People are talking about this on the Monarch Watch Forum, too. Much more sickness this year. Several topics on this. If any one has any insight, please share.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rearing Monarchs

I ended up releasing about 95 adults last year, and although I did have some casualties, it wasn't nearly what it's been this year. Of course, I am watching them closely and immediately removing any that are sick. Oddly, I have seen only 4 adult Monarchs in my yard all season. I ID'd two of them as males, and I did observe the female that laid the eggs on my milkweed. I should have gotten my magnifying glass out to get a good look at her. I did snap a few pics of her. I will go back and take a look at them.

I have had a horrible year and have done a lot of research. It seems to be happening to a lot of raisers. It's so bizzare. I released an absolutely perfect female yesterday, but in that same bunch, I had over half of the caterpillars die. I changed out containers, consolidated, sterilized, changed foods, etc. The difficult thing is that I can't seem to find a solution. If all the cats in a particular batch died of the same thing, then maybe I could isolate the cause; but the cats are dying in different ways. Some just quit eating and shrink up and go limp. Others do the stinky black death thing. Others pupate, and out comes the rappeling ropes and the alien invaders. Even the invaders are not all alike. I've had yellow pupae, red pupae, and brown pupae. I feel like I've seen it all. I'm destroying a lot of livestock also, as I see signs of sickness, ie, pale colored frass (beige), loose bowels, any larva that doesn't have perfect stripes.

I can't isolate a particular milkweed, or a particular location. It's just happening. I found a good website with disease info that I'll share. I've communicated with this person in trying to ID the problem. Her research has been very helpful.

Sandy

Here is a link that might be useful: Monarch diseases

Thanks Sandy. I am sorry that you have had a terrible year with the Monarchs. I will be interested to see what actually ecloses from my bunch this year. Last year, I didn't have one cat which began pupating and then died partway through. I also didn't have any of the black goopy ones last year. Seems like Tachnid Fly was my biggest issue last year, and there were not too many of those. I haven't seen the pale colored frass, but I am seeing the larva with imperfect striping. Your link was really helpful, especially the disease page.

hmmmm...sorry to hear about your sick monarchs.

I have one suggestion (though this is just a hunch on my end). I have raised monarchs for 25 years and never had a widespread disease outbreak.

The only precautions I take are:

1. rinsing the leaves thoroughly with cold water (no bleach) before I put them into the cat cage

2. emptying the cage of cat poop daily, and wipe the cage floor with a wet paper towel.

I have raised probably 200 this year and had 2 deaths. one caterpillar mysteriously stopped eating and died, and another one died during eclosing....he was hanging half way down the cage by a single thread.

3. the other rule I try and follow is not to add any caterpillars found outside to the brood....just eggs. I broke that rule multiple times this year though.

Hope 2011 is a better year for your monarchs! Tony

Yellow chrysalis can be a mutation. Some one I know in PA got them this year. Chip Taylor at Monarch Watch was very excited when he found out.

"See pp 50-51 of the 99 MW Season Summary - downloadable from the website (see link below) As far as I know, this was the first report of this mutation."

Here is a link that might be useful: 99 MW Season Summary

Wow, that's a bummer to hear about these various sicknesses, hope that next year everybody's Monarchs will have improved health.

I've released 41 Monarchs so far this year, and have 9 more in chrysalises, for a total of 50. This is the 2nd year I've reared them, the 1st year was 2008 when I released 19 Monarchs.

Overall they have been very healthy this year. I've had about 20% losses (much improved over the first year) most of which have been due to my clumsiness or lack of experience. I squished a cat, dropped a tiny 1st instar on the carpet, dumped another in the compost, etc. Only one chrysalis has failed to eclose to a healthy butterfly, and that was the one I dropped on the tile floor - ooops. Although one female eclosed with a deformed leg - so she was like a 3 legged butterfly.

Several small cats did turn black and die early on, however, again that was my fault - I was "spritzing' the cuttings to keep them fresh, which was getting the caterpillars wet. Then quickly read the rearing container must be kept DRY - and stopped the spritzing - no more cats turned black and died. :)

Hey Terrene, it works better if you spritz the leaves before you put the caterpillars on them. I actually run each leaf under the faucet with cool water and then shake it off.

(I also transfer all my cats onto new leaves and discard all the old ones)

Just make sure when the caterpillars are tiny you don't leave any big droplets on the leaves they could accidentally drown in.

Caterpillars enjoy the water (just watch them as they turn their heads down and move back and forth...I'm assuming their drinking it unless someone has a better explanation) and it definitely keeps the leaves fresh longer.

Tony

wow Sandy,
sounds like a tough summer down there for the butterflies. If it hasn't happened in 30 years, I pray it doesn't happen to you for another 30. Sounds like you are doing all you can to help them. Good luck with the rest of your monarchs.

I have four chrysalids, and one instar 2 or 3 cat who better hurry if he wants to make the flight to Mexico!

one more thing. I finally understand that "eclosed" means emerging from the chrysalis. I assumed it meant pupating. sorry for any confusion in other posts :)

I am so sorry to hear of everyone's losses and frustrations. A year like that might make me rethink raising these beauties. It would be disappointing.

This year has been very good to us. Best ever actually. We raised 67 in August with only 2 casualties. At this point we are releasing another 27 and we have 30+ cats in early to mid instars.

I am wondering if the weather would be a factor. We had the 'perfect' summer - nice and warm, one day of rain per week, and the odd hot day thrown in. Yet most of you had a terribly hot and dry summer which may have stressed nature in more ways than we know and expect. Just a thought.

