Congrats Mary! Poor thing was probably worn out after her long trip but still left you a present :) How sweet of her.

Rhonda

I'm glad you got eggs, but your post makes me sad, Mary. I always feel sad when I see a tattered butterfly, knowing their days are numbered.

Anyway, you can help ensure that the generations continue - congrats!

Sherry

Yes, Rhonda, I know she must have been very tired and most likely, hungry. I know dandelions are up and blooming around here and I've read the butterflies can nectar from them. My guess is there are not many wildflowers in bloom in my area this early in the season. I had some tropical mw in my little gh so had blooms for her.

I know, Sherry. I feel the same. They are remarkable. To think that delicate little girl flew to Mexico, survived the winter clinging in a cluster of butterflies to a tree, then flew so many miles on a return trip in the spring, all done just to reproduce. The gift of eggs makes it even more bittersweet. I watched her deposit two eggs for sure. I could only find one last night, even after watching her place them. Need to find the other one today and get them into a safe place. I will do my best to protect the eggs and help the little cats reach adulthood.

Well, just had to go out to look before I post this and I found several more eggs on the new growth of the common milkweed. Amazing, she (or another) actually had to go down into a big pot to get to the common as it only has about 4 inches of growth on it. Difficult not to admire such an amazing little creature of God.

Mary

Mary, I also my first monarchs this past weekend in Ft. Smith. Saw several other butterflies as well. Not much to feed them right now. Need to be better prepared.

lascatx, excellent report and thank you so much for helping. You are on the leading edge of the spring migration. How exciting that must be to see the first little guys into the US and to be so prepared to help them. They can put away the milkweed, that's for certain. I'm not on the main flyway so I consider myself lucky to even get eggs in the spring. Fall is more likely for my area but I try to be prepared with new seedlings overwintered in my small gh, just in case. Thank goodness the tropical is easy to germinate and grows relatively fast.

Do you maintain your enclosures outdoors?

Mary

JamesY40(z7a), congrats on seeing some of the determined little Monarchs and thank you so much for the report. Have you ever considered placing a report of your sightings at Journey North? I try to remember and do that plus it's fun and interesting to read the other reports and follow along, just to see where the spring Monarchs are showing up. If you look at their map of the spring migration, clicking on one of the little dots brings up a window with the report of what was observed, where and on what date.

Journey North - Monarch reports

Thanks again for sharing your observations with us.

Mary

Yes, my enclosures are outdoors. Last year we set one up under the covered portion of our driveway. It was right outside the kitchen door and easy to keep an eye on. But it also blocked the view of the side garden and meant we had this dark hulk (the enclosure was basically a PVC frame and shelf with a window screen tent) and lots of potted plants out on the driveway and I have neighbors who never said anything but I think would object. I also have 3 of those pop-up hampers I bought at Walmart (top and side zippers) when things got too crowded. I use them for isolation wards if I have a questionable cat or overflow when it gets crowded.

My friend built a wood frame and window screen enclosure and sent me photos. DH and I went and priced the materials we would need and got up over $200. I wasn't ready for that, so I came home and looked at what we had -- the bottom two shelves of one of those plastic utility units (my dad had them separated to make two small units in his garage), lots of PVC pipe and connectors from my son's scout and DI days in school and bought roll of window screen and a roll of magnetic tape -- about $50. It was a quick (the cats were already here) prototype and I'm still working on refining ideas. I wish I had time over the winter months to work on refining them.

You may not get a lot of Monarchs in the spring, but it sounds like you are ready to enjoy a number of butterflies. One of the nice things about the milkweed is that it host monarchs and queens (had one on my milkweed last year), but it's a great nectar flower for others.

I've been reading some of your other posts about milkweed varieties. I'm still learning there. I have tropical that started as a volunteer in my front yard that I would like to relocate and replace with a white, pink or purple variety to go with the rest of the flower beds. Right now, it is the sore thumb among some raspberry salvias. When it blooms -- and last year my cats ate most of the buds. I had very few seed pods.

Rattling on, but funny (odd, not haha) observation yesterday -- the Monarchs haven't laid any eggs on the plants in my yard where I found most of them last year. Some in my side garden, but not in the front or back so far. It's interesting to see how they fly by so many times and pick certain plants. One the other day kept checking out DH's cucumber plants and seemed to really want them to be milkweed.

lascatx, it sounds like you've put a lot of thought into your rearing cages. They are such a nice way of keeping the little cats safe while they mature. In my area, predators take everything without protection. I think few, if any, Monarch cats would survive in my garden if left exposed.

