with the lower light?

Right now I am doing the floral foam wrapped in plastic wrap to hold cuttings in clear rubbermaid containers. Living plants are a lot easier than doing cuttings. It is hard to gauge how much they are going to eat before the next cleaning. Last week I found myself outside at midnight during a thunderstorm getting more milkweed :) Oh well, the neighbors already know I am a nutball after seeing me moving around my 200 milk jugs in the snow for my wintersowing!

I use those same containers on my porch, but I put up a market umbrella (this one doesn't tip with the wind). I actually have two umbrellas, one small and one very large. The plants get enough sun. I have a very small hand broom and dust pan. I sweep up the frass and toss it somewhere else. You can also put newspaper in the bottom, that helps keep the frass dry and then you can replace the newspaper as needed.

Tell me more about the 200 milk jugs and winter sowing. Sounds like fun. What did you plant?

Runmede, it sounds like you have quite a nice large butterfly setup. I do wish I had some kind of porch or protected area, because that seems like the best of both worlds.

For anyone here on the butterfly forum that hasn't tried winter sowing, I HIGHLY recommend it. It is a great way to get tons of new host plants and flowers for nectar for your butterflies. I have done annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, and most of my veggies this way. It lets me try new varieties you don't see in the stores. Once you realize how easy it is you become a seed addict and collect seed from everything. Then you use your collected seed to trade in the big seed swaps so you can grow even more things without ever having to buy seeds or plants. Most of those 200 containers I started were not duplicates, so that is way too many things to list. There were a few new things I started this year that I was really excited about though: pearly everlasting, wild senna, partridge pea, little bluestem, side oats gramma, prairie smoke, royal catchfly, flowering quince, sweet shrub... plus many different varieties of coreopsis, salvia, agastache, sedum, dianthus, and penstemons.

Here are some links for anyone who hasn't tried it yet:

Winter Sowing FAQ

Winter Sowing Forum

WinterSown.org Website