How NOT to incubate monarch eggs

15 years ago

We had excellent success last summer raising monarchs from eggs to flyaway, placing the egg-bearing leaves in Ziplock bags and transferring the instars to a sequence of containers as they grew larger. So, totally ignoring the principle of "don't mess with success" we varied the routine this year.

The monarchs seemed to be slow to arrive (in Wisconsin), and we had just a few, but then in early July there was a flurry of ovipositing on the garden milkweed, so we had a large batch of eggs. Rather than place the leaves in individual baggies, we put all of them in a covered container. And since the first instars chew only tiny holes in the leaves after eating their eggshell, we decided to clip off just the portion of the leaf (usually about 20%) containing the egg. Then we used the larger portion of the leaf to feed to the ravenous juveniles in the "frass factory" container. That was our FIRST mistake.

Within 24 hours the egg-bearing leaf fragments had started to shrivel. Apparently the presence of two or three cut edges on the leaf facilitated loss of moisture, as did being in a (albeit closed) container rather than in a Ziplock bag. The eggs had been harvested when newly laid and opalescent white, and they were still only yellowish, not grey-black, so there would be another couple days before hatching, and we feared the leaf fragments would be totally crispy and unpalatable for the first instars when they did hatch. So into the container we placed a moist paper towel to raise the humidity level of the atmosphere, prevent further drying, and ?perhaps rehydrate the leaf fragments. That was our SECOND mistake.

With distressing rapidity the leaf fragments in a day or two started to show evidence of mildew. When the instars did start to appear we had to painstakingly transfer them to fresh leaves. Those who have tried to handle first instars know that it is a delicate task (we use fine-tipped paint brushes to "roll" the little fellers off the leaf), made even more hazardous by the rolled, crispy nature of the leaves. And I think some of the eggs failed to mature.

So with out subsequent batches of eggs we have reverted back to the Ziplocks, and have left the eggs on entire leaves. One has the opposite hazard of transpiration from the leaf condensing in the bag to form droplets which can trap the first instars by surface tension forces, but overall its a much more satisfactory process.

Any comments/insights from others would be appreciated.

Minnesotastan

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Comments (4)

rjj1
15 years ago
We collect a lot of eggs early in the season and snip the leaf. It doesn't matter how brittle the small piece of leaf gets, the cat will migrate to a fresh leaf in the container after it hatches.

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randy
Jillberto
15 years ago
I also start off with eggs on leaf pieces in a shallow open container. Small caterpillars will eat dried milkweed leaf if that is all they have. As soon as I spot that they have come out of their egg shell I begin to supply them with the smallest fresh leaves I can harvest. Sometimes if I leave them on the whole leaf it curls up so much I can not find the caterpillar later.

Also I never worry about adding humidity to containers of eggs and here in S. Calif. we have very dry air.

How does your baggie method work.I would be afraid of squishing the little guys!

Jill
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Cghpnd, I'm so sorry you're having bad luck. Did they seem OK when you found them? Are there more cats still living? If so, make sure you separate the eggs from them. You probably want to have multiple containers that you can move the cats and eggs to as they grow, and clean the alternate containers with bleach each time you switch them out. There are nasty diseases that Monarchs can carry and pass on to one another. Some people who raise Monarchs insist that each cat should be kept in an individual container. It certainly makes sense to keep small groups separate, so if one container is infected, at least the other groups have a chance to avoid infection. And wash hands and milkweed carefully. Again, some people soak their milkweed in a weak bleach solution and then rinse it thoroughly before giving it to their cats, in case sick cats have crawled over the leaves before they collected them. Sorry to be a bit of a wet blanket, but there is obviously something seriously wrong, and I want the rest of your experience to be positive. Martha
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minnesotastan
Original Author
15 years ago
Jillberto - the Ziplock method utilizes either "sandwich-size" (for average leaves) or "snack-size" (for small leaves) Ziplock bags. As the "zip" is being closed, a small puff of breath at the opening inflates the bag so the plastic surface doesn't touch the leaf on top. Here in Wisconsin the leaf will stay "fresh" and pliable for long enough for the instar to be a manageable size. If a lot of humidity/condensate accumulates inside the bag, I blow into it the next day to freshen and dehumidify the inside. The first/second instars do sometimes wander off the leaf, but are not hard to locate in a closed bag.

On a tangentially related topic, both early instars and juveniles seem to me to strongly prefer the underside of a milkweed leaf - no matter which side is up to start with. I sometimes wonder if I do them a disservice when I place the leaves with egg-side up in the bag or container, because the newborn then spends time searching for the edge of the leaf and working his/her way underneath. Also since the egg is almost always laid on the soft bottom of a leaf, if it's placed that side up for hatching, the new instar winds up underneath on the smoother, darker top of the leaf, which doesn't look as tender and palatable.

But I suppose I'm fussing over details. Everything seems to work out well in the end.
emmayct
15 years ago
I have a different way of hatching the collected Monarch eggs.

When I find them in the garden, I cut off a nickel sized piece of leaf that the egg is on. Then I staple it to a leaf on a shoot of milkweed that I have placed in a small vase of water.

(I take a tiny bud vase, or a small votive holder, or whatever, and fill it with water and cover with saran wrap..press and seal works really well...then I poke a hole through the plastic and insert the cutting.)

The leaf portion shrivels as it dries but when the tiny cat hatches he can easily find the fresh leaf that his egg leaf has been stapled to.

He can stay there until the need arises for fresh food. It eliminates the need to move the cats in the first instar when they are tiny and fragile.

maryann

How NOT to incubate monarch eggs

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rjj1

Jillberto

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How NOT to incubate monarch eggs

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rjj1

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emmayct

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