6 bigger ones disappeared on Thursday. I hope they are alive. There were 6 more still on the milkweed yesterday. They weren't full size when I saw them last. We had really electric thunderstorms all last evening and during the night with some heavy rain. This morning it is cool and wet. I can't see any caterpillars. They were eating like crazy yesterday. I'll check later. I can't wait to see if any new Monarchs appear. It's been really interesting learning about them.
Newly Hatched
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Re: Newly Hatched
My sister-in-law has a monarch house and is on her second batch of hatches. So, cool. Last year they were away and I got to let one out. Good luck.
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Re: Newly Hatched
I never found any chrysalises and never saw any new Monarchs. 6 bigger ones left first, then a few days later 4 more bigger ones left. I assumed they went off to turn into butterflies when I couldn't find them, but it occurred to me they could just as easily have been eaten by rodents - I have several kinds here. There were 2 left one medium sized and one smaller one. The smaller one started shrinking then disappeared. I found the medium sized one dead in the garden. I left it there. The next morning it was gone. That's when I thought maybe none of them made it to chrysalises. Gophers will eat anything - plant or animal. I also read that mice will eat the caterpillars.
I got several more milkweed plants. I am making a "caterpillar rearing" cage for the next time. I will bring them in as caterpillars and let them go when they have changed. I got the design for the cage and information about Monarchs from this website.
https://monarchlab.org/biology-and-rese ... l-enemies/
I got several more milkweed plants. I am making a "caterpillar rearing" cage for the next time. I will bring them in as caterpillars and let them go when they have changed. I got the design for the cage and information about Monarchs from this website.
https://monarchlab.org/biology-and-rese ... l-enemies/
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