I wasn't recommending you take the courses necessarily. Just pointing out that good breeders have standards. We have to be careful where we get our stuff from wild or otherwise or we can have problems. Monarchs have three (is that right Larry?) distinct populations with different or no migratory histories. Those in Florida do not migrate and have the highest levels of OE. Unknowledgeable breeders can cause problems by using this stock. Anyhow, lurk around IBBAs site for disease info, also Monarchparasite.org. Both those sites have very good disease information. I don't know of anyone who will help you for free other than the posters here. Amanda Lawrence at Mississippi State University conducts a bug pathology lab I believe but they charge you. You may be able to contact her for some free info. Check out this part of the IBBA web site. http://www.butterflybreeders.org/public/health/disease_prevention_MSU.html I don't think it is anything you are doing. It sounds more like you have a disease of some type in the batch. Start over with clean materials and eggs from a known source. As hobbiests, most of us never need to sterilize eggs. Only breeders and researchers need to do that. They have to ensure clean stock as they breed thousands of insects in close quarters. If you have plenty of healthy milkweed outside that freezes to the ground each year, you should be fine. Either let a momma come to you or order eggs from a known reputable source. Keep in mind that later in the summer OE levels do go up. If you can catch mom, you can test her to see what her levels are as well. This can give you a clue as to what is up. Other than clean cage conditions, the thing to watch out for are tachinid flies. They will lay eggs either on the caterpillar or on the leaves you feed to the caterpillar. So, wash or rinse the leaves well. Viruses get transmitted this way too. Again, being hobbiests most of us do not have too many problems with this, just occasionally. Oh, also wash your hands if you have been digging in the dirt. This is how bacterial diseases get transmitted. I have a bad habit of weeding and then handling caterpillars. It just seems to go togther. But Bt, that nice organic pesticide used on tomatoes, is isolated from soils. Good luck, Elisabeth

Okay, I just noticed I kept saying "wing" above, when it should have been "wings", because they have a pair of wings on each side! Monarch General (Hospital) is now open... That made me smile. After reading these websites, I've gotten very concerned about ensuring the healthiest butterflies possible. I've even fantasized about getting a microscope - hehe! My understanding is that OE is transmittted when the larvae eat the spores on infected leaves, sprinkled there by the female when she oviposits. In the future I am going to try to collects eggs only, and even remove them from the Asclepias leaf. Then I will use sterile equipment and try to collect the freshest and youngest milkweed leaves - and wash them thoroughly to (try to) remove any OE spores. OE is an interesting pathogen. Apparently it co-exists with the Monarch population worldwide. Obviously it has evolved over the millenia along with Danaus plexippus, and that makes me wonder if there are Monarchs that may have developed some resistence? Anyway, I'm still thrilled that this female was okay. Waiting for two more to eclose any minute!!

I know how Dan got those bruises on his neck...but I am not going to tell you. Very Interesting Dan...Very interesting!!!! Kathy, what a beautiful weekend....nice for the soul and good for the mind! Welcome Heidi...might you be in the Santa Cruz area? Linda, now pull yourself out of bed and away from that Baileys bottle. You have partners to pick!! Happy Wednesday! Annie

I think the others should be ok. When I ran into this problem, I just seperated the infected one and the other made a sucessful enclosure! I bring in everyone, but I have tons of little jars going at the same time. I leave all cats I find in the same general area together, so as they are all similar sizes and habitat. We have great amounts of wasp mortality and parasitic losses so I bring everyone in. I often have lots of frozen cats that have become infected when I wait too long to get them inside :(. Do bleach the infected cage just to sterilize. Good luck with the test of the survivors