I've got Asclepias all over the yard and I've only seen maybe 2 monarchs the whole summer. I've not seen many butterflies this year at all. The majority have been tiger swallowtails and silver-spotted skippers. I live near Baltimore.

Bonnie

I'm with Bonnie. Lots of swallowtails, lots of milkweeds--both incarnata ans tuberosa--no monarchs

I took 15 EGGS off my common milkweed in the last two days. I never see caterpillars - so I'm assuming that something eats the eggs or the tiny caterpillars. I assume that the caterpillars are not toxic for at least a few days until they get a few meals inside them, so they are primo food until the milkweed toxicity kicks in.

The first thing the caterpillar does is chew a line through the leaf perpendicular to a vein, and then it eats from the leaf above the cut, that is, the part of the leaf that is now "cut off" from the toxic sap. They do that for a few days, and then start eating like normal caterpillars. I also think that wilts and softens the leaf for them.

I've raised a lot of monarchs from eggs - the secret is to keep them on lightly dampened paper towels in a partly closed container until they can regulate their own moisture. That happens when they are about 1/3 inch long.

There is usually only one egg per leaf. The most interesting thing to me is that the eggs are often on the plants' big lower leaves, not the tender top leaves. Hence the line cutting. I think at the early stages they will eat eggs and each other if they get the chance, so only 1 egg per container. A plastic Glad freezer container is a good butterfly habitat. A smear of petroleum jelly around the top edge will keep them from walking away.

I had a couple on my dill the weekend of the 9th/10th. Haven't seen any on the Asclepias, though mine are just really starting to kick-in...

I've never known monarch caterpillars to feed on dillweed.
Does everyone know where Hampton House Historic Site is? It is near Towson, I was there last week. The last partere down in back of the house has thousands of common milkweed. There are many monarchs, both adults and cats.
Am glad that noone on this thread mentioned Buddleia or Butterfly bush, it is really junk food for butterflies.
If we really want to promote butterfly and moth populations we want the larval food like pussytoes, sassafras, spicebush, pipevine, all the asclepias, white turtlehead just to name a few.
Irvine Science Center has a plant sale free and open to the public Saturday 08/23, these host plants will be offered there. This is at the new location on Garrison Forest Rd.
Sam

Here is a link that might be useful: Irvine Science Center

Okay, so the monarchs were black swallow tails...I thought it was a little strange they were on the dill, but it is near the asclepias so I thought maybe. But low and behold, my asclepias were covered in caterpillars over the weekend!

We're new at butterfly gardening & have a lot to learn. HELP! In the early spring, Jim & I planted 2 milkweed plants in hopes of attracting some Monarch butterflies. The milkweed plant grew tall, bloomed and offered up many seed pods. However, we hadn't noticed any Monarch butterflies in the yard. Well, all of that changed about 2 weeks ago. We saw our first Monarch Butterfly enjoying our milkweed plants. The cameras came out in full force. We got some great shots. In addition to gracing us with such beauty, the Monarch Butterfly gifted us with lots of little eggs. I was so excited!

It didn't take us long to figure out that the 2 milkweed plants were not going to be enough to feed all of these little hungry caterpillars. So, after calling around, we headed off to a nursery to purchase more milkweed plants. It's late in the season and most nursaries don't have milkweed at all. Anyway, we went to THE SECRET GARDEN and came home with 6 plants. Today, one week later, we went back to THE SECRET GARDEN and purchased 12 more plants. We must have 40 caterpillars. I'm afraid that we're still not going have enough milkweed to feed them. We've called around and it will be a week before milkweed will be delivered to the 2 nurseries that carry it. I don't think we have a week!

My husband says we should pick some to save and sacrafice the rest. I'm just not willing to consider that option until I've done everything I can to save them all. I sure wish that I knew where some wild milkweed was growing. Do you have any suggestions? I just don't know what to do. Many of the catterpillars are 2 inches long. I'd hoped that they'd go into their cacoon stage by now. How do you tell when they're about ready to cacoon? Anyway, I'd appreciate any information you could offer.

B

Thanks,
B

I brought a bunch of asclepias in the house and was arranging them in a vase when I noticed there were lots of caterpillars, from teeny ones up to inch long ones. I've been watching them munch. I'll have to set the stems outside soon, I guess.

You can find Asclepias syriaca on sides of roads. Cut some stems and bring them home, place in a vase or glass with water. Cover the top of the vase around the stems with plastic or aluminum foil to keep the caterpillars from falling into the water.
I've used 5 gallon plastic buckets with milkweed inside them and a screen over the top to raise and release monarchs in years past.

We had the swallowtails take over my parsley on the deck. We had the same problem with them eating us out of all the parsley we could provide. It was an interesting exercise in watching the demand outstrip the supply. As the parsley diminished, the caterpillars did also. I do not know if they died off or cocooned. We do have a number of cocoons on the deck and presumably in the scarlet runner beans on the other side of the deck.

As the parsley went to zero, we eventually went down from a high of 16 to a single caterpillar and then it was gone too. Next year, much more parsley.

We did see a swallowtail butterfly check out the parsley stubs over the weekend, but the Vizsla nearly caught it and the butterfly has not been back since.

I'm going to hear Jim Gallion speak Tuesday night in Montgomery Co. It's important to learn the life cycles and food sources of butterflies. I am always fascinated by the migration of the monarchs, some other species overwinter in mid-Atlantic. It should be a good talk.

Here is a link that might be useful: MNPS Butterfly Talk