Congrats, congrats, Sandy!
MissSherry

I have eggs all over, too, Sandy! I would love more, but I'm not sure my milkweed is safe right now, so I best say no, altho it pains me grievously! LOL!

They always hit us the hardest in fall as they migrate back south. I have yet to have any in the spring, but I planted more perennial milkweed this year, so maybe I'll get lucky and have them in spring 2008.

Susan

Thanks, Sherry,

I'm going to try to share the picture of the eggs. We'll see if it goes or not. I guess I am truly technologically challenged!

http://s191.photobucket.com/albums/z6/butterflymomok/?action=view&current=DSC01953.jpg

Sandy

Here is a picture of the 60 eggs that I collected this morning. (This is actually a test to see if I can get the picture to come through OK)

{{gwi:537537}}

:) Isn't it wonderful? I stopped freaking out over the quantity since I found that not all of the eggs I collect always are viable. (thank goodness)

Hey, it isn't a contest, right? (at least not in my book!!!) I sort of think, "Birth control?" when I start finding more and more and MORE eggs! Then, today, hubby calls and says, "I'm sitting in YOUR chair and there is this pair of Giants out there doing their thing. OH, and I saw TWO pairs of Monarchs, um, mating, hon." EEK! School just started, the temps have been in the 100s (literally), and I have 12 4-year olds and six who just turned 5 and a total of 31 children and have been collecting a minimum of 30 Monarch eggs and 2�"3 Giant Swallowtail eggs every single day...

No! It's definitely not a contest! LOL It is just mind boggling to have so much activity going on. I don't know how you do it. I couldn't keep up with it all. You are pretty amazing, you know! I am a big fan of yours!

After the rains here, I went out and there were two monarchs hooked together in the backyard flying up to the Oak tree! Guess I'll be finding more eggs soon. I also found a single Buckeye cat on my Angelonia, 2 itty bitty QMs on an elm sapling across the street in the bar ditch on the vacant lot, and 4 more GFs on one of my p. incarnatas. I counted 30 BST eggs on one of the fennel plants and it just keeps on coming! It's great, but it is time consuming. At least I'm retired. I never had to deal with this quantity when I was teaching--a good thing!

And besides all that, I've been trying to figure out this Photobucket stuff. I think I may have it. Now I'll post some of my incredible Lao BFs from my trip this summer.

OKSandy

Wow, I'm happy you found a Buckeye on your Angelonia. I grew some last year, but didn't have any cats. Actually, I didn't see any adult Buckeyes at all, though. I planted a dischoriste (twinflower?) this spring, too, but so far, I've only found Buckeyes on the plantain. I also have some snapdragons, but I got the tall ones, and I since read in Judy's book that they prefer the small ones. The snapdragons are starting to "snap" out of their "dead of summer" doldrums now that we're getting cooler temps.

I need to go check the milkweed and feed the children now.

Susan

Susan,

Thanks for the directions you gave me for Photobucket. That's what finally worked for me. I then realized that you only posted one at a time in the body, and presto! we're in business. I appreciate you, good friend!

MissSherry, if you are reading this, you are off the hook! But, I appreciate your offer to help. When I video my dancing VF Frit Chrys, I'll ask for help posting it!

I was totally surprised to find the Buckeye cat. However, I had found a dead cat on the driveway the other day, and wondered where it came from. So, I did a little searching. Plus, yesterday, I found a newly enclosed BE near the Angelonia. I have adult BEs nectaring everyday, but I didn't know what they were using for host plants. I have a mass planting of Angelonia by the driveway, as I just needed to stick it somewhere. I suspected the BEs were using some plants on the vacant lots for hosts.

I have never found any BEs on my small snapdragons. I have a large pot of them that reseeded on my patio. I keep checking them for cats, but haven't found any yet.

I am getting some new plants from Marilyn--she's coming to Tulsa some time this month--and one of them is for the Buckeyes.

I'm also still trying to figure out what the PLs are using, as I have quite a few of the BFs around.

