I did have a lot of caterpillars in April until early May. Haven’t seen any adults in probably 4 weeks. I am still not sure how they work. Rhonda has so many down in Florida. I checked the Monarch watch map, nothing really reported around me. Might have to wait for August here, too.

I'm doing my part. I'm not seeing a lot of monarchs this summer (though one is obviously laying eggs as I'll have released another 5 by week's end) -- hopefully we'll catch a flurry of activity this fall. I've got a ton of milkweeds (and pentas, duranta and zinnias) waiting.

This has been my best ever year here but mine is mostly the Florida population, not the Eastern population so take that into account. First time I ever had Queens also. The tulle was very successful at keeping wasps and tachinid flies out so I got at least 50%+ eclosure rate (ones I saw) for both which is pretty good outdoor.

Hoping Eastern pop is also having a good year!

On a side note regarding tulle, I tried leaving some Eastern black and Giant swallowtail cats outside on their respective hosts (fennel and orange tree) and covered w/ a tulle drawstring bag -- watched TWICE as anoles took chomps at the baby cats right through the netting! Didn't penetrate the material, but squished the life out of my cats. It was sad to see. I've since brought in the monarch cats to raise indoors and have double wrapped -- and stuffed bags w/ curling ribbon -- the Giants. Success, as we have two Giant chrysalises.

I have released 5 Monarchs today with another 10 on the way. No swallowtails at all this year, which is very strange because we had a healthy population last year.

It's been a great year for monarchs in Ohio and I've raised at least 100 so far. Found the first eggs on May 17,which is the earliest ever for me.

Monarchs' visits have been brief, which is a change.

Caterpillars plentiful, but all die, at various sizes.

My monarchs must be the sneakiest ever as I still don't see them (let alone near the milkweeds), but I brought in 13 baby cats (~ 2-3 days old) yesterday and today. It's a race every morning to see who reaches the cats first, me or the anoles.

(Black swallowtails are laying a lot of eggs -- no way I have enough dill and fennel left to feed them all. Hoping they'll move over to the rue.)

I've had a great year in the NW Chicago suburbs. We found many caterpillars and eggs starting in June and I bring them indoors. We've released 92 monarchs as of today - I expect 60+ more butterflies within a month! There are dozens of chrysalis in cages. I had problems with flies and lost some. Even in the house, the flies found the caterpillars, so they are now all in mesh cages.

I'm getting nervous about running out of milkweed though -- my swamp milkweed is getting very fungus-y. I read you can try spraying hydrogen peroxide mixed with water on the leaves and ground? I've been uncertain about spraying that around eggs and cats though.

Not many Monarchs appeared here in mid Missouri until August. My first try at raising Monarchs inside proved a success. I only started with two but the wait and the release was so worth it. They stayed and fluttered on the asters a while until their wings were dry and then flew free. It was so rewarding to accomplish this that after finding three swallowtail caterpillars on the fennel I decided to try raising them. Waiting patiently now I hope for more success.

It is just so wonderful that everyone here is trying to save what butterflys they can for all to enjoy.

Since my July 22 report here, I have seen two or three adult Monarchs,

no eggs, one caterpillar. No further leaf bites after I relocated that one.

Things are finally looking up. Four or five adults and lots of tiny caterpillars. Can’t check all the milkweed (it’s a jungle out there by now), but what I can check has one or two per plant. Or stem in case of common.

Javiwa - Wow you are supporting a larger number too! I've also been removing the lower leaves, though the rust is spreading so much so fast now, it's overtaken many plants. I have big butterfly milkweed (with the orange flowers) plants that don't have this problem, so I stopped feeding those to the caterpillars, and went back to the swamp milkweed before it all goes bad. I've also been washing the spores off the leaves, then putting them in florist tubes. But I'm finding the cuttings that had a light number of spores on them will wilt and not bounce back. It's like the whole plant is weakened. Ah well. I released 10 butterflies today and expect 10-11 tomorrow. I hope these guys start their journey to Mexico -- I think I'm done for this season!

Deb: Here's a thought -- after you've washed (gently rubbed) the rust spores off the backs of the leaves and insert into florist tubes, try putting them in the fridge (loose plastic bag over the top -- kinda like one would store fresh parsley in the fridge to make it last longer). I wonder if that will slow the progress.

I grew swamp milkweed for the first time this year, and the rust is working its way from bottom to top at a scary pace! It seems the leaves are so small (smaller than the milkweeds), it takes no time for the spores to take hold of spread to one leaf, then work its way up. I think I'm about to lose my 3' bush before it even has a chance to bloom for the first time. :/ I may take drastic steps and prune 1/4 of the tops off, much as I hate to do that. Wonder if, as with tropical MW, that'll encourage new growth.

I just finished dislodging five more chrysalises from the jug sides, and will set them into the enclosure at first light. Six monarchs took off yesterday, and I'm sure several more will today, just as soon as the sun peaks over the fence.

Definitely more monarchs here this year than the last few; I've seen exponentially more.

My patch of joe pye weed had literally dozens on it this evening, perhaps getting ready to roost for the night with the noticeably cooler temps we had today.