I'm in St. Louis, and have already seen a few Monarchs. I start getting eggs/cats now-ish... when they deign my milkweed "good enough" :)

I have so many monarchs. This is the most ive seen so early, and I am worried we are going to run out of Milkweed.

I haven't seen any Monarchs yet this year.I'm in Joliet about 40 miles south of Chicago.

I have family in Joliet, wjat a small world. When i was down there I saw some orange butterfly but it could have been a Monarch or viceroy, I hopethey come your way!

It's my understanding that the majority travel north through the midwest. Maybe the reason we get them here on the east coast mostly in late summer is that some swing around to the east coast on the way back, or maybe there's just the multiplication factor with so many more monarchs coming back than going up.

OK St. Louis you get them in summer. Jacob Berg, where are you located?

Im in The Twin cities(Minneapolis, ST.Paul) minnesota, and its pretty sucky for butterflies, and i have only seen I Tiger swallowtails. Its really sad.

I'm in Sarasota Florida and have seen so many this last month. My milkweed are flowering and they visit the flowers but are not laying eggs. I've come up with a theory that they are waiting until the Milkweed goes to seed before laying. It makes sense as it allows the Milkweed to regenerate as a food source.

I think the monarchs flying around my property are probably those we raised and released. In Florida, they don't migrate.

Jane

How interesting, folks. So St. Louis is getting them but Minneapolis isn't getting any yet. I noticed back in April on the Monarch Watch first sightings map that the monarchs were ahead of schedule. I'm guessing that it may have to do with the warm late winter and with the weather being ahead of schedule. All my plants emerged about a week to 10 days ahead of normal, and bloomed ahead of schedule too.

The annual February announcement of the count was down this year. But the local monarch expert here told me that they do that count back in November and it gets analyzed over the winter and then they announce it in February. She told me that this spring the counts seem to have rallied and seem to be doing really well.

Jane it's so interesting to hear from someone from an area in which they don't migrate. I wonder what makes some migrate and some not. Maybe it's based on where they were born.

One thing I have learned is that it's still to a large part all a big mystery. There's more about them we don't know than do know. They only just discovered the migration itself in 1975.

Jacob,

I thought I remembered you were somewhere in MN. I didn't realize you were in the Twin Cities. I relocated to St Paul this January and live in an apartment downtown. Just last night I was at a party with coworkers in Hudson, WI, and saw a Tiger Swallowtail and something orange that was too fast to identify. I am hoping it was a Monarch, of course. I would love to meet up some time to chat butterflies. My husband tolerates me, but doesn't have the same interest. I also have seeds collected from the pollinator garden I left in Michigan, many of which you could probably find places for in your gardens. I will see if I can message you with my contact info privately.

Jacob, I can't see that you have messaging enabled on your Houzz profile. I think you can click on my name and message me, but I don't need you to give any personal info, unless you are comfortable.

Martha

I sent you a message im still trying to figure this site out!

Still no Monarchs.My tuberosas never emerged.The incarnata isn't looking so well. I think the weeds shaded it out too much.Got rid of the weeds blocking them.The syriaca is very happy.Have a new tuberosa plant.

Oh,hey Alex, I was looking at an Annie's catalog and they were offering an Asclepius physocarpus with the cultivar name " Family Jewels". Growing it next year for sure.

I know it as Gomphocarpus physocarpus - aka Hairy Balls! I love this plant and must find room for it somehow in my garden.

http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/site/hotplants/hairy_balls/

I plan on growing them from seed. I'm hoping they are as easy to grow from seeds as Curassavica is.

hi everyone...we are in zone 5 medina county ohio and my husband and I like to bike ride...........so on some of the trails in the area we have seen monarch in fact today we rode the Chippewa inlet trail which is a lot of natural swamp area. We spotted 4 cats on the swamp milkweed. Unfortunately I have not seen a monarch in our yard......I have planted tons of milkweed last fall and I am just waiting and examining everything everyday. Am I nuts, yes! I just want a monarch egg so very bad and early. I have 8 black swallowtail all in chrysalis form and should be opening toward the end of this week. So send the monarch our way....please!

Sandy

Jay that's a bummer about your tuberosa not coming up and the incarnata not looking so well. Wonder if in general you have enough sun? If you feel like it, send a photo of your site. Yeah I love the name family jewels. I've got two plants this year but next year am going to grow them from seed. I am not sure, but I think they don't need stratification like the others do. Thank you, TheParsley, for sending that link on the plant.

On the stratification issue by the way - this spring I started a bunch of seeds to make plants for our local elementary school, where I'm helping set up a monarch habitat. Only ones I had much luck with were the syriaca. I got a few swamps but not many. I later read that swamp needs stratification. A few years ago I was able to grow a ton of swamps from seed, but I don't remember how I did that. Those were purchased seeds though, so maybe they had done something to them to help them not need stratification.

Martha..........you living in Michigan do you get monarch and the eggs before the last generation? I just find all this butterfly watching so very interesting ...........that is why I have planted so much more milkweed......I do have the three varieties, the common, swamp and incarnata. I planted a lot of incarnate this past fall.......hoping for more eggs. The cats that we saw yesterday at the Chippewa Inlet trail have to be other generations not the fourth. I just want them to come our way earlier then just the last generation. I will be patient and keep waiting and hoping.