BTW, I have two HUGE RA chrysalides! These are the ones you gave me. They just kept eating and eating and eating. I can't wait until they eclose! Isn't the fall batch more red?

Have a great day.

OKSandy

Sandy, all my RAs were eaten by something. I am just having a terrible time with predators this year. So, I'm glad you took the ones you did.

I tried bringing in some RA cats, but they just died, disappeared, whatever. I only brought in 3. So, I'm at a loss to figure these out.

I don't know about the color being different for fall RAs. I do know that the QMs change to all bright orange instead of the dark brown/black on the hindwings.

I checked my Cloudless Sulphurs this morning and the 3 I collected are still eating away. If you want a couple of them, I will give you some. Does the Partridge Pea hold up pretty good in water. I have been using the Christmas Cassia because it holds up better than the Wild Senna. I would give you some of the Xmas Cassia, but it wouldn't last very long. I'll give you enough for your trip home and probably will last thru the next day if you have some kind of senna for them to eat. They really stress my eyes out - looking for the cats each day, I mean. They blend in so well with their food plant, and if I can't find them, I don't know how in the heck the predators do, but they do!

The GFs are still laying eggs for the predators. I found a chrysalis on the wheelbarrow the other day! They find the strangest places. I had 2 I found on the False Nettle and set them up on the porch. One has already eclosed and the other one is about to.

Found another baby Monarch today, so I have 5 now. Woo-hoo! We'll see how it goes. The Queen cat is doing just great so far, but you just never know. If it starts to pupate early, it will be a goner.

Ooh, Marilyn has such great plants! And you know they're safe to use. Wish I could get me an Amorpha canescens from her, or A. fruticosa. They are such pretty shrubs, too. I have too much fall planting to do as it is. Gotta get some things in the ground here very soon.

Susan

Y'all are really rolling in the caterpillars - that's wonderful!
Sandy, I saw a female monarch laying eggs on some swamp MW I've got growing in a wet place - I didn't find any eggs on the a. curassavica or honeyvine in my garden, so I guess she hasn't found it yet. So I'll be getting my usual late summer batch of monarchs - YAY!
MissSherry

That's great about your monarchs, MissSherry. They sure are busy egg layers in the fall, aren't they?! How are those Luna's doing?

This has been my second summer to have Monarchs all season. I didn't have very many after the first flush in spring, but I'd see one or two a day all summer long. This summer the monarchs that hung around were males waiting for some lady friends!

It rained most of the day today and yesterday, but when I went out this evening to cut food for the monarchs and frits, I found Monarch eggs so I thought I'd just collect them. 57 eggs! I don't know when they laid them with the weather we've had the past two days, but they must have found a window!

The eggs are seeming to hatch quickly, as some of the ones I gathered yesterday morning have already hatched.

I've had to destroy some of the BFs that have eclosed this week, as they appeared to have OE from the looks of the abdomen. The stripes were smudgy and the abdomens didn't look normal. I've also been watching the cats, and if the stripes aren't crisp but have smudges, I've destroyed them. I isolated some of the ones with the smudges to see what would happen when they pupated, and sure enough, the chrys would have spots on them. OE must be everywhere and spreading rapidly. I wonder if it will eventually affect all Monarchs?

Well, take care of those little Monarch eggs!

OKSandy

Great find, Sandy. Hope that you have LOTS of milkweed.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck with the last bunch. :( Were they brought in as eggs or cats?

I swear the weird weather (hot & humid) had something to do with some of the problems I had with my Monarchs earlier this summer. We had a 'spot' of the same again and sure enough, I had some Monarchs with 'issues' yet again. :( I'm just glad that overall, I have WAY more healthy than unhealthy butterflies (I keep track on a calendar of the healthy, unhealthy, and gender of those I release). Or, should I say, I TRY to do this because sometimes I forget to do the recording...tee-hee!

Oh I wish we had MORE than 24 hours in one day...

