What the heck?! I posted about an hour ago and that post has disappeared! So, here I go again.

The wasps and birds make it hard for my Monarchs to make it from the egg to butterfly. The aphids and milkweed beetles also make the plants very unattractive. So, I’ve decided to go against my “Don’t fool with Mother Nature” mantra and try to protect them.

So I moved most of the eggs and cats (including 1 Queen in the first pic below) to the safety in an enclosure on my screened lanai today.

As I said on my swallowtail post, the enclosure is against the house so it gets no direct sun but the mesh sides and top allow for air circulation. There's also a clear plastic side for easier viewing though I prefer to unzip the side and view them unobstructed :)

I bought 4 pots of pesticide free milkweed yesterday (from a favorite local nursery that grows them for butterfly host plants) that will be grown inside the screened lanai to be used for food for the Monarchs I'm raising in an enclosure on the lanai.

I'm posting this in both the Butterfly and Florida gardening forums and since I still can't get pics to post with my original post, they'll be following in a response to this post.

Rhonda