Congrats I have been finding so many that i'm not even bringing them in anymore!

I have 8 cats in cages that should pupate soon. Today I found more eggs outside. I hope I have enough milkweed for this next batch coming up! (Zone 7)

Congrats. I have so many healthy milkweeds growing and barely see any bites. I do see lots of monarchs in my garden. I suspected the wasps are killing all the eggs and the cats. I haven't been able to bring them in this summer.

If you have a lot of monarchs and a lot of milkweed you are probably raising some cats and not noticing them. Unless there are a bunch they are often difficult to spot. Yes, the wasps to get the eggs and the cats, but so do ants and other critters.

Yeah I have been raising hundreds of them last year. It was a good year for it. Until I had some with OE and felt bad so I stopped collecting it and I had to cut back all of the milkweeds. Now they are looking healthy and big leaves. None are being chewed on though.

I have tons of milkweed, but I haven't seen any cats at all this year--only one last year. The milkweed took over one of my flower beds and I'm going to be digging it up to put in more vegetable space, but I will make sure I always have some growing in my yard. Otherwise I don't see Monarchs in my yard.

50-60 cats easy now in the garden. Had to relocate a few because they stripped the milkweed clean in some parts of the garden. Have plenty of milkweed plants though.

How do you keep the cats if you bring them in the house? I would like to do this if I find any on the milkweed plants that I have. Any comments greatly appreciated.

Monarchs are like other caterpillars, Gretchen. You would need to keep giving them fresh food and provide a habitat where they can breath and eventually hang from. There are various ways to keep the cuttings fresh, but they clearly last longer if you can put them in water. One way is to get a small jar filled with water; have the cuttings in a small pail, tie them up with a string and then put them into the jar with water. Find some cloth to cover the jar and bind it around the cuttings with a rubber band or more string. That way the cats won't fall into water and the cuttings will last a few days.

There are many more people here who know more about this than I do. Mostly I leave Monarch cats on the plants they hatched on. They are a little more likely to make it to adults because they don't taste very good.

Woo hoo!!

Sherry

Just counted 71 chrysalis scattered about my back yard, and about 20-30 more cats still on the milkweed!