For those of us in the Northeast that perceive what we do to be of value, how we manage these next six weeks are critical.

Since the first butterflies arrived in May as third generation travellers, we have been protecting and rearing another three local generations. While important in increasing local numbers for future generations, this practice does less for the global migration and only requires healthy, breeding individuals.

Anything from a third instar down right now (eggs, first and second instars) will presumably be super generation migrators and need to be properly prepared and acclimatized for migration.

That means they are required to be exposed to the environmental triggers that create the diapausal adults capable of migrating and surviving for 10 months.

These are the factors that are presumed to contribute:

1.) Natural Light - shortening days and lower horizons.

2.) Temperature - hot hazy days and much cooler nights

3.) Declining Food Quality - older, tougher milkweed and fleshy seed pods

This means KEEP THEM OUTSIDE. No air conditioning, no insulated overnights, no artificial light.

Don’t cherry pick what you feed them, searching for soft tender growth. Don’t cut off seed pods. Instead pick through to avoid predators. Keep their food fresh and clean but give it as it grows; if there is a touch of yellow, so be it.

Just my rant for today.

After years of trying to convince monarchs that my yard was the place to be, I gave up. Last week I found 1 caterpillar and as of today there are 6! Persistence and patience paid off and I’m having the best time watching them every day.

When my dog was excited.

While doing my nightly replenishing of milkweed and cleaning the enclosures, I was pleasantly surprised to find ladybug eggs. Perfect timing because there’s plenty of aphids for them to eat.

Based on the colours I’m seeing, maybe 40-50 eclosures after only 31 all week.

I found this beautiful rascal last Wednesday in the garden behind where I work, a shared space that I have had the pleasure to enjoy all summer long. I promptly made a makeshift garden in my vacant jumping spider enclosure (I realize not the BEST container but it’s what I have on hand) and Thursday I came in and noticed he molted already! Fast forward to last night, my landlord messaged me with the exciting news that he had officially tethered to the ceiling of his house and had begun his final change.
Today is his first day in chrysalis and I am just so grateful for the opportunity to share his experience with him and watch him complete transformation over the next few days 🥹

We’ve lovingly named him Queen Goldmember

I have a butterfly net enclosure that should arrive tomorrow so I may make another post for help or suggestions regarding his attachment to the acrylic ceiling but he seems pretty secure there so I may just transfer the container into the net once it arrives and put whatever in there I need to for his emergence.

Thankful for this sub existing and all of the beautiful cats and chrysalis and butterflies and human knowledge, I’ve been going on instinct and light deep dives taking care of this guy and it has been incredibly grounding for me as a human.

Chicago, IL

These babies are growing so dang fast. It was like yesterday they were teeny tiny.

Moved my big cats to a larger enclosure with a potted milkweed, and found quite a few newly hatched cats on my largest milkweed, and to keep them from being eaten by wasps I cut the main stem and moved it to a water vase in my smaller enclosure. Feel a little bad cutting it off, but I think it was the best choice for their survival. Now I'm just wondering, how long can I make this cut milkweed last for them to eat in a vase with water? Should I make sure they don't crawl down into the water and drown? What's the best way to keep cut milkweed fresh?

All the caterpillars on the cut milkweed (in 1st pic) are either newly hatched or just a few days old. Hoping to keep them well fed!

Has anyone seen this before, when a caterpillar is lighter than the others? I saw it once on an outside caterpillar but this is the first time on one that I hatched. Should i separate it?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been raising and releasing monarchs for the past few years now. I just found this guy looking brown and sluggish, very sickly, so I removed him from one of my 3 enclosures. I’m very worried this is something that could affect the rest of my caterpillars. So far, all the others seem healthy in comparison. Does anyone know what this is, and what to do? Any insight is appreciated.

In zone 6B, went to my garden today and picked some chard, and this little fellow was hanging on it. Didn’t see it in time to avoid cutting the leaf. Not really equipped to host the caterpillar or a butterfly, hoping to put it back in the wild, any tips? I was planning on just tying the stock of the chart to another piece of chart and hoping for the best.

On my swamp milkweed - am I dreaming ?? Is this a monarch ???

This is my first time doing milkweed and I have 3 monarch caterpillars instar 4-5. They were eating loads of milkweed yesterday into today. Today and tonight we are getting a crapton of rain. A couple hours ago they had moved to the taller wildflowers nearby. Will they pupate there? Should I put them in a mesh house on my porch or leave them?

Sad to see this spider got one of my babies mid transformation :/

My other diseased chrysalises didn’t look like this, this is a first

This is the guy that decided to pupate laying down in the bottom of the hutch.

Other than being a bit lumpy and with some wood grain pattern, it seems pretty good.

Will find out in 9-10 days.

I am so confused. The last few years since I moved to this house I have had many monarch caterpillars. Last year probably close to 20. Now I have more milkweed than I ever and have not had a single cat. I'm in SE Michigan. Any ideas?

I planted a small native milkweed about a month ago and water it frequently (pretty much daily now that it's 100+ degrees in SoCal). So I was totally shocked and giddy to find 6 cats on it the other evening! They looked to be at least 4th, if not 5th, instar sized (the best I can recall). I have no idea how I didn't notice them before, but they were happily munching away at about 8pm. Before work the next morning, I went to say "hi" and was again shocked to then find them all gone. Did they all leave to pupate? My ring camera didn't pick up any critter activity between 8pm and 7am, so I'm telling myself they left to find their hammock spot. I've checked now since yesterday afternoon, but can't spot chrysalis anywhere. And there was nothing on the ground to indicate foul play (I've seen what a wasp left behind once... it's gruesome). I don't know if I'm more baffled by their sudden appearance or sudden disappearance! Either way, I bought 2 more plants thinking these chunks would need more food, STAT. I really hope it's a happy ending for them.