Sandy

Hi all, Alex here, I started this discussion. It's just great, because we can kind of see what's going on all around the country at different times in the summer. Lengthy at is, we should keep it going.

I saw one single monarch butterfly last summer in June, and I saw a single caterpillar on 6/21, that's it for this time of year.

I live in Fairfax County, VA, and our county has a monarch program for the 2nd graders. The county buys eggs and distributes them, along with cages. Each teacher gets 6 eggs and they cage-raise them and release them.

Our local Monarch expert pointed out to me that the summer one I saw last year could have been the result of the schoolkids' release.

She has also helped me understand how complex their travel patterns are. She said most of them come up from Mexico through the midwest. And that the reason we get such a slew of them in the fall here is that they have multiplied, and then are all coming south around the same time. But I guess some of them also maybe swing around to come back down the east coast? I've got Fred Urquhardt's book, so I'm going to read that and maybe that will give some insight.

Despite getting a ton of cats in the all, I still don't see many butterflies, if any, at that time of year, laying eggs. I just all of a sudden see a ton of cats on my milkweed.

So I'm wondering if maybe that means the predators are less in the fall than they are in the summer, and maybe all those cats I see are from just one or two females laying eggs.

Am hearing conflicting reports as to the monarchs' status. The February count that came out said their numbers were down. However, it seemed this year tha the sightings were up.

I have noticed that certain populations are up in our area this spring. Foxes, chipmonks, and Japanese beetles. Last spring, the squirrel population was up. Someone told me they think that was because of the long warm fall we had in 2015 (it was 60 degrees here on Christmas Day). So the squirrels had a chance to fit in an extra litter.

This spring, maybe the foxes, chipmonks and Japanese beetles are up because of the warm late winter we had here.

So, maybe by the same token, the monarchs are fitting in an extra generation. That would be nice. I looked at the sightings map in early spring and was astonished at the number of early sightings.

All the people cage-raising monarchs might be helping too. In case you don't know, a monarch egg in the wild has less than a 5% chance of reaching adulthood. However collecting eggs or caterpillars and cage-raising them increases their survival chances to 95%. I really enjoy cage-raising them it makes me feel like I'm making a difference. It's also super easy, and is a great thing to do with children.

One cool thing the expert I know does is to net a butterfly who is laying eggs, and put her in a cage with some super clean milkweed and nectar sources for a day or two. She gets up to 80 eggs in one day that way. Way easier than collecting them in the wild, where you look on the undersides of the leaves of each plant for just one or two eggs per plant.

Monarchs are just so much fun and so interesting !

Alex

Sandy,

I assume my Monarchs were one of the last generation for the year. I never tried to evaluate which generation they were. I was just happy to have them. But, I would sometimes continue to find eggs into September, so the earlier ones might have been still headed north. I don't think we ever know which butterflies are headed south, until they pick up and leave. I have had cats as late as November, despite never growing A. Currasavica. I don't imagine many of those late-comers made it back to Mexico.

FYI, I am now in St Paul MN

Martha

Interesting............in 2015 I had monarch cats July 22nd in zone 5 ohio which were already a good size; to me that would not be the last generation. Its puzzling but fun!

Sandy

@Alex I do the same as your expert. Its very easy, and I get a lot more than her. Useally about a 100, then I release her, but with the monarch cats, I bring them to a nursing home and the residents love to watch them grow. I have a lot of fun with that!

Jacob

Oh man that is awesome that you bring them to a nursing home! Helpful to know how many you get in a day doing the capture thing. I am starting to formulate a picture in my mind, and I think you all in the midwest just get a lot more of them than we do on the east coast. Maybe because that's where the largest quantities of milkweed have always been until recently when farming has wiped a lot of it out.

If you look at the northward travel patterns map, the heavy bulk of them seem to go straight up into the midwest from Mexico. Although I am hearing that this year, the east coast sightings are heavier.

Here in Joliet I do see Monarchs.Used to see Viceroy's and Fritillaries but not anymore.Alex,my Tuberosa probably died because it was downhill from the three new Barbara's Buttons I got last year. I was so intent on keeping them moist that I think the Tuberosas got too wet.The incarnata was a light issue.They were planted in a sunny spot,but Erigeron weeds overtook the garden in spring and smothered them for too long. I cleared the weeds,but I think the poor thing had like only 3 stems. I have a new Tuberosa and the syriaca is doing quite well. I can want to add some more species. Prairie Milkweed,Showy Milkweed,Ice Ballet, I saw a real bizarre one that's hardy in our zones.Very short and stout, it's called something like A. latifolia. Maybe we can do a seed swap.The hairy balls seeds for something I have. I have lots of natives.Annuals and perrenials.What don't you have that you want? I can plant curassavica outside and have it bloom,but last time I started it inside for earlier blooms.Before that I was getting plants at the nursery.Maybe I will just start both annuals outside early next year and really baby them so they grow fast. I have a picture of the garden cleaned up after removing all the horseweed.It looks a bit sparce, but there are small annual volunteers coming up and I'm going to move some to fill everything in. If you blow up the picture and look towards the back left you should be able to spot the syriacas.Hey Jacob what's up! It is a small world and what's really funny is I have family in Minneapolis.My niece,and my sister is moving there in July.