Helping my monarch cats

14 years ago

Since July 4, I have found 8 tiny cats, and neighbor nearby has at least 1. What joy! This is my first time with a butterfly garden and cats. Please advise: what can I do to help the little guys, except letting them feed on my fair-sized asclepias (tuberosa and curassavica)collection? I have been making bridges between smaller plants to larger plants, and try to move them close into the "jungle" of asclepias. They have lots of food and nectar plants. I am hesitant about moving them into a "cage" at this stage - scared I won't get it right. The asclepias available is substantial, and there are sturdy bushes close by, including a limelight hydrangea. Do they have what they need to build a chrysalis on? Would it help to put a ready made metal scroll decorative edge piece near by, perhaps partly protected by the "jungle?" Will they crawl to where they need to go? Also, do I have to change the way I water my garden? Should I use a watering can, or can a hose with a misting setting work? Should I put a protective netting over them (some of the asclepias is in the ground, some is in large pots)? Should I bring the cat into a "cage" when it is much larger and let it form a chysalis there? I want to do all I can to help them survive and join their friends.

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Comments (2)

ericwi
14 years ago
In our yard, located in Madison, Wisconsin, the odds are against a monarch cat living long enough to make a chrysalis, and emerge as an adult butterfly. Maybe one out of 100 eggs that are laid on our milkweed make it all the way. So, for me, the only practical way to keep the cats healthy and safe is to hand rear. I usually collect the eggs, but sometimes I find 2nd instar cats, and bring these inside. Each cat has its own leaf, which sits in a tiny cup of water, inside a glass jar, open at the top. I change the water, and the leaves, as necessary. When the cats get bigger, an inch long or so, the glass jar is transferred to a glass enclosure, with a wire mesh top, and the process continues, until they stop eating, and crawl to the top of the cage, where they hang for a day or so, and finally form the green chrysalis. Monarchs left out in the yard have to contend with ants, that search the milkweed looking for eggs, wasps and bees, that search the milkweed looking for caterpillars to eat, tachinid flies, that lay their eggs on the back of caterpillars, and several microbial pathogens. Hand rearing monarch cats is no guarantee that they will emerge as healthy adults, but it does raise the odds, from 1 in 100 to about 80 in 100.
tdogmom
14 years ago
Well, know in advance that by letting nature take its course, that you run the risk of predation. Wasps are one of the biggest predators 'out in the wild' as are some of the spiders. In my garden, the jumping spiders are the biggies.

Personally? If I wanted the little guys to hopefully, make it to adulthood, then I'd put them into small containers and feed them by hand, to to speak. I have info about this on my various websites (you can check any of them for info on raising butterflies...I am revising my Monarch guide but you can still access it).

As for watering the garden? I don't think it hurts them any. I have hosed off the Oleander Aphids off of my Milkweed without even knowing I had Monarch larvae on the plants and didn't hurt them before.

With regards to where they are going to pupate? Caterpillars are odd...they will pupate where THEY want to. You could put all the goodies you think they will want to pupate on and sure enough, they won't use ANY of your good intentioned items. The goofy things will go and pupate on some odd item or plant or...(I'm notorious for my larvae pupating in weird spots so I know this is definitely the case!). Don't worry about having anything special for them. They're like human children and will do what THEY want regardless of what YOU want. tee-hee!

My Butterfly Guide
tdogmom
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There are so many possible reasons your caterpillars didn't survive, I don't know where to begin. Were their food plants recently bought? They could have had insecticides on or IN them, like systemics that the caterpillars would ingest with the leaves. You'd think people wouldn't use poison on a known host plant for butterflies, but some nurseries do just that, so the leaves will be pretty and the plants will sell better. They could have had a disease, like OE or any of the other things that beset monarchs. The soapy water might have hurt them, I don't know, never having done that. Maybe some of our forum members who are more experienced with monarch caterpillars than I am will be able to help you. Sherry
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Gather those cats up immediately and keep them fed. You can try raising them inside. I start c some of that Oasis wet block floral foam. I wet that and stick my milkweed cutting into it and cover with a wide mouth vase or bell jar. I place the block on a clay saucer to help control humidity. Every two to three days or as needed, replace the milkweed. Defrass the cage and wash and wipe the clay bottom and glassware daily. Do not disturb cats while molting. You'll know when this is happening when they stop eating and become inactive for 12-24 hours. Sometimes they'll crawl off the milkweed and onto the glassware. An hour or so after they molt, they'll be hungry again. Move final stage cats into an eclosing house with lots of milkweed. They will crawl off in a few days to the top of the cage and pupate Remove all milkweed and frass (poop) at this point. A week or so later, they should eclose. Releasing a Monarch butterfly is a beautiful experience.
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I started with 2 small Milk-weed plants, before the Butterflys found them they got big, and produced seed-pods... I gathered the pods and pulled off the 'floss' around the seeds and planted them in little pots, maybe 20-25 of them, and brought them inside under the gro-lights.... I then planted them out in the back yard....they grow fast and now are flowering.... the 'cats eat some of them down to the ground, but there are more than they can devour, also the 'cats seem to just disappear and that has me worried and is the reason I asked for information here.... I don't see that many more butterflys around, in relation to the number of 'cats that had been on the plants.... and the 'cats just disappear, I see them in the morning and by evening they are mostly all gone.... I have a few Milkweed in the front that have been eaten down to the ground, and have been gathering 'cats from there and taking them out back and putting them on the Milkweed out back and they just disappear..... can there be some predator hiding around that is grabbing them ? I don't see anything ! Gary, gather the seed-pods and plant the seeds, there are hundreds of seeds in one pod, it is amazing... if the 'cats overrun the plant, take a plant and grow it where the 'cats can't have access to it, and then utilize the seed-pods to multiply the plants... this is what I did and it sure works.... good luck, sally
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Helping my monarch cats

Comments (2)

ericwi

tdogmom

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