Danielle found several tiny caterpillars on the milkweed plants today! She was so excited!! (She also wanted to be sure Aunt Leah knew.) At one point, Danielle counted 10 very tiny ones, and one larger one. There are at least another 20 eggs waiting to hatch. I'm sure we will not have enough milkweed to feed everyone, but hopefully enough caterpillars will survive and successfully change into butterflies.
3 comments:
Looks like a bumper crop! :) Are you going to try to keep any in your butterfly cage?
I would like to try bringing some in. I remember you mentioning it wasn't as easy as it sounded, though. I just don't think we're going to get another chance at this this year. The weather will turn cold before too long and if a good portion of the caterpillars survive, we won't have any food left anyway. So, I kind of feel like I have to get it right this time!
I read that monarchs usually only lay 1 egg per leaf, so we must have a very unusual mama monarch. I know they won't all make it, but Danielle and I counted almost 30 caterpillars today and around 15 eggs! Most of the caterpillars are 1st instar, but there are a couple 2nd instar. There are suddenly lots of aphids, too (which are very gross).
I was thumbing through some old Family Funs (looking for ideas for Caleb's birthday) and ran across an article about a family in Minnesota that raised wild monarchs inside. They put stems of milkweed in a vase and then put a small table over the stems so that the leaves brushed against the legs of the table. They said the caterpillars just climbed up the table legs and made their chrysalis on the bottom of the table. If you waited until they are close to the chrysalis stage, maybe that would work (the milkweed seems to go south pretty fast after you cut it).
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