Hi Newbie in NJ,
Nature has a way of taking care of itself. It's when we interrupt it that it gets bad. I think your cats are okay... they know what they can eat! Sit back and enjoy the show.

Mine ate the pods last year. I was disappointed that I didn't get seeds, but got lots on the exchanges so I'm not worried about them doing the same this year. I just hope the plants can keep up with the demand. :O)

Thanks for allaying my fears they'd OD'd on toxins...LOL.

Found another 5th instar that'd fallen off the milkweed and was wandering around on the ground among rain flattened Nepeta. Winds were strong here for past 2 days with weather front moving.

I could either leave him on ground (with slugs) or help him back onto milkweed. Didn't think it would be good for him to be lying in the dirt so offered him a milkweed leaf which he climbed onto right away (Oh, mommy, I don't know how I got here!) and he went easily onto milkweed plant. Was busy cleaning up and when I went back he was hanging upside down looking like it was time to start that old chrysalis.

liljagster, I was loathe to say I'd "interrupted" by putting him back up on the milkweed after I read your post but "I cannot tell a lie..." so I'll keep an eye out for the chrysalis and hope for the best on that one.

Ya know, Tiffy, no matter how many times I think I've thoroughly looked over each milkweed leaf top and bottom I keep finding more cats...and not just 1st instar...LOL.

Thank goodness I got 2 more Incarnata plants in early June that have grown well. I'll winter sow the seeds if the cats don't eat them all...LOL.

Now I want some of the pink flowered Incarnata. All the ones I have are Ice Ballet. I'm assuming swamp milkweed leaves are all the same to the Monarchs so I might as well expand with a pretty flower color. There's an Incarnata called "Cinderella" I'll get since the common milkweed has rhizomes and I don't have any sunny location for it to spread.

Is it just natural for lower milkweed leaves to yellow and fall off or am I not being the best garden "housekeeper"?
I don't feed them anything because I thought it might hurt the munching cats.

Earlier in the summer, I watched a caterpillar in 4th and 5th instar stages munch away on immature A. tuberosa pods AND the flower buds in the garden. So when my 2 oldest cats inside got to that stage, I brought them pods to eat. They munched them down! They seemed to prefer them to the leaves. They are now in their chrysalides too.

I'm deadheading about half the Asclepias anyway, there will be more pods than I need and I've still got plenty of seed from last year.

IT's not uncommon for the cats to crawl away from the milkweed when they get ready to pupate. They like to stick to something more sturdy to make their chrysalis.

Joepyeweed, there isn't anything in the garden "more sturdy" than the milkweed stalks except for the stakes used to hold up the fencing which are about 3' from milkweed plants.

Next time should I just leave the cat on the ground?

Should I put some sticks in the ground around the milkweed for them to use?

I've been searching all day for three 5th instar cats that were there last night and I can only find one. I'm so mad at myself but I didn't think the 5th instar would be a good time to bring them inside just to pupate.

There's one very large 5th instar still eating. Should I bring him inside to pupate?

I collected five 1st instar cats.

Two look like they just came out of the egg. I've got them in one little container with holes punched towards outside and bridal netting under top.

Three are still first instar but much larger than those tiny ones. I put them in round container about 5-6 inches across with 16 little air holes and a round of tulle under the top.

The three larger ones are crawling all over the container. I got them onto clean milkweed before I put them in container. Assuming they'll just crawl around until they're hungry as they were on the milkweed in container already so they know it's there. Who am I kidding? I have no clue what they "know"...LOL.

I panicked when I couldn't find the chrysalis I saw on one of the plants yesterday. It's hanging from the bottom of a milkweed leaf. It's at least 50% larger than the chrysalis of the one I raised inside from 3rd instar.

Should I leave chrysalis on milkweed leaf or is it still in danger of being parastized and/or eaten by something?

I'll defer to the more experienced on that one.

I'm much more nervous about these guys than I was about the BSTs since there seems to be so many more things that can go wrong with the poor little things.

I didn't collect all the cats yesterday because once my little "Bug" was in his chrysalis I knew I had about 2 weeks when I could go home for a couple days without worrying about him being cleaned and fed. I was somewhat selfish as I haven't gotten home to sleep but twice in couple months...I need some solitude...LOL.

After not being able to find 2 of the 5th instars today I just had to bring in the five 1st instars I could find. There may be more but this is enough for now.

At least I can easily bring the containers and milkweed in water home with me while these cats are still small. It's a window of opportunity I really need.

I'll do my best to give these five a chance to make it into butterflies. That's all I can do.

After getting dinner for my father I have to run out to the store and get a darn paintbrush to move them when I have to clean out the containers. It's the one thing I didn't have ready for this enterprise! Thought I could just have them transfer to new milkweed when change time comes but they're not as easy to move along as 3rd instars!

This is WORSE than having a baby...at least the baby cries when something is wrong or they're twisted about something...LOL.

You know, when I first read this post, I was like "huh?". Now way, can't be, is that what I just read? Then the thread progressed, and thought, well, that's something I never saw. So naturally, wouldn't you know it, but I caught one, munching on the only plant I want the pods from!!!!!!
{{gwi:524174}}