Linda, like tdogmom,I'm still releasing a LOT of healthy monarch adults. The ones I've had to destroy were pretty much the ones I had quarantined because I brought them in as cats, or noticed that the cats didn't look the best--smudges in the stripes, etc. In the past 2 weeks, I've released 30+ Monarch BFs and destroyed about 5. Last Friday and Saturday, I released 10 healthy monarchs each day. The little girls, 3 and 6, that live behind me came over Saturday and helped me with the release. The youngest had BFs all over her! The oldest was squeamish about holding them. Mom got pics.

Even with harvesting eggs, there seems to be an occasional adult that doesn't look quite right. I am having almost 100% egg hatch rate, so I still have a lot of cats. Right now, I don't think any monarch cats would make it to adulthood in my garden as the predators are really busy.

I have lots of MW and the plants are very large. I have had the best luck with feeding them from the Golden Curavassica, as those leaves are tender and seem to last a little longer. I am saving seeds for next season. And, I'll have enough to share with anyone interested.:)

How is your Monarch population? Are you seeing any problems at all?

Sandy

I thought my one problem was gone that I had earlier in the season, but now I've had two with the problem again. They'd hang at the top before they even went into a J and their head would start getting that green on it just like what happens when one starts pupating, but then it stops. The caterpillar is just limp. I'm not sure at one point they did because I don't check for a heartbeat. lol Actually, it's upsetting that this happens, and I didn't have this at all last year. Thank goodness it doesn't happen to many of them, but it does happen to a few.

I think I've had some die in the chrysalis from black death, as it turns dark and nothing ever comes out of it. I've also had a number of chrysalides develop a funny look to them, just not the normal look. They get little areas of black or yellow on them, and I don't even give them a chance to eclose because I figure even if they would they'd have some kind of disease. I'm not putting any deformed butterflies out to suffer and maybe also cause problems for the other ones.

Another problem I've had which has happened within the past week to four pupas is during pupation. The process looks like it's all going okay, but then the pupa falls and turns to mush. So those are goners. I did find one that had fallen, but it looked okay except looked a little flat on the side that it was laying on. I thought maybe the butterfly would eclose normally, so I tied thread around the black thing at the top and hung it from a plant that I have inside where one pupated on the side of the cup (one of my escapees that I didn't catch in time before it got too big). I've also had a few accidents where I ended up killing a few and I still feel bad about that.

I also had a Tachinid Fly problem when I was collecting caterpillars for a week or two, but after I saw the results of that, there was no more caterpillar collecting for me unless they were very small. Oh, and I have one oddball pupa that is yellow instead of light green. It looks normal except for the color. I guess I've mentioned all of the problems that I have had with the Monarchs this year.
Cathy

It's definitely been an interesting year. I've experienced every malady that you mentioned also. But, when you release a gorgeous specimen, it makes it worth it all!

Yes, that's for sure! :-) I get kind of choked up every time I release one. They're in my care for about a month and then they're gone and I wish them well. Some sit on my finger until I put them on the butterfly bush, others fly around the yard, and others can't wait to take to the sky.

You said it...

"But, when you release a gorgeous specimen, it makes it worth it all!"

All those hours of bending over, collecting eggs, throwing out frass, collecting leaves (after searching for the 'right ones'), getting up an hour early to collect leaves, sterilizing everything, running the dishwasher umpteen times, worrying while on vacation, taking care of other people's larvae while THEY are on vacation,...it is DEFINITELY worth the time when I am out in my yard and the butterflies are all around! :)

OH, and I have to share this one.

The other day my husband came in and said, "Hey, I found this in my car" (he leaves his window down a bit in his van) and brought in a newspaper article from the east coast. A neighbor, who often walks down our street, had stopped to chat with him about his flowers when all these butterflies kept fluttering around, so of course, he told her about my 'hobby.' She mentioned it to her friend who then send this article to her about butterflies. As she was walking, she placed the newspaper article into his open car window to share. :)

You just never know how FAR info is going to spread!