I just brought in 3 eggs and 1 cat. I have my kids out looking for more. I have about 15 chrysalises and 9 cats already in stock.

I have not tallied how many releases I've done. I know I had 3 yesterday.

Recently realized I have a sixth type of milkweed. I thought I was planting more tropical that I got from somebody but it now has yellow flowers and the leaves are lighter green than the tropical. I have not tried to look it up yet.

Hi KC...it's another version of tropical milkweed called silky gold. The flowers are a little bigger than the red/yellow version. i planted some this year and really like it. both versions get lots of cats and butterflies

Here is a link that might be useful: Silky Gold Tropical MW

I'm having a great year for Monarchs. I've released 20 so far, and have around 100 more in process right now. Most of them are thanks to a female that came through a couple weeks ago and did some egg dumping. I called her the "3 winged butterfly" because she was missing most of one forewing, and didn't fly very well. She must have decided she really liked the gardens because she spent 3 days laying and nectaring here, and then we had about 3 days of rain, and I never saw her again.

Right now it is crazy busy with approx. 100 cats in various stages. Just had a batch hatch last night, as well as the first 5th instar from the "3-winged butterfly" is pupating. I have just been up in the middle of the night cleaning frass and giving some 5th instars new leaves. Gotta keep those hungry buggers fed so they turn into nice big fat caterpillars!

It's good to hear the Monarchs are having a great year. Most of the activity in my yard has been the monarch butterfly.

I currently have about 20 cats of various sizes but haven't had one mature to the butterfly stage yet. I didn't find the reptile cage until a couple of weeks ago as it was broken down and stashed in my garage somewhere. Finding that the cats I did have were all becoming wasp food motivated me to start bringing them in again.

It won't be long!

Very slow start here for me in NJ. They were late, and by the time I found eggs, it was time to go on vacation. Did manage to give 11 to my trusty coworker, and he found some more on his own. I did manage to find one large cat, probably 4th or 5th instar, and it did eclose the day before I left. It was a girl, thankfully. I came home from vacation and found 14 eggs, 11 have recently hatched. Swamp milkweeds look like crap this year. Aphids coming in droves. Swamp milkweeds very tall and stems snapping. Haven't found any cats of any size, just 2 early on, but only 2, and even then, there where no eggs anywhere. Guessing alot of predators this year.

Congrats to all of you with the big numbers of monarch cats!
There are early instar monarchs outside, and I'm thinking about bringing them in to finish raising them.
Milkweed is such a busy wildlife plant! There are yellow aphids and all sort of other milkweed loving bugs - you know, those red and black ones - all over the bush. I sure hope they don't hurt monarch cats!
Sherry

I'm so glad to hear everyone's stories. Everyone around me thinks I'm insane, so it's nice to commune with some similar-thinking folks. Hope the Monarch luck continues.

I have one new chrysalis that has a black spot on it. I'm hoping it's not the dreaded OE. Cross my fingers.

Martha

Wow!!! Congratulations everyone!!!! I found 5 Monarch cats on my tropical milkweed this evening!!! A good year for the Monarchs indeed!!! :)

Brad AKA Moonwolf

Found 7 cats this evening, 2 on Sullivan's, and 5 on Tropical MW. I found evidence on other plants, but no larvae, so don't know if something got to them. I also found Pipevine cats and 2 brand new Black Swallowtail larvae.

Sandy

Miss Sherry, I've noticed this year what a busy wildlife plant the milkweed is too! While I've been looking for eggs, I've also been patrolling the milkweed for bugs. I remove and squish ALL other bugs from the plants. This includes beetles, aphids, earwigs, spiders, slugs, etc. As soon as the Oleander aphids start making a little colony, I rub them off and remove them. I also remove any wilted, yellowing, or unhealthy leaves.

With diligent removal early on, the plants hardly have any bugs on them now. The leaves are healthier and make better food for the cats, and the larvae is safer too.

Martha; I've had plenty of monarch chrysalids that had a dark spot and/or spots on/in them early on. I freaked the first time I saw one, but was assured it was normal. I never did have any problems with any of mine.

Plenty of milkweed bugs too, loads of babies, but I cut most of my pods off since I really don't need the seed or the reseeding. Will save some for trading though, if I get around to it.

I have six caterpillars now - early instar.

~Laura

Scratch that, I am now up to 11. :-) Two are further along - don't know how I missed them on the milkweed other than just I have so much it's hard to scan through it all.

~Laura

Lots of cats and butterflies here in St. Louis - all on tropical milkweed. They seem to hold their own against the aphids.

I am going big time here, have had 716 eclose with about 90 or so in various stages, been very busy! Glad to see so many of you raising Monarch catepillars!

I'm so happy to read about all the Monarch activity. Congratulations to all.

