Paul, Congratulations on your PVS eggs and Monarch cats! Yes, I bet you'll be getting more Monarch eggs. I hope that you also find those GF eggs that you're hoping for. I love this time of year too. Maryann, I agree about the Monarchs. I didn't mark down when they showed up here last year, but I thought I had some by now. They still aren't here. I'm practically butterflyless. I see an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail about every day; today I watched it nectaring on the orange cosmos and some clover in our yard. I've been seeing a sulphur (I'm not good at IDing and am not sure if it was Clouded, Cloudless, or Orange. I saw my first Silver-spotted Skipper on Thursday; it was nectaring on some violas. I've been seeing Cabbage Whites for probably about two months now. I have no idea if the black butterfly with markings that I've seen flying around here is a Spicebush Swallowtail or the black form of the ETST. Nothing has been eating at any of my plants except the groundhog (it's still here but up further in the yard now) and the slugs. I put shallow dishes outside in the flower beds with beer in them to kill the slugs. I think they eat anything and everything. I don't know if they're the ones that have holes in my hyacinth bean vines but they're holey. The two Dutchmans Pipevine plants that I have outside are real nice looking and starting to climb up the trellis that I made for them. It's not the fanciest-looking trellis in the world, but I guess they won't mind. Yesterday I was working up the garden section where I want to put the Agastache foeniculum and will plant those today. I still have my Dame's Rocket to plant and a lot of other things like I said before. I think it would be kind of ironic if I wouldn't get any Monarchs and I probably have enough to feed several hundred cats. Now, if I don't see any a month from now yet, then I will definitely wonder where in the world they are. Cathy

Mary and Laura, great to hear you are raising and releasing monarchs for the great migration. I just released my last monarch in Minnesota this week and am giving people raising tips in "Amazing Raise 1"...even if you weren't signed up, fee free to share how many monarchs you are releasing for the migration on the link page below. Laura, I think the high percentage of cardenolides in the goose plant may kill some of the smaller monarch caterpillars. I'm not sure if a higher percentage of this chemical also helps to protect them more from predators? Can a predator sense the monarchs' poison content without taking a sampling? Anyhow, most of our monarchs have headed south so be on the lookout for some Minnesota Monarchs! Tony Here is a link that might be useful: Raising HOPE for the Monarch Migration

LOL; I love that pic! I had 10 eggs that all hatched on the same day and they should be pupating any moment now. Unfortunately I do mine in separate containers, so it's going to be interesting to say the least. I believe it's between 9 and 14 days from pupating to eclosing. For me, the norm is 9 or 10 days. I currently have one that's on day 14 (which is a first for me), but it was black this morning so I'm hopeful I'll have a healthy eclosure when I get home from work.

Yeay. Very few monarchs and zebras for us this year too. This has been our Frit year. Released 36 so far and still have another 10 pupae!