I do hope the situation rectifies itself and that 2011 brings better results!!

I still think our horrid humidity has been a factor. I have lost several, too, Sandy. But, I noticed that a few have died on the actual plants in the garden, just hanging limp, but not damaged by other insects or anything. This warm, sticky humidity can't be good for them either. The aphids, milkweed bugs, milkweed leaf beetles, numbers are extremely high this year, too. They could be vectors of disease as well. I wash the foliage, and the next day there seems to be double the number of aphids have found their way back to the plants.

But, that's not stopping them from laying eggs, is it? I have at least one female making daily deposits, even though I am almost out of milkweed at this point. I also had more Black Swallowtails, when the fennel was just mere stalks. They found their way to the Zizia and are all over it! So, this is just a very nice backup plant to fennel, dill, and Rue. It must be kinda like having bologna after getting used to Ribeyes!

Susan

I wonder too if there is something environmental going on - weather, pesticides, mold counts, who knows, that may be affecting the health of the larvae in some regions.

Tony, it makes sense that the cats and pupae would be quite comfortable with water, because they would normally get rain falling on them when they are growing outside. But when I stopped spritzing no more cats died, so the container environment inside must be much different. I am fairly meticulous about cleanliness, rinse or soak the cutting with lots of filtered water, have clean hands, clean towels, and clean frass frequently. FWIW I use distilled white vinegar to clean the containers, and vodqa to clean the tools and the plastic wrap around the floral foam cubes which hold the cuttings. (Because vinegar and vodqa are safe to consume, I feel they are safer disinfectants in the kitchen. Don't know for sure that vinegar works as well as bleach though.)

Susan, this was my first year raising BSTs, and I didn't have to go out and search for unsprayed parsley because of the Zizia aptera plants. Their leaves turned out to be a great back up. The bigger BST cats just munched them down.

I wonder if the drought around here has been a main contributor to these casualties. After releasing all of my black swallowtails and monarchs successfully, I just had my two youngest monarch cats die. Both just stopped eating, shrank, and died. I collect fresh milkweed frequently, but I'm wondering if the drought has caused the milkweed to be too dry. Leading to problems with dehydration??? Maybe this made them more susceptible to disease and pests. This is my first season rearing butterflies, so it was just something I was wondering.
Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden and caterpillars

Terrene, what kind of cage do you raise your monarchs in?

Years ago, we had one summer where I though we had our first disease outbreak. we had always raised our cats in plastic ice cream buckets. Well, it turned out the bucket we used that year was toxic! The second we switched to a glass container all the sluggish caterpillars suddenly perked back up.

Now I have two cages:

This was my main cage this year. it works well except for when the caterpillars are in their first few days, they can crawl through the mesh: (so I put the wee ones in a glass bowl with paper over the top...only lost 1 adventurous cat this summer)

http://store.discovery.com/detail.php?p=86231&v=discovery_toys-games_type_animals-bugs

I also got another cage for next summer. I plan to put potted tropical milkweed plants and raise TONS of butterflies in a mini greenhouse:

http://www.amazingbutterflies.com/butterfly_castles.htm

I had one strange occurrence at the beginning of the summer. The first two monarch eggs I brought in off the tropical milkweed turned completely black so I just tossed them after a couple days. Nothing out of the ordinary after that.

Here's to healthy cats and butterflies in 2011! Tony

Hi Tony, for the smaller cats I use the deep Gladware containers, and for the larger cats large plastic salad boxes, which are about the size of a shoebox. The salad boxes are great because they're clear all the way around and it's easy to observe that cats. I used to use them for winter-sowing, but they work even better for raising butterflies. They have holes punched in the top and the bottom, although I lay paper towel on the bottom.

These types of containers seem to work well, but they are a much more closed in environment than the mesh pop-up cages that you use. Your cages would have a lot more air flow. Don't you think if you spritz then the moisture would dry out much faster?

Hi Terrene,

I would imagine the mesh containers dry out faster and the bottoms absorb moisture rather than leaving a potential standing water hazard. (but your paper towels solve that problem)

Your cages sound good... RAISE ON!

As I slowly pulled out of my driveway today (very narrow), I noticed the two milkweed plants that I have growing next to it had one large, probably 5th instar, caterpillar hanging limp on a stem. Another was chomping happily nearby. On return from my errand, I checked it out, thinking "big, bad black death" and wondering what I should do - move the other caterpillars on the plant, or what. Two-thirds of the caterpillar were black, the front and the back, and the middle still looked like the normal colors of a Monarch cat.

When I was able to more closely check it out, I discovered the culprit - a spined soldier bug! Drat those things. I though the cats were large enough that they would leave them alone. But, no. I grabbed it and squished it quickly. I have had tons of them this summer.

So, if it's not disease, it is predators!

I may change my strategy this fall and do a heavy cleanup, risking the loss of overwintering chrysalises, in order to hopefully get rid of some of the overwintering bugs and eggs. Sigh.....

Susan

I've only released 11 monarchs this year. I quit brining them in around the beginning of the year when I couldn't help but notice that 100% of them were dying. I don't find them surviving on the plants in the yard, potted plants, nothing. And mine were not in contaminated containers, just on live (most new-growth or new seedlings) plants.

A couple of weeks ago we brought home some eggs we found when we came upon a patch of milkweed, and many eggs that were on dead leaves. We figured they'd blow away before the little guys could get to the good leaves. Anyway, those all did fine, which leads me to believe our local population is infected with something that is already with them as eggs? Is this possible?

The recent batch came from only about 6 miles from home. But apparently disease-free.

????

All the other guys are doing great though, at least!

kelly