I'm trying to raise between 50-60 and I'm quickly running out of food. I hope those big cats decide to pupate pretty soon. I took one smaller cat outsie this morning and put it on the honeyvine and it's happily munching away. That is my monarch food of last resort. I hated to move him outside (predators) but the honeyvine doesn't hold up well once it's cut. There's not a lot of honeyvine this year because of the heat but I'll feed them everything I've got and hope they'll be far enough along to pupate if the food supply runs out. I have tropical, swamp, milkweed and common plus the honeyvine and it's going fast. I'd forgotten just how much these little guys can eat. Keeping my fingers crossed it will be enough!

mama Monarchs are outside daily, now, laying more eggs on the milkweed that's still standing. I feel so badly that her eggs are probably wasted. Will plant even more MW next year but I live in the city and my beds are just about full.

~Mary

Well, I have the tent, and I have the Milkweed. I just don't have the Monarchs yet. Glad you guys are rolling with your raising!! Congrats to all!

The year started out slow for me too with only 4 releases in the month of July but August has been the opposite. I've currently got about 45 chrysalids (or more - I lose count as they are in various locations around my house) and about 6 cats left. No eggs have been found for a couple of weeks now. Good thing as my milkweed is in a sorry state after some hail. All told, it's been the best year ever for me.

I had a case of spontaneous generation on Sunday. On Thursday, I cleared an area of vegetation and planted two swamp milkweeds. On Sunday, I took a watering can out to give the new plants some water. I was very surprised to find a 5th instar monarch crawling on one of the plants. The plants are 12" to 18" tall with few leaves so the cat definitely was not on there when I planted the milkweed. There are three other swamp milkweeds maybe 10' away but I look at them everyday and had not seen any monarchs on them. So it is quite the mystery where this cat came from.

I have 6 chrysalides and 11 cats instars 3 and up. Been busy raising monarchs since the beginning of June trying to keep the raising number from exceeding 25 at a time. I need to wear horse blinders when I'm out collecting milkweed. ;)

It's hard to leave so many eggs/cats out when you know they won't survive.

I may go on one final back yard egg hunt this weekend. Hoping for a final batch of 4 to send off to Mexico... Tony

I am so glad to hear that the monarchs are doing so well this year! I haven't had any traffic for months now, of any butterfly; the drought and heat have been horrendous. I have started seeing a few gulf fritillaries and some that are so quick I can't get an ID.

We have a wonderful forecast for this weekend: RAIN!! and lots of it, about 3 inches is expected. I don't think I will know how to act with that wet stuff falling from the sky. Haven't seen rain in so long....last I heard, we are about 17 inches below normal!!!!!! Hopefully the butterflies will come back for the end of the season.

Mechelle

Gosh, I just cannot believe this. Here I sit with scads of Tropical MW, not a Monarch in sight, and not a Monarch cat either. I am really surprised. Thought I would have a tent full of Monarch cats by now.

I hope you get Monarchs soon Bandmom! Maybe some of the ones I'm releasing will make it down there.

I've been crazy busy with Monarchs! These guys require practically round the clock attention at the moment. Have released over 30 and still have somewhere around 80 in process. Most are either pupating or in chrysalises, with about 15 cats left, so the workload is tapering off. The exact numbers haven't been tallied yet.

Should have big releases the next couple days - about 40 eclosing this weekend. Yippee, it's the weekend, and the weather is on an upswing (it's been cold and rainy for 3 days).

I currently have 11 monarch chrysalids and 1 caterpillar. Still not finding any more eggs, no caterpillars. Same with my coworker, who has a bunch of chyrsalids as well. He's been looking on wild common milkweed patches that he's encountered, on roadsides, a horse farm, a park, and he's not finding any more eggs or caterpillars. Lame year for both of us.

I planted my seeds in spring 0f 09 but nothing grew until midyear 2010. I spotted my first monarch last October but I did not find any eggs. This year on the 1st of September I spotted my first Monarch laying eggs. Then three days later another Monarch was spotted laying more eggs. I am pretty sure they were two different butterflies, as the second was much larger than the first. Then on the 12th I spotted another Monarch, one of her wings was kind of tattered, she too laid eggs. I collected 23 eggs from the first two butterfly visits. All hatched into cats, I kept 17, gave 3 to a neighbor, 3 to a teacher. Yesterday evening they started to form the J shape with their silk buttons. Of my 17 only 14 were in this stage. Of the 3 remaining 2 were quite a bit smaller and the 3rd was a few days behind the 14 (or so I thought). So last night I put those 3 back outside on my plant. Bad idea! This morning I noticed a wasp flying around my milkweed. I quickly swatted and killed it. It was too late I found the remains of one of my smaller cats, ughh. I collected the other two and brought them in. I went across the street to warn my neighbor. She had put her live plant outside, the milkweed aggravated her allergies. One of her little cats was gone too. She let me take the two back inside with mines. I also found another small cat so I brought it in, another wasp was circling. As of now I have 16 that are in the J position, and three little cats. I still feel awful that the wasp got the other two though.

Released #73 today, which is even more than orange barred sulphurs and gulf fritillaries for us this year. I keep saying I'm not bringing in any more, then next thing you know, a couple of more eggs or cats find their way into or house.