4Real Forums: Monarch butterflies

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Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science

Topic: Monarch butterflies

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Karen T
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Joined: Feb 16 2005
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Posted: Oct 13 2005 at 10:49pm \| IP Logged

I ordered some milkweed plants and seeds last (June?) and planted them. I'd planned to go back to the site and order caterpillars but never got around to it, plus they emphasized how much the caterpillars eat and you better have enough milkweed available for them. I figured next year we'd have a bigger "crop" and would do it. Lo and behold, they found us anyway. Ds5 was the first to notice last weekend - 3 monarch caterpillars munching away. We waited two days but one disappeared (bird lunch?) so we put the other two in our butterfly habitat that I'd conveniently picked up on sale this summer

. Boy, they did eat a lot! But two days later they began forming the chrysalis (plural chrysalides?) Even though I'd put in several branches for them, they both hung from the top of the habitat. One hung on the netting and is OK; they other hung from the plastic top and unfortunately fell down in mid-chrysalis forming, and I guess that killed him. So now we're down to just one. It's been so neat to watch all this and show the kids.

How long now until it emerges? It's still relatively warm here in Ga. I assume it will emerge and then head across the Gulf to Mexico.

What do I feed it when it emerges? sugar water? There're very few milkweed plants still in bloom.

Karen T

Kelly
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Posted: Oct 13 2005 at 11:18pm \| IP Logged

Karen, if you go to Butterflybreeders.org and scroll down to USA breeder Tiffany Neal, you can email her from that website. I've bought a bunch of butterflies from her and she's very helpful---just tell her Kelly Beck sent you :-) I know her phone number is 941/586-5649 if you're really desperate!

You can at least temporarily feed your butterfly hatchlings red gatorade in a shallow dish, or soaked into a sponge, or even into a paper towel.

BTW when did the chrysalid fall down? If that happens again, you can simply take the chrysalid and put a touch of hot glue on the little black hanging thingy on the top of the chrysalid, then reattach the chrysalid with a safety pin thru the glue glob. Just be sure you don't touch the chrysalid with the hot part of the glue gun! Ouch. I think I put the glue onto the pin, and the instant it cooled, reattached it to the chrysalid thingy. Ask Tiffany, she'll explain better than I can. But it DOES work. Even Mommy Butterfingers here managed to reattach our chrysalid, and the butterfly hatched beautifully. I had to keep the chrysalid in the refrig for about a week until I got hold of Tiffany, and we had some anxious moments over it, but it did just fine.

Also, be sure you keep your chrysalids OUTSIDE. The inside of a house is so dry it will dry out the chrysalids. They need that outdoor humidity.

My kids actually got to watch one of our monarchs come out of its chrysalis. You can tell when it's getting close to hatching time, as the case turns from green to clear. It was really exciting.

Kelly in FL

mary
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Posted: Oct 14 2005 at 6:40am \| IP Logged

Oh, I would love to plant milkweed. It grew wild around our house when i was a child, but I haven't seen it much in Ohio. Where did you get the milkweed? I have fennal and I often find monarch caterpillars on it.

Kelly
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Posted: Oct 14 2005 at 8:07am \| IP Logged

I don't know about milkweed seed, but I have heard (again, from my "butterfly lady") that the milkweed Home Depot sells has been genetically engineered...kinda like broccoli...and isn't very good for the little critters. I've obtained "clean" milkweed plants from Tiffany, so there must be a source out there.

Kelly in FL

Karen T
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Posted: Oct 14 2005 at 9:49am \| IP Logged

I got my milkweed from Live Monarch
You can buy plants or get seeds for free. I bought ten plants and got a package of seeds with it. My ten plants produced a lot of seed, so now i'm set for next year.
You can also buy live butterflies in season, to release at events, etc. and you can get caterpillars or eggs, too.

Kelly, thanks for the website to ask. About the chrysalis that fell, by the time I saw it it had been down for a few hours. And, he had not finished making the chrysalis; there was mostly caterpillar with about 3/4 of chrysalis material over one end. Since I didn't see the other make his, i wasn't sure which end was supposed to be up (do they start from the hanging end and work toward the free end when making the chrys.?) so I was afraid hanging him back up at that point would be useless.
And yes, I have kept them outside. I figured if they normally do this in whatever weather we're having now, the inside would be too hot. I didn't think about the humidity but that makes sense.
It looks like it will be about 2 weeks until the remaining one emerges so I'll have time to arrange for feeding it.
thanks,
Karen T

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