I'm seeing Monarchs just about everywhere, from my garden, on my way to the store, on my way to work, fluttering just about everywhere. Granted, it's only one here and there, but still great to see them around. I had quite a few yesterday; 3 on one butterfly blush and I saw 2 on the other side of the yard. I didn't see 5 at the same time and they could have gotten over to the other side quickly, as they normally do. Even my neighbor, who is nature challenged, just asked how butterflies mate. I found this strange, but then realized he saw the back to back flying. He was pretty amazed, and I was thrilled. I currently have my first 6 chrysalids of the year, 3 of which should eclose today (I can't wait to get home!) and the others should follow, and 8 cats in just about all instars. This is a personal record for me, I think the highest count I've had was 12 released in one season, and I'm already at 14, unofficially. With all this mating going on, I could've had so many more, but unfortunately, I'll be going on vacation soon, so any new cats will have to fend for themselves, which is never good. Hopefully they'll be no more casualties, only having 1 monarch issue to date. It didn't eat for 5 days and was euthanized...

Hi Steve et al, (is that right by the way, or did I just pull that out of a hat?) I had no idea that I was bringing up the question at all in my remark about A. tuberosa. I was only mentioning that I heard that A. tuberosa was not as toxic as some of the other popular milkweeds and that I had never been able to get it to grow anyway so I gave up on it years ago. I wondered whether you had it growing yourself or whether you might have been confusing it with curassavica which I have all over the place. But the question you raise is interesting though I have no knowledge of the subject and never thought about it until you mentioned it above. At this point I wouldn't lose any sleep over it at all since it seems to be used by so many people successfully with monarchs for years. But monarchs are not as easy to rear for me and I think they are susceptible to so many forms of predation that I often leave them outside when I find them because I hate to see things die. But if there is truth to the allegations about native vs. non-native I would definitely like to know. I grow two species of native milkweed but to be honest with you they are a real pain because they appear too late for the spring migration and often go dormant before the fall migration. So what good is that. So I just have at least five or so species and let the adult butterflies pick out their own choice. They definitely choose the physocarpa and curassavica over any of the others. As far as the notion that A. tuberosa might be invasive out here in CA, I seriously doubt it because tuberosa likes rich and well-drained soil and the only place you would find that out here is in bags at the local nursery and it's quite expensive. I doubt most tuberosas could afford it. On top of that tuberosa does not do well in pots or so the mail order catalog indicates. At least it never worked for me.

Important Info RE OE & Monarchs! Posted by tdogmom on Tue, May 2, 2006 Okay folks, I got a response from Dr. Sonia Altizer, an expert on Monarchs, from U of Georgia. Several people have asked questions about using a 2% bleach solution to cleanse OE spores when working with Monarchs. I asked her some of those key questions and here is what she said. I paraphrased and summarized her reply to each question. 1. Is it possible to clean Milkweed plants while they are in the ground (planted MW plants)? This is NOT recommended. Spraying wild plants growing out in the field with 2% Chlorox is not very effective against the tough OE spore walls. An alternative is the following: Take Milkweed cuttings (clip the stalks) and soak them in a basin in 10-15% Chlorox for 20 minutes. Then, soak them in regular tap water for the same amount of time and rinse well. The cuttings can then be placed in florist tubes (plant picks) and fed to the caterpillars. Dr. Altizer has found that if the leaves are rinsed well in tap water, they can be fed safely to Monarch larvae. 2. If you find a lot of OE in the Monarchs raised, it is possible that the spores are on your plants. What is another way you can eliminate or reduce the OE on the Milkweed? To reduce spore loads on plants, cut the stalks (or mow these down) to within a few inches of the ground. New material that grows back should have fewer spores on it, especially if kept away from infected adult butterflies. If necessary, use netting to keep the butterflies off the plants. Presumably a heavy rain or a strong hosing with water can also wash off a large portion (but not all) of the parasite spores. Dr. Altizer also recommends growing native milkweed species as opposed to the tropical species, as most of the native species naturally die back during the winter months, and hence would accumulate fewer parasite spores. 3. Can you use a bleach solution to cleanse Monarch eggs of OE? How safe is this and is it effective? This approach is NOT recommended as bleaching the eggs has NOT been found to be a satisfactory method of elminating OE. The concentration of bleach needed to kill the OE spores can also damage the egg chorion. A method to try to rescue some potentially contaminated eggs is to remove them from the Milkweed they're on (the contaminated Milkweed) and transfer them to a clean Milkweed leaf. This will reduce the potential number of spores the caterpillar might ingest. 4. What about the use of the commercially prepared OE spore spray? She was not familiar with the Educational Sciences product. Her exact words, "I'm not familiar with this product so cannot make an educated comment, except to say that there are probably cheaper, easier, safer and more effective methods available than using a commercial spray -- and definitely would not advocate widespread dissemination of a product such as this into the environment. 5. Is there a way to test the Milkweed plant itself for OE spore contamination? She felt this was a good question and thought that perhaps this could be done similarly to the way OE is tested on the Monarch butterflywith a swab, tape, etc. I think that her answers were very clear. I also felt good because personally, I have always been concerned when reading about people using bleach to clean their butterfly eggs. It is reassuring that someone who does a lot of research corroborates my own thinking and methods. :) So, take it for what its worth--CalSherry aka tdogmom.

Rhonda, aren't you worried about the plastic making the enclosure too hot? I raise them in my lanai but do not enclose them. They stay on the Milkweed until they are ready to go and I move them to a large Money Tree on my lanai. My neighbor raises them in a screen enclosure. It has a zipper which opens the front and back making it easy for cleaning and the Catts hang from the mesh when they are ready. When they go away for a week or so, she moves the whole thing to my patio. I would be concerned about using plastic in this heat. Jane