After some looking, they appear to be Cabbage White eggs. We just covered a whole field full of Milkweed and we didn't find a single Monarch cat or egg. This is definitely not my area of expertise but could it be too early yet? We live in southern Michigan and we've had a few warm days, but some pretty cold nights as well. Any insight would be appreciated.

Cabbage whites only lay their eggs on members of the cabbage family, so I seriously doubt they're cabbage whites. They're most likely milkweed tussock moth eggs, since they lay their eggs in clusters. I've never had these tussock moths myself - hopefully, somebody else who has can tell us for sure if that's what they are.

Sherry

I looked at the eggs compared to what I have and they seem to look different, but I'm sure they are some type of moth. We looked all day for a caterpillar and found nothing, we came inside and I was giving my son a bath and I looked on my shoulder and there was one crawling around! No idea what it is or if it can be identified at this stage, but possibly? Here's the picture. Thanks!

If you are in Michigan, it is too early for Monarchs. I'm in Grand Rapids and I've been raising Monarchs for many years. It takes a month or so for the Monarchs to travel this far from Mexico, or to raise generations of offspring to complete the trip. I've not had much luck until late June, or even July. You could check the old maps from Journey North. That would tell you when the first Monarchs have been seen in Michigan in previous years, so you would know when to start looking. Have you planted a butterfly garden? That's something you can do while you wait.

Martha

I just went to the Journey North archives, and there have been sitings in late May. At least last year. So, I guess it isn't too early to start looking. One tip I can offer is that Monarch moms prefer to lay eggs on the young sprouts. When I had volunteer seedlings scattered around the bottoms of my established clumps of milkweed, chances were much better that the eggs would be on the seedlings/sprouts rather than on the mature plants. Good luck.

Martha

Thanks for all of the info Martha. We will be going out again this weekend I'm sure to check the milkweed to see what we can find. For now the caterpillar that we found seems to be doing well and are curious to see what it transforms into!

The picture is awfully blurry for me, but my first thought is that they are ladybug eggs.