Karyn, the Calotropis (giant milkweed) is a common plant here. It grows on the roadside sometimes. But strangely the monarchs dont seem to feed on it and i havent really notices cats on it either. I actually dont like it. I find it kinda ugly (the plant). I was considering including it in my garden, but the monarchs seem to prefer asclepias curssavica. Nope the Monarchs here dont migrate and they live for quite a few months. I was raering them in a plastic shoe box type container. When they eclosed i would take them out and put them onto plants in the garden. The brug was a nice area for them to dry their wings fully. Im growing passiflora edulis currently and trying some other passiflora seeds. I hope to get gulf fritilary butterflies soon. Ive noticed the hummingbirds are increasing. Everyday in my little garden i see about 3 varieties of hummingbirds that come to visit my plants. Cant get pics because they are so fast. The copper rumped hummingbird, the white chested emrald hummingbird and the little hermit hummingbird are regulars. over the last 2 weeks ive noticed a new one!!! and my favourite! A ruby topz hummingbird visits my lantana every day several times per day. its beautiful. I need to get myself a new camera, and them hopefuly i can take some pics of them :) Siam.

Tdogmom...when the Monarchs get to last instar they eat like there's no tomorrow...as if you didn't know! Around 7 or 8 PM I bring in a big handful of leaves and think it will hold them til morning. Luckily I wake up a couple times during the night so I find them just sitting on the sticks waiting for "more, please"...LOL. So I turn on the back porch lights and traipse out there with the flashlight, pick more leaves, wash them and put them in cleaned out container. Some nights I'm smarter or just in better "memory state" and keep a stalk in water in fridge so I don't have to make the night run to the garden but never seem to have enough for the big guys...and the little ones seem to zoom in milkweed consumption after 4th instar. If I had more than the 9 Monarchs I'd raise them differently with a potted plant so they'd have more room to roam and be in a more natural setting. Didn't want to take the chance with these 9 since they were all different sizes and worried about cannibalization so kept them segregated. Geez...sounds like I'm running a boot camp for delinquent Monarch cats...LOL.

Hi. After this long it's not going to expand its wings fully I don't think. In most species the expanding process only takes a short time, they discard the fuids and set to drying the wings. There are lots of reaseons why an adult might fail to fully pump its wings, so you may not have done anything wrong. Might have carried an infection over from the cat stage (strong possibility as you mentioned mortality of the cats and pupae dying); might have ruptured a wing vien while trying to get out of the pupal case; might have been disrupted while trying to expand and stopped short; might have "perched" to expand too close to something that didn't let them unfold completely; may not have been enough humidity (also a strong reason for pupae desiccating/dying); etc, and the list goes on. Happens all the time in nature, so don't let it get you down and just keep trying. HTH (for misssherry - that's "hope this helps") ;-) L.

As Edna says, chances are this was a diseased butterfly and it was beyond your help. Many times, those that are unable to 'inflate' their wings often have something wrong to begin with, as Larry (ladobe) says. There isn't much you can do. I can understand, as well, how sad you must've felt. In fact, I am certain that ALL of us on this forum have been in the same position as you at some point in time. But, with experience, we have learned that nature dictates what will happen and we cannot change these things on our own. We do what we can to help but some things just can't be helped. I've learned, over the years, to be somewhat 'hardened' about euthanizing Monarchs. In fact, I've taught my Kindergartners the same thing: that when Monarchs are unhealthy (stricken with OE, for example) that the most humane thing to do is to euthanize them. It is also the best thing to do for the rest of the population because the 'illness' can spread and infect the others, making for an epidemic of sorts. These little non-English speaking kids comprehend this, not from the "we've gotta kill our friends who are coughing" scenario but from the broader view of the insect world and what can happen, based on the sheer number of eggs a single butterfly lays. It is a difficult thing to do, to euthanize a butterfly. I always freeze them. I even do this in my classroom. Children will come up to me with butterflies they find outside that are 'hurt' and ask if they can put it in a baggy in the freezer so it won't hurt anymore. Death is a part of the life-cycle, too. It isn't the 'fun' part of raising butterflies but is something we do have to work with. I have my butterfly specimens that I've kept for people to see and the children are the first to ask, "How did it die?" Almost all of my specimens were ones I found on the ground, having died naturally. It's okay to be emotional. The holiday season probably makes it even more so. Hang in there. If you haven't looked through my Monarch site, check it out. I am going to be updating it but there's info on just what you went through. In fact, I just took a picture of a butterfly that eclosed, with OE, and was unable to unfurl its wings. I will be posting that picture in the next few days. tdogmom aka CalSherry tdogmom's Monarch Guide