Quality Control Inspector
Soapbox alert.....
This is one of my current Monarch caterpillars on the job site. I bring several into Lowe's or Home Depot when they get a new batch of milkweed (which the stores like to label "Butterfly Weed"). I'll carry the guys in in a little box and deposit them on a plant, then wander around the store's tool department for a half hour and come back to see if there is evidence of chomping on the leaves. At this stage of their life cycle, the caterpillars or "larvae" eat constantly.
If there are no holes or nibbled edges, I won't buy the plants and will contact the garden center managers to report yet another batch of incoming plants that have been treated with pesticides or fertilizers and won't work for butterflies. It's nice that plant suppliers are finally beginning to stock milkweed widely, but they have to ensure that it's organically raised, or there is no point. As often happens, the critters know the difference, even if we don't.
Monarch butterflies can only lay their eggs on one plant - milkweed - and the caterpillars eat this plant for two weeks or so while they grow and then they go into their chrysalis stage (cocoons are for moths, not butterflies). Without natural, high quality milkweed, Monarchs cannot survive. Milkweed used to be found in the wilds throughout the continent, but development has destroyed much of this habitat, and apparently the world's Garden Clubs don't consider milkweed pretty enough for them to push as "proven winners" or club selections.
As many have probably heard, there has been a very drastic decline in the Monarch population recently due in part of loss of habitat (milkweed) and in part to the cold weather throughout North America. But over the past two weeks, good news... a massive arrival at the winter migratory site in St Rosario, Mexico. (Monarchs are the only butterfly that migrates - I'm sure you've heard about this amazing journey.) Weather conditions during the 2014 breeding season were ideal, following the three bad years that led to the population crash. However, if this year's population at this site does double — to 66 million butterflies — it would still be only 20% of the long term average. There's no question that we could be losing the Monarchs forever.
Here in Florida, I have been waiting for weeks for a single Monarch to start my regular over-winter flock. Finally - one found her way to my milkweed patch and laid about fifty eggs, one at a time, during a busy afternoon. I located a dozen of the eggs (each the size of a pinhead), brought them in to my terrarium where they are protected from insect predators, and most of them have hatched and are thriving. Eggs that hatch in the wild have a tiny chance of getting past the first stage of their life cycle due to predators.
This batch of caterpillars will pupate in a week or so, then after ten days in chrysalis form, they will hatch (official term - "eclose"). I will release them when they're ready to fly and I can count on the ladies to mate and be back the very next day to my milkweed garden to lay lots more eggs and start the program in earnest. I generally raise and release several hundred Monarchs each season. I know they only live for six weeks or so, but in the spring, my group will re-populate quickly in nature and some will make the migration to Mexico next year.
In the comment box below, you'll find a rare picture I took last season of all three stages of the Monarch life cycle in one shot - caterpillar (larva), chrysalis (pupa) and adult.
How to help the Monarchs?... plant milkweed and boycott Monsanto's fertilizers and pesticides! We need to get our bees and our butterflies back! Sorry about the soapbox, but it's a cause I really believe in....
Quality Control Inspector
Soapbox alert.....
This is one of my current Monarch caterpillars on the job site. I bring several into Lowe's or Home Depot when they get a new batch of milkweed (which the stores like to label "Butterfly Weed"). I'll carry the guys in in a little box and deposit them on a plant, then wander around the store's tool department for a half hour and come back to see if there is evidence of chomping on the leaves. At this stage of their life cycle, the caterpillars or "larvae" eat constantly.
If there are no holes or nibbled edges, I won't buy the plants and will contact the garden center managers to report yet another batch of incoming plants that have been treated with pesticides or fertilizers and won't work for butterflies. It's nice that plant suppliers are finally beginning to stock milkweed widely, but they have to ensure that it's organically raised, or there is no point. As often happens, the critters know the difference, even if we don't.
Monarch butterflies can only lay their eggs on one plant - milkweed - and the caterpillars eat this plant for two weeks or so while they grow and then they go into their chrysalis stage (cocoons are for moths, not butterflies). Without natural, high quality milkweed, Monarchs cannot survive. Milkweed used to be found in the wilds throughout the continent, but development has destroyed much of this habitat, and apparently the world's Garden Clubs don't consider milkweed pretty enough for them to push as "proven winners" or club selections.
As many have probably heard, there has been a very drastic decline in the Monarch population recently due in part of loss of habitat (milkweed) and in part to the cold weather throughout North America. But over the past two weeks, good news... a massive arrival at the winter migratory site in St Rosario, Mexico. (Monarchs are the only butterfly that migrates - I'm sure you've heard about this amazing journey.) Weather conditions during the 2014 breeding season were ideal, following the three bad years that led to the population crash. However, if this year's population at this site does double — to 66 million butterflies — it would still be only 20% of the long term average. There's no question that we could be losing the Monarchs forever.
Here in Florida, I have been waiting for weeks for a single Monarch to start my regular over-winter flock. Finally - one found her way to my milkweed patch and laid about fifty eggs, one at a time, during a busy afternoon. I located a dozen of the eggs (each the size of a pinhead), brought them in to my terrarium where they are protected from insect predators, and most of them have hatched and are thriving. Eggs that hatch in the wild have a tiny chance of getting past the first stage of their life cycle due to predators.
This batch of caterpillars will pupate in a week or so, then after ten days in chrysalis form, they will hatch (official term - "eclose"). I will release them when they're ready to fly and I can count on the ladies to mate and be back the very next day to my milkweed garden to lay lots more eggs and start the program in earnest. I generally raise and release several hundred Monarchs each season. I know they only live for six weeks or so, but in the spring, my group will re-populate quickly in nature and some will make the migration to Mexico next year.
In the comment box below, you'll find a rare picture I took last season of all three stages of the Monarch life cycle in one shot - caterpillar (larva), chrysalis (pupa) and adult.
How to help the Monarchs?... plant milkweed and boycott Monsanto's fertilizers and pesticides! We need to get our bees and our butterflies back! Sorry about the soapbox, but it's a cause I really believe in....