Congratulations Miss sherry! After all the 'dire' warnings about the monarch population, it sounds like because of the warm temps, rain, and early milkweed we are going to rebound BIG TIME in 2012...

I think you're right, Tony!

My Mama monarch laid so many eggs on my little milkweeds, that I went to the nursery where I bought the two new ones, and bought the six plants she had left. Well, guess what? The old gal must have visited the nursery, because there are monarch eggs all over this milkweed, too! So there still won't be enough leaves to feed all these cats, assuming they all hatch. Maybe I'll get lucky and the eggs on my plants are duds, since my faded Mama must be old, and the eggs on the plants I just bought were laid by another monarch.
Oh well...

Sherry

Congratulations Sherry! The Journey North Maps are showing a lot of movement toward the NE this year. I haven't seen anymore around here since I saw my first one about a week ago. But, it got me out to purchase plants in case. Sometimes I don't see the Monarch, but find eggs.

Just because the Mom looked to be on her last wings, doesn't mean the eggs will be duds. I had a very tattered female hang around and lay 100s of eggs two years ago. She came back everyday for 5 days. I think everyone of those eggs was fertile. I was still selling milkweed, so I had hundreds of plants. She decorated each and every one of them.

Have fun raising them!

Sandy

Congrats congrats on the spring Monarch eggs, Sherry! Wow, a first for you! It just makes you wonder what it is about a particular year that makes butterflies act in a particular way, huh. I know it's been warmer than usual, but still, it just makes you wonder. Sorry to hear though that the plants you just bought also have eggs on them. Here's hoping for some fast-growing plants.
Cathy

I know, Sandy, they are probably all viable eggs. :(
That's not usually a problem, but I don't have that much MW early in the year. Interesting to hear that there's a lot of movement to the northeast - I can verify that's true!
Cathy, I don't know if the warmer than usual weather has made them move this way or not. It's normal for me to get eggs/cats in the late summer and early fall, not the early spring.

I guess I'll just have to put plenty of chicken manure around the plants and hope for the best. There's a little A. longifolia (I think that's the name) that's growing here now, but I've never found an egg or cat on it. I might also check the A. lanceolata on Hwy. 49 and see if it's got a decent amount of leaves yet. As I recall, it takes a while for that to happen, but this warm weather might have gotten the growth started earlier.

Sherry

Congrats to you Sherry! I do not normally have egg laying Monarchs until August here, but last year they got blown off course in the spring migration and I had eggs in mid-April. Not a good thing here, as food isn't plentiful then. My friend in north Florida is covered up in Monarch eggs/cats right now. The Pipevine cats are so cool.

Wow! How exciting! Good luck feeding the little piglets. I can't wait for Monarchs to show up here!

They should be there soon, terrene!
I planted the six additional MWs yesterday evening - 'added a good amount of chicken manure to the planting holes and around them.
I love the pipevine cats, Angie - just watching them is interesting!

Sherry

Guess what? I found Monarch eggs also today! I was driving along not even a whole block away from my own property. There it was...a Monarch mother flying around where I knew there were wild Antelope Horns. So took some eggs home. No eggs on my own milkweed (that I can find). I've seen Monarchs flying for almost a month, but never many...one or two seen at a time.

I finally saw one today but wasn't close enough to tell if male or female. I'll check the milkweed tomorrow.

Other than PVS, has anyone seen many other Swallowtails? I am waiting with tons of fennel for them.

I sure hope the GFs make it to Oklahoma this year as well. I have passion vine coming up like crazy.

My Wild Indigo buds are about to burst open, so waiting on the WIDs as well.

I wanted to get some dwarf snaps, but I'm afraid our weather is getting too hot for them to last very long. It's going to be 90 degrees tomorrow!

Oh, Tigers are another one I haven't seen yet either, and usually they get here right after the Cabbage Whites.

Congrats, MissSherry! I'm so happy to see you getting Monarchs again!

Susan

Susan,

Put the dwarf snaps in a bowl/pot and keep them in the shade. I've kept them all summer this way.

I found Pipevine Swallowtail eggs today! I've had female Monarchs coming through this week, but haven't seen any eggs. Saw my first Variegated Fritillary and Am Painted Lady. Hope I'll get some more eggs soon. I have a school presentation on Tuesday, so I'm glad I have eggs that I can show the students.

I've seen Black Swallowtails, Spicebush Swallowtails, and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails. I also saw some Common Checkered Skippers in the garden. It's looking like a great year. Now . . . please no freezing temps!

Sandy

Congrats, Sandy on the eggs and the sightings!

I found two dead pipevine swallowtails today, and it didn't look like a natural death. Then I found a third dead one, with the culprit attached -

{{gwi:456395}}

I figured it had to be a stink bug, since they're the only ones I've ever known to kill/eat a pipevine swallowtail. I believe this one is a nymph Podisus maculiventris/spined soldier bug.
I've been bringing in pipevine swallowtail cats all evening. I found another stink bug, this one green, but appeared to be a younger version of the same type stink bug. I squished both bugs.

I brought in the tiger swallowtail egg to raise. I'll probably get a few spicebush swallowtails and a few more palamedes to raise, also.

'Makes me sick to see my cats get killed!

Sherry

Grrrrrr - I hate those spined solder bugs - they get my GF cats mostly and I find their dead, limp bodies on the passion vine. I've even seen them in their mouths.... I try to squish them whenever I find them and can catch them.

I am so sorry they got your babies.

Susan

No more stink bugs have turned up in my garden, so the outside caterpillars are fine, and the ones in the cage on the porch have started emptying their bowels all at once - yuk! It smells terrible! But I'm glad they'll soon be pupating. A female pipevine swallowtail was out in the garden today, and I've found two more batches of eggs - they just keep adding to the group. The pipevines keep colonizing more and more, so there are more and more vines with leaves for cats to eat, though, so everything's fine.

The monarchs are growing steadily, though not as quickly as I'm accustomed to. I got this picture of a couple of them -

{{gwi:456397}}

I found some tiny red-spotted purples and spicebush swallowtail cats today. I got this picture of a hatchling spicebush swallowtail -

{{gwi:456398}}

Sherry

All the caged monarchs have made their chrysalis, and all the ones outside got real big and fat and left their food plants in a skeletal condition. Hopefully, they'll regrow pretty quickly, A. currasavica usually does. I found this chrysalis on the fence near pipevines -

{{gwi:456400}}

I released the last caged American lady. This one was big, probably female, and, unlike the others, she paused outside on a bush to bask -

{{gwi:456518}}

Sherry

All the monarchs I raised myself have emerged except one straggler. There were quite a few females, but the only one that landed in a bush where I could make his picture was a male -

{{gwi:456519}}

The milkweed is growing back, so, hopefully, they'll be big enough to support more monarchs this fall!

Sherry