Any Monarch Sightings In PA

gwynne2006

14 years ago

I live in Southeastern PA, about 25 miles from Philadelphia and have not seen a single monarch, monarch egg, or monarch caterpillar. In fact, I have hardly seen any butterflies at all. I did find an early group of BST eggs, but that was about it. We had a very rainy June and I am wondering if other people in my area are seeing less/more/same amount of monarchs and other butterflies. Thanks.

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Comments (13)

jrcagle
14 years ago
I'm not far from the PA line, and we're seeing very few Monarchs also -- under 10 for the season, in several favorable locales.

I've had two in my yard; one laid eggs. I'll shoo some butterflies your way in a couple of weeks. :)

Jeff
gwynne2006
Original Author
14 years ago
That would be great if you could!
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I haven't seen any monarchs here yet, Danny, but it's a little early. I usually see them pass through in the spring, but they never lay me any eggs - I just get eggs/cats in the late summer/early fall. I can hardly believe this, but not only is the tropical milkweed coming back that came back last spring, but another is, too! Also, one of my pentas is coming back from the roots - no pentas have ever survived our relatively mild winters until now. Two of them aren't showing any signs of life, so I'll probably replace them. It was a beautiful day today, so I did a lot of work outside. I saw several butterflies, but can only identify two for sure, a cloudless sulphur and a sleepy orange. I saw a medium size butterfly at a distance with some orange in it - it could have been an American lady, but by the way it flew, I think it was a question mark. I saw a large butterfly, also off in the distance, that had to be some type of swallowtail. It had some yellow in it, so it could have been a giant swallowtail, a palamedes swallowtail or a tiger swallowtail. I've seen a few red admirals earlier this year, and I also saw some type of duskywing skipper bobbing along today. 'Looking forward to the new season! Sherry
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I've never found ANY at nurseries, and since the "wild" is like going to Africa for me, none on wild milkweed either. So you guys are really lucky. I have to grow my own caterpillars, but so far, it's working. They may not find it the first year, but they sure find it eventually. Finding the cat at Wal-mart really, really surprises me, MissSherry, because I thought they sprayed everything, including the clothes section (LOL!). You must have caught them late in the year when they hadn't sprayed for a long, long time. Susan
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Yea, it sounds like we're all seeing some activity now. Congrats, Sherry. She is a beauty. Christie, Hang in there, it sounds like they're beginning to move south. You asked about where I grow my Swamp MW. The bed where my swamp milkweed is growing is actually on a very gentle slope. I did work in a lot of rotted compost prior to planting and I've watered deeply around the base of the plants about every other day during the unusually high temps this year (sad to say, considering the condition of my old back, I've had to do this for most of my plants). :-) Another thing I did was leave some of the 'Lady in Red' sage that self seeds to grow among the milkweed, just to provide a bit of shade and cooling for the roots. Once they've developed a good root system, I think they'll do just fine in our hot summers. These are second year plants. Last year they were just a single stalk. This year they grew a strong stalk, then put out a wide canopy of growth at the top. Out of six plants, I only had one bloom. I'm hoping next year there will be more blooms. As Bob said earlier, the swamp MW is an aphid magnet. I kept blasting the aphids off for the longest time, then didn't do it for a bit and wouldn't you know it, mama Monarch showed up and laid eggs (not that I'm complaining). Now I'm stuck with those little suckers as I don't want to blast her eggs! :-) Please consider trying this MW again. The leaves are smaller than most milkweed, glossy, thin and very pliable, which will make them easy for the tiny cats to eat. ~Mary
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They also love to eat Rue, an old medicinal type herb, with lovely blue-green, lacy foliage. Precure Nursery sells it, as well as very nice Fennel and Dill plants. I know they don't spray the Dill and Fennel because they are considered food plants, but they may spray the Rue on occasion. If the Rue is sitting on the tables with the Fennel and Dill, it is relatively safe to say it has not been sprayed. If, however, it is located on a table some distance from the Dill and Fennel, it has been sprayed. I know one summer they had a problem with mealy bugs on the Rue, so they moved it to the Perennial plant section and sprayed them. Someone purchased the Rue plants unsuspectingly, and when the cats consumed the Rue, they died. That said, I highly recommend Precure because they sell a lot of butterfly host and nectar plants. I have purchased other host plants such as Blue Crown Passion Vine (for the Gulf Fritillarys), Pussytoes (Antennaria, for the American Ladies), Pearly Everlasting (American Ladies), and other things. Their herb plants are usually pretty good sized. I have to go there today to get more Rue and Fennel, so I can let you know the status of their Rue if you would like. The thing I like about Rue is that it is also the food plant for the Giant Swallowtails, so you would have 2 different butterflies using them for larval food. The Black Swallowtail is Oklahoma's state butterfly, too! If you want to, you could hand-raise a couple of the caterpillars so your daughter can see the life cycle up close. Just use a plastic container, with airholes punched in the lid, small enough the larvae cannot get thru them. I put a paper towel in the bottom (change daily cuz caterpillars poop a lot), and add fresh Dill leaves in the morning and evening, removing whatever is left of the old. I use the plastic containers and cut out the inside portion of the top, put a paper towel over the container and put the lid back on (you will have just the rim of the lid left) or you can cover the entire container with a paper towel secured with a rubber band. When they reach the last instar of growth, they will began to wander around the container and empty their guts. If your container is tall enough, you can put some sticks or something wooden, stand them up or lean them against the sides, and they will pupate either on these or on the sides, top of container. When the cat has found a place to pupate, it will spin a "harness" and position itself securely against the stick or side of the container where it will remain motionless. Eventually, they shed their skin for the last time and in its place is a chrysalis, either brown or green. Inside its interior is turning to liquid and then reconstituting as a butterfly. In about 7-10 days, you will see the chrysalis begin to darken. Within a day or so, the butterfly will slide out of the chrysalis and hang to dry. The wings are all crumpled up and damp looking. Don't disturb it. The butterfly will begin to pump fluid into the wings, the wings will extend and dry. After a few hours, the butterfly will be ready to fly. This may sound difficult, but it is not at all. I have used containers like large, plastic pretzel containers from Sam's Club, mesh cages purchased from Educational Science online, butter/margarine containers, etc. I cover them with paper towels held in place with rubber bands. The most important things are keeping the containers clean, and providing fresh food daily, twice daily when they get big. You will notice them growing and eating more and more. Congrats on your big, beautiful caterpillars! Susan Here is a link that might be useful: Black Swallowtail Life Cycle
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brindlebutt
14 years ago
Pittsburgh here. The monarchs started to show up here third week of June. Not very many.