There is a pretty, solid yellow-gold colored tropical mw that might be considered as an addition to your salvia bed. The color would blend nicely with purples, pinks and white flowers. Of course, mixing colors is personal. Just thought I'd throw that out, in case you didn't know of the solid color tropical mw. I use it because it does blend nicely with other plants nearby and can confirm the Monarchs show no preference. They nectar and leave eggs on it as easily as the native orange/gold blooming plants. If you'd like to try it, I would be happy to send you some seed. My houzz message is set up so you can reach me by clicking on my name, then looking to the right upper area of the screen that pops up and look for MESSAGE. I would need a snail mail address.

This photo, taken in my garden, shows the color with side lighting. Click to enlarge either photo

This photo exhibits a more natural coloring for this solid color tropical MW. It grows as a nice, sturdy plant, with growth habits like the original orange/gold variety.

Mary

Thanks, Mary. I do have some of the solid yellow, though I have many pots that are not marked now and I can't be sure until they bloom. I noticed that a number of the yellow did not survive the winter. Did you have the same three days of hard winter in an otherwise very mild season? I will look at what is tagged, and if I don't see any yellows surviving, I might take you up on that. I got seeds from other plants but not any from the yellow.

I bought a new narrow leafed milkweed just recently. It is short and mounding. I hope it grows well and blooms so I can get seeds from it. The shorter plants would open some other options for placement.

I was having the same predator experience here. I noticed that chameleons and red wasps were getting a lot of the larger cats while eggs would disappear -- apparently eaten by ants or spiders. I suspect ants more. And for all the attempts to protect them, I still had a number of cats later in the season who fell victim to the tachinid flies. Nature is wonderful and amazing, but it is harsh and plain gross too.

Just wanted to add an update about the Monarch eggs left in my garden by my first Monarch of the season. They have hatched. So tiny but busily munching on the tender young mw leaves in their container. At least the spiders and wasps won't get hold of these little guys.

Mary

Woohoo!! 'Love to watch those monarch cats eat!

Sherry

Mary, I think I literally have hundreeds of eggs and not enough milkweed to feed aall of them, nor the time or patience to deal with them all indoors. I brought in a number of eggs (about 60) and unlike last year, these guys waned to crawl away -- had one get out and onto my kitchen counter! Ironic that they would starve in my kitchen, but I was finding it too stressful to have the hatchlings indoors and feeling I was wasting leaves when I will need everyone of them.

I put the first dozen or so into one enclosure and took the others out to my plants to hatch. I found more hatchlings in the garden. I don't know how many I willl be able to raise and release, I have some more mature cats in others -- one started hanging overnight or this morning and two are about to.

I'm not sure which thread it was where I said I had seen faded butterflies but not tattered ones. Well, the next day, this gal showed up.

I figured she made her last flight to my garden. She was struggling on some verbena that wasn't blooming and she was pretty exposed. I scooped her up and moved her over a bit to some salvias and milkweed. I bent down a bloom of the salvia to see if she wanted a drink. I think she did, but my view was blocked enough that I couldn't be certain she was drinking. She had been afraid of me, but after that she was calm. Later, she crawled into my hands. I moved her back to a plant and she took hold, but came back to my hands. She definitely wanted to be there and check me out too.

I had been sitting on the wet grass in my pjs, and DH ws waiting on me for breakfast, so after a few minutes, I went inside to change. When I went back outside, she was gone! It was amazing to think she still had it in her. All weekend long, I have had butterflies laying eggs, courting, sipping nectar and resting around the garden. Love them all, but that one was special.

Here's one we released last week.

lascatx, do what you're comfortable doing and try not to fret over it. Caring for and feeding 60 Monarchs is a lot of work. I've done it and I know how much energy, diligence and dedication is required. We all thank you for all you've done and continue to do. You know that even saving a few helps as they will move north and become part of the building blocks for the next generation.

So sorry about the little girl who was in such bad shape. You did what you could for her and eased her journey. The photo of your recent release is lovely. I was out Saturday and was amazed at the amount of wildflowers in bloom; so relieved to know there are nectar plants for the migration. Just don't know how much milkweed is available along their flyway.

Mary

I may still have 60 or more in my care -- I'm just not going to try to keep up with them as eggs. When I found one on my kitchen counter, it was too much. I am hoping he was on the mesh cover I had over the container I had them in and that he didn't manage to wiggle out and crawl off that far. We will care for and feed as many as we can after they bust out of those tiny eggs

Hi All,

I just missed going out to find more eggs....it started poring down rain before I could get out there :(

I've seen lots of Monarch and Gulf Frutilities around here and I have 2 stages of Monarch cats right now and around 20 eggs so far :)

I think I need more Butterfly Kits...LOL

Who knows where this little guy was going.....

I've released so many Gulf Frutiliaries too :)

Happy Gardening, Jeannie :)

Aren't the tiny cats cute? I never thought I would say any caterpillar was cute. Look like you have one that wants to migrate before he earns his wings too. Little explorers.