Information about tagging Monarchs. Find your latitude at the link listed, then look for your latitude below. My latitude is 35. It shows my midpoint peak to be Oct. 2nd., and the brunt of migration to be around Sept. 24th to Oct. 6th in my latitude. Be aware that these are "rough" gestimates. I could start tagging around Sept. 24th. Remember that the Monarchs migrate in waves with weather fronts- northerly fronts. Watch the weather around the time of your peak for them to talk about northerly fronts coming in with a cool down. If the weather is still quite warm at that time, they will still be intersted in mating, and not interested into going into diapause, and migrating. Last year, I had a nice wave of about 50 in my yard on Oct. 8th. Then, I had a wonderful wave of over 200 stop by on Oct. 13th. So, they were later than my Oct. 6th guideline. Since you are quite a bit north of me, your guideline may be earlier. I usually have some of my own to release when I tag. When they are in the migrating mode, they are very intent on nectaring, and the wild ones are pretty easy to walk up to and net, or pick up by hand, and tag. So, I do both. I have tagged 200 the last couple of years. This spring was the 1st time that my tags were found in Mexico. One was tagged on Oct. 4th, and the other was tagged on Oct. 11th. So, that is when I plan to do most of my tagging. Hope that helps. :) Here is a link that might be useful: Tagging Monarch peak dates

That is a "labor of love" for the butterflies, Mike. Wow, 2 1/2 hrs. per day "by hand"??? I'm sure that there were times when you were just hoping that the well had enough water in it. Interestingly, my flowers look worse this year, than the last 3 years of drought. They put on so much growth in the early summer with all of the rains, then the heat and hot winds came, the flood in August with tropical swirling winds. Most of my zinnias look pathetic. Most of my golden crownbeard drowned out. I do hope that I have a few things that will entice the Monarchs when the next wave of them are coming thru. The wind blew horribly today, with gusts upto 30 mph. I had about 6 Monarchs trying to nectar and fight the winds. The front came thru, but no large numbers looking for places to roost. :( Sandy, I think that the Monarchs do waltz when they fly. How many did you see Sept. 11th? Seedmama, they LOVE tithonia. Good for you for having that for them. I had a nice stand of it 3 years ago, but have had problems getting it to germinate since. I have alot of wind, and it does not like the hot winds. You must have an ideal spot for it. How many did you see at 1 time? Where do you live, Butterflutter? They have a very large migration route. It is the most heavenly sight seeing hundreds of Monarchs in your yard. I often have to kick myself to make sure that I haven't died and gone to heaven!!! Hi Elaine. I've been missing visiting with you. Keep your eyes open for the Monarchs. There are more on the way. I usually don't see alot of Monarchs in my yard until Oct 7th or 8th? It's still early. I am envious of all of your Blacks. :) I had a huge fennel that just upped and died last month for some reason???? So, I've only got a few puny plants for them, and a few azizias. Do you have some senna for the Sulphurs?

I saw two monarchs in my yard yesterday, on my lantana, this was the first time I have ever seen monarchs in my yard! At least I think they were monarchs, I am new to this so I am still learning, lol. I have seen what i think are gulf frits on my lantana several times, but the ones yesterday looked to be monarchs to me. I get a lot of the small yellow butterfles, I see those everyday, near my hibiscus and bottlebrush tree, not sure if those plants are what is attracting them though, I never see them nectar, just flying around. I have seen them nectar on my mexican heather plants. I also saw, a few weeks ago, two butterflies or moths, not sure, they were dark almost black, with a green-blue "sheen" on the backs of their bodies, and they had a long "tail" they were also on my lantana. Until I accidentally fell into the hobby of raising caterpillars, I didn't notice how many butterflies my yellow lantana attracts!! I think the previous owner of my home, must have been into butterfly gardening, because apparently a lot of the plants that he put in the yard, are butterfly faves! It has been such an incredible experience raising the GST cats that I found on my citrus, that I have been thinking about making a "butterfly" garden, with larval and nectar plants native to this area, but I know very, very little about plants, butterflies, etc, so I am in process of researching which larval and nectar host plants would be ideal for my area. I would love to host monarch cats, but I have not seen milkweed in my area, that I am aware of anyway.

MissSherry, I think I must have a smaller than normal one then because it's definitely smaller than a Monarch chrysalis. Thanks, and I will detach it like you said. It's just not at a very good spot right now. Jmcat, Ha, I can certainly believe that if they're like the BST chrysalids that started squirming when I took the lid off of the container they're on to look at them. It kind of scared me because I'm used to Monarchs and they don't do that. Thanks for the warning. Now I know to expect that. Cathy