Saving the Monarchs

[SlipperKing]

My wife, Melinda and her new passion.

I spent the last week building her this butterfly conservatory.

She already has 25 critters munching away inside.

When they're young they are more yellow.

Become blacker as they eat!

 

[tomkalina]

Now you have to plant some milkweed in your yard to attract them! P.S. Keep the caterpillars far away from your orchids !

 

[Denver]

They make absolutely gorgeous chrysalis, make sure to get some pictures of those too

 

[SlipperKing]

Good point Tom! She already has a "field" of milkweed going in the yard. That's the source of the critters in the conservatory.
What I'm most afraid of, her asking me to build another just for the plants to be safe from the caters until they grow up to be eaten!:crazy:

We have lizards that eat the young and wasps that chew off the chrysalis and fly away with them. Mel is trying to give the Monarchs the upper hand. Save the world!

 

[bullsie]

Bless her heart and tell her to keep up the good work!

 

[SlipperFan]

Good for her! There was an excellent program on the Monarch Migration last night on Public TV. Do they go through your area, Rick?

I have lots of milkweed growing wild in my front yard perennial bed and in several beds around the pond in my back yard. Nature planted them, and there they will stay.

 

[abax]

WOOHOO for you and for Melinda! We're working on bees
and bats here. Save the world a little at a time. That's
an excellent sanctuary. We build bat houses and plant a
big stand of sorghum for the bees every summer.

 

[Justin]

awesome. even the caterpillar stage is beautiful

 

[Secundino]

They fly here, too. Always some caterpillars keeping the Asclepias leafless...

 

[SlipperKing]

They fly here, too. Always some caterpillars keeping the Asclepias leafless...

Here too, leafless. But the milkweed grows so fast when left alone for any short time they leaf back out fast.
In the first pic of the Monarchs you can see the yellow/orange critters on the stem? Those are aphids. I'm guessing they get there color form the milkweed. The other thing I've been wondering, do the aphids release some kind of pheromones that in turn attract the butterflies? I find it amazing how a butterfly enters the yard from the front flutters eractly around and lands on those plants in the backyard.

 

[Secundino]

Could be. Aphids release alarm pheromones that do attract sirphids (who lay eggs in aphid colonies). Could be that the monarch does smell this alarm pheromones as well. I've never seen the caterpillars feeding on the aphids though.
Those aphids get the same poisonous colour when feeding on Adenium.

 

[NYEric]

Caterpillers - Yay!! Aphids - Booo!!

 

[cnycharles]

We have lots of Asclepias seedlings at work. Nice work trying to protect them; lizards and wasps eat them? I thought their protection was that they tasted bad and things left them alone.
When at last job, an upper sales greenhouse had two big open doors in front and a little open side door. The butterflies were able to fly around the glass sides and confidently fly directly through the openings inside

 

[Paph_LdyMacBeth]

I am absolutely in tears reading this!
Monarch Butterflies are so near to my heart. I still remember the day I saw my first monarch butterfly cat on vacation as a little girl. I thought it was a snake until my mom explained to me and showed me how to rear them
I still occasionally rear them even now, though finding catts has been tough these past few years. I always make sure to tag monarchs for their migration with monarchwatch.org tags every late summer/fall.
I hope to one day see their roosting sites in Mexico...if this opportunity will still be around

 

[Migrant13]

Nice job on the butterfly shack. Your wife must be pleased.

 

[cnycharles]

I saw the title from a LinkedIn article suggesting systemic insecticides were doing in monarchs. Related chemicals may be affecting bumble bees, which I've heard in upstate ny have been declining, and I think I observed some loss in north jersey, but without testing I couldn't say what was really happening.

That said, I saw some report stating somewhere overseas that they were suspecting honeybee colony loss disorder 'wasn't' caused by neonicotinoids. Colony loss also happened on cycles, before these chemicals were used. Though maybe part of overall picture, think much more to it

This all said, it's very difficult to be responsible and protect butterflies; they go everywhere, even into enclosed greenhouses! I previously tried to save lots of red admirals at ny greenhouse as they would come in through vents and not figure out how to get out. Also tried the same also with some monarchs at north jersey greenhouses; first workers thought I was touched in the head a bit but then when I explained how monarchs were disappearing they thought it was more cool

My uncle in upstate ny has farm where pasture on scruffy land that has a bunch of milkweed, and sadly last year that was one of the few places I saw monarchs

 

[lepetitmartien]

Without going on the subject, there's a record colony collapse of bees in France started in the south of the country and up for a few weeks.

And here, neonicotinoids are still under heavy scrutiny. Maybe not the only cause but certainly not helping.

On Monarchs, I've read a few weeks ago that one important reason why the migration is dwindling is that the essay on conservancy in the USA used plants sold by professionnal horticulturists, with the main issue to be green all year long. So the butterflies have no reason to migrate… But there's still the issue of the forests in Mexico in danger, people cuting timber when they should live on tourism with ecotourist coming in to see the impressive winter station.

 

[eaborne]

Looks great Rick! Well done!

 

[SlipperKing]

Update

Looking at the milkweed growing outside I found a Monarch egg on the top of a leaf. Normally found on the underside (white dot)

One forming the "J" hook ready to spin its chrysalis on the edge of a pot.

Mixed activity

One hanging under the bird feeder Melinda added to the house (no birds of course). You can see the outline of its wings through the green chrysalis!

The chrysalis has these beautiful gold dots near the bottom and a straight row of black dots with gold dot near the top. To the naked eye, the dots are shiny gold. It takes 2 weeks then the butterfly emerges.

 

[SlipperFan]

Very cool, Rick! Maybe some of these will end up in my yard.