Well, know in advance that by letting nature take its course, that you run the risk of predation. Wasps are one of the biggest predators 'out in the wild' as are some of the spiders. In my garden, the jumping spiders are the biggies. Personally? If I wanted the little guys to hopefully, make it to adulthood, then I'd put them into small containers and feed them by hand, to to speak. I have info about this on my various websites (you can check any of them for info on raising butterflies...I am revising my Monarch guide but you can still access it). As for watering the garden? I don't think it hurts them any. I have hosed off the Oleander Aphids off of my Milkweed without even knowing I had Monarch larvae on the plants and didn't hurt them before. With regards to where they are going to pupate? Caterpillars are odd...they will pupate where THEY want to. You could put all the goodies you think they will want to pupate on and sure enough, they won't use ANY of your good intentioned items. The goofy things will go and pupate on some odd item or plant or...(I'm notorious for my larvae pupating in weird spots so I know this is definitely the case!). Don't worry about having anything special for them. They're like human children and will do what THEY want regardless of what YOU want. tee-hee! My Butterfly Guide tdogmom

You are already doing the best thing you can to find the eggs, watching the momma monarch in action. I have seen some eggs on the top of the leaf, but not many. They mainly lay on the underside of the leaf and sometimes near the flowers of the milkweed. Wish we were neighbors, I would help you look for the eggs. Good luck! Mechelle

Susan, As always my thoughts are my opinions based on many years of actually doing, not just accepting what others say. So they are only FWIW to be taken as a person chooses to take them. IMO common logic dictates that like with most infestation, disease or infection, the level they intrude an individual at can vary widely from minor to massive. That is commonly proved out with OE in Danaidae. If a larvae makes it through complete metamorphosis to an imago that can eclose and form OK, even if OE is present it was a relatively minor infestation in that individual. The opposite being if a larva at any instar, pupa or adult that has OE dies without getting through complete metamorphosis, that individual was obviously infested at a much higher level. Unfortuanately no matter at what level (with OE especially), failure to destroy any sick livestock whether it be OE, another parasatoid, viral or bacterial infection in most cases will promote the spread of any of any of them to other individuals. OE is the prominent one that will carry on to generation after generation beyond a given brood, and nothing but complete elimination of any brood within your control that might be infected with it will help slow it down in a colony. Why in my opinion when it comes to livestock even suspected of possibly having OE it's not worth taking any chances with them "for the good of the species as a whole". For those of use who did/do field work with Lepidoptera, that includes wild Danaidae livestock found or adults netted that show any possibilty of hosting OE. NOTE: Even if you have a very strictly controlled gardening and rearing rigime (which I doubt any of you have), you won't eliminate all of any OE present. So don't go slap happy destroying everything in sight. Instead be analytical and logical, and then decide what is reasonable for your own circumstances. Yes, livestock can have OE and not show any of the so called "visible" signs of it, which IMO are not proof positive of OE anyway and can be from other causes. In part why on my OE thread I offered some habit and condition factors that could also suggest OE is present as well even though they also do not prove OE and can also be from other causes. Bottom line, to prove OE is NOT present in an individual for certain takes a microscope or loupe. And in almost all cases if a larvae it will have to be euthanized to test with any certainty. A possibility to check for OE in pupa is to test the purge of the last instar larva for OE, but unforunately that is not 100%. I'm a lot more scientific in my appraoch to Lepidoptera than all of the folks here, so I don't accept things at face value. I am also skeptical of data from other sources that are not proven to me. The Internet and publications commonly breed misinformation about everything, including Lepidoptera, that is passed on by ACE's who probably got it from another one. So it's prudent not to trust every thing you read on the Internet or in books if it's not from a source you trust. Larry

It truly is amazing how those !@#$% WASPS can get 'em! I don't bring in larvae as I hate to find parasites and whatnot (I only bring in eggs to raise) but this week I actually DID bring in four caterpillars because I am sick to death of watching the Wasps outside. Grrr...I did spot three, no, four 4th instar Monarch cats and I was amazed they made it, considering the number of Wasps lately. Someone else I have recently spoken to has made huge tents of tule to go over the Milkweed.