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  • Results 1 to 13 of 13

    Thread: Monarch caterpillars

    1. #1
      My2butterflies is offline Senior Member
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      Monarch caterpillars

      My mom gave me some plants a couple years ago, butterfly plants she called them. I do believe they are swamp milkweed though. Last year we were lucky to find a couple monarch caterpillars on one plant. It was very exciting. I’ve only ever seen them in person one other time.
      This year I have multiple plants that grew from seeds I flung around the yard. I didn’t think any of them would take, but now I have plants mixed in with my lilac bush and hostas.
      I’ve been checking the plants over for caterpillars for weeks now and last night I was shocked to find 9! All of my scattered groups of milkweed have caterpillars on them
      One was so tinny
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      But most were bigger
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      Just thought I’d share some pictures of these awesome guys
      I’ll be collecting seeds this year to plant more milkweed in my gardens.

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    2. #2
      cindy's Avatar
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      Bring them inside in a big container with air and milkweed. Put a paper towel on the bottom for poop. A stick for them to attach to.
      The bright color makes them a quick target for the birds. Fun to watch them turn into a chrysalis and then open to a butterfly and release. I got got a bunch of milkweed for my bee garden from forestry.

    3. #3
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      Thats really cool...borderline gross...but cool. Caterpillars give me the hibbie jibbies.
      I hope you keep us updated on their transformation
      -Rain

      :I CAN'T BRING THIS SHIP INTO TRTUGA ALL BY ME ONESIES, SAVVY?:

    4. #4
      My2butterflies is offline Senior Member
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      @cindy I had thought about it, but for now we are just leaving them alone. My garden is pretty packed with plants. Hopefully that gives them the cover they need to hide from birds.


      @rainblood I hope they stick around. I’d love to see cocoons in the garden. If they do I will for sure share pictures.

    5. #5
      ricshaw is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by My2butterflies View Post
      @cindy I had thought about it, but for now we are just leaving them alone. My garden is pretty packed with plants. Hopefully that gives them the cover they need to hide from birds.


      @rainblood I hope they stick around. I’d love to see cocoons in the garden. If they do I will for sure share pictures.
      That is what we do... leave them alone. Sometimes we have so many Monarch Butterfly caterpillars, the bigger one eat all the leaves off the milkweed plants and the younger caterpillars starve to death.


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    6. #6
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      Quote Originally Posted by ricshaw View Post
      That is what we do... leave them alone. Sometimes we have so many Monarch Butterfly caterpillars, the bigger one eat all the leaves off the milkweed plants and the younger caterpillars starve to death.
      Wow. So far I don’t think I’ll run out. I have a good number of plants, plus common milkweed growing along my driveway. Oddly enough I can’t find any caterpillars on them. I never have. They seem to prefer the swamp milkweed. All the more reason for me to go crazy planting more

    7. #7
      ricshaw is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by My2butterflies View Post
      Wow. So far I don’t think I’ll run out. I have a good number of plants, plus common milkweed growing along my driveway. Oddly enough I can’t find any caterpillars on them. I never have. They seem to prefer the swamp milkweed. All the more reason for me to go crazy planting more
      Where I live we do not have swamp milkweed or an abundance of nature milkweed growing. People buy milkweed plants at nurseries for Monarch conservation. Monarch butterfly conservation awareness starts at schools with kids.

    8. #8
      icu2's Avatar
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      I've seen several Monarch butterflies this year but never knew about the importance of milkweed. I'm going to see if I can grow
      some to attract the caterpillars as I've never seen one in the yard. They're beautiful to watch flutter around all day.
      --Steve



      Koiphen 2021 Koi Person of the Year!

    9. #9
      icu2's Avatar
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      In the search for milkweed plants I was getting a little discouraged because it seemed like most varieties
      grew east of the Cascade mountains where the weather is a lot warmer than we get... but I stumbled on
      a FB site that had seeds for the cost of a couple stamps and some for the cooler side of WA too. I thought
      I'd share in case anyone else is interested in giving it a try:

      https://www.facebook.com/pg/VoteForM...=page_internal
      --Steve



      Koiphen 2021 Koi Person of the Year!

    10. #10
      My2butterflies is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by icu2 View Post
      In the search for milkweed plants I was getting a little discouraged because it seemed like most varieties
      grew east of the Cascade mountains where the weather is a lot warmer than we get... but I stumbled on
      a FB site that had seeds for the cost of a couple stamps and some for the cooler side of WA too. I thought
      I'd share in case anyone else is interested in giving it a try:

      https://www.facebook.com/pg/VoteForM...=page_internal
      That’s awesome
      We always get so many monarchs I never realized how few there are out there. I’ll have to take pictures later this summer when the large groups come through. And seeing there are is such a need for milkweed seeds I could start collecting some to give away

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    11. #11
      mafraley is offline Junior Member
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      My mil grows the milkweed and has had some success with chrysalises actually producing butterflies but I never see them around her place. It seems they mature and then fly away. :-(

    12. #12
      ricshaw is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by icu2 View Post
      In the search for milkweed plants I was getting a little discouraged because it seemed like most varieties
      grew east of the Cascade mountains where the weather is a lot warmer than we get... but I stumbled on
      a FB site that had seeds for the cost of a couple stamps and some for the cooler side of WA too. I thought
      I'd share in case anyone else is interested in giving it a try:

      https://www.facebook.com/pg/VoteForM...=page_internal
      Down South where I live, the nurseries carry potted tropical Milkweed plants (supply and demand). Recently, there has been concern that the tropical Milkweed plants are not as good as the harder to grow native Milkweed plants.

      Is Tropical Milkweed Killing Monarch Butterflies?

      “When tropical milkweed is planted in the coastal southern U.S. and California, these plants continue to flower and produce new leaves throughout the fall and winter, except during rare freeze events."
      Last edited by ricshaw; 07-21-2018 at 11:43 AM.


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    13. #13
      ricshaw is offline Senior Member
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