They were busy in my milkweed, as well as my neighbors' - he had 3 cats growing fat and sassy in his backward currassavica, and among the caterpillars I found, I was able to bring 10 in to hand rear. One died yesterday during pupation. For some reason, his clasper/cremaster failed to hold while his skin was splitting over his head, and he fell to the bottom of his dorm room. Poor thing was alive when I found him, but there was nothing I could do.

I have 9 chrysalides in separate dorm rooms. The window for earliest emergence, if all goes well, begins on July 22.

I found some eggs yesterday, but I am waiting for cats, thus making sure the eggs have been fertilized.

So, no swarms here, but we do have modest numbers.
cynandjon
14 years ago
Im in Stroudsburg PA, NE PA above allentown. Didnt see any here. I came into this forum looking for news.
gwynne2006
Original Author
14 years ago
I just found a couple of patches of milkweed in the underbrush at my work. I spent my lunch hour looking for eggs. I got all scratched on the thorns of other plants, probably got ticks and poison ivy, and came away with one egg. And it is a little too clear. Dont know if it was just laid or if it is a dud. But at least I know a monarch was through here.
beckyjessie
14 years ago
No Monarchs here either. I live about 32 miles North of Harrisburg, PA. And last year at this time I had zillions of question marks & eastern commas hatching right now but I can't find any of them yet on my hops. Last evening, my brother told me that he heard that the Gypsy Moths aren't as bad this year because of all the rain we had. Maybe that affected the butterflies too?
tracey_nj6
14 years ago
Next door neighbor here in NJ; not alot of butterfly activity, but I'm just starting to see more, thankfully. I had found 13 eggs/cats left by one lone female during the July 4th weekend. I collected them fast & furiously. I've been checking since, but haven't found any more cats or eggs. Now my milkweeds are starting to darken and look awful. I've seen a few more monarchs over the last few days, along with a yellow swallowtail and a black swallowtail, and it wasn't the one I released this morning. Today a momma BST left me 25 eggs (that I could count) on one fennel plant. I'm gonna need alot more fennel...
awgaupp
14 years ago
I live in pittsburgh too. i've only seen about 3 adults this season in my garden, one last night. although i did bring in some cats and have 7 chrysallises
beckyjessie
14 years ago
I'm so excited! Yesterday I had 1 lone female monarch on my butterfly bush! This is the first one this year. I hope she found the milkweed....
zebz
14 years ago
Today the first monarch I've seen this season was on some milkweed. I'm in Northern Virginia.
scully931
14 years ago
Pittsburgh here too. Saw one about a week ago. I've had one other variety, but I don't know much about the names. I've commented many times this summer on how few butterflies I've seen.
suefromuk
14 years ago
I'm at about the same latitude as Baltimore and I was comforted to realize that I was not alone in seeing few Monarchs. In fact so far this year I've only seen 2 and actually it might have just been one really moving!'
Have lots of milkweed ready for them....perhaps all the rain?
Also I remember my first year at Butterfly gardening the Monarchs were all over the place but not much before August and still a lot in September. They loved the Tithonia I plant and I've got lots of other perennials they like.
gwynne2006
Original Author
14 years ago
I still havent seen any monarchs. The one egg I found didnt hatch. Havent been able to find any other eggs. The milkweed will be all wilted by the time they get here!

Any Monarch Sightings In PA

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