Thanks for the valuable info, Edith! Sherry

Gwynne - very good questions about the spores and their life cycle. I am wondering the same things - hence I am always sterilizing Lysoling and wiping everything! When releasing a butterfly I wear latex gloves, swab it (for OE research at the U of Georgia, see page below) over a surface that is later sterilized. I also have all doors opened already if I am inside, as to not impede my exit (or I summon my husband ;) I toss the gloves before reaching for the next butterfly. All of my butterflies tested (with my microscope and the naked eye)last year looked very healthy. However the U of Georgia said that 90% of my butterflies were indeed infected. I noticed others on the results page who test at home and saw no spores at home were told that theirs also were infected - guess I need to invest in an electronmicroscope to test properly! LOL! One obvious way of telling if you have a dreadfully infected butterfly (besides crumpled wings) is if the black and white striping on the abdomen is not crisp - if it is blurred or grayish, chances are it's got OE parasites. But you probably knew that. I don't know about the missing leg. I had a butterfly eclose with 2 missing front legs - that chrysalis had fallen, though, and oozed some of its insides. I assume the missing legs were a result of the fall. Not very pretty.... Here are two more sites with info re) OE: http://www.butterflybreeders.org/pages/sterilizationfordiseasecontrol-jg.html http://butterfliesetc.com/oe1.php I would email Dr Altizer at the U of G with your questions - she is quite helpful and a great resource. Here is a link that might be useful: U of Georgia OE Info

Leafhead, I like your thinking re: "vaccines" and acquired or aided immunity to OE. My mind is on OE as I work with these eggs, instars, examine then sterilize milkweed, etc. I was changing a 4-5th instar's water and food, when to my horror it fell into some dilute bleach-water ! I thought it would have died instantly. I fished it out and rinsed it off well, then gave it the choicest, tenderest MW I had reserved for babies. It went wild with this fresh and young MW and ate like a pig for hours! I had an idea similar to yours, what if a hint of bleach had gotten into it's system and killed or partially killed the OE? Having been married to a chemist, I often wish I could access his knowledge and love of "challenges" and apply it to OE. After seeing the diseased Monarch in my yard, the last group of eggs I washed in a mild bleach-water solution, and marked their container as such. Former eggs I allowed to hatch on the stem as found, washed with water only. Will see how they eclose. I appreciate that you looked into OE and called about it. I am frustrated at the inconsistent information I'm finding online about bleach working, not working, etc....how much to use, how long...etc. About changing their MW type, etc. Also if these winter bred Monarchs will be confused, fit in? Will aiding unnatural behavior be of any benefit in the big picture? Hopefully a "vaccine" or a genetic tolerance for OE will evolve. The poor Monarch--global warming, rapid destruction of it's winter forest in Mexico and native habitats, GE crops, OE..This is an inspiring species...Seems adaptation is their strong suit, yet their radical decline is sobering.

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.