Would your friend let you dig the milkweed for transplant to your yard? Or could they be convinced to mow around it so you could cut leaves from it until you Monarchs complete their development? Unfortunately, I fear you will continue to find more eggs, unless you force yourself not to check your plants. You could drive out to the country, or to some nearby wild area, and look for patches of milkweed that you might be able to use. Of course, get permission, if you can.

Martha

yes they would let media some up I'm just worried about how hard it is to transplant milkweed. I've heard its very difficult when its common milkweed due to tap root and etc. Theres a lake with a huge field of milkweed they mow like once a month so if they haven't mowed yet I might go run by and take sum leaves. Could I throw a lot of leaves in a bag and vacuum seal it? would those last or no? I just feel awful about leaving eggs out on the plants because I've seen tachnids and ants and other insects by the plants even though taking in more than you can handle is worse than outside.

Some years ago I planted common milkweed from sprouts about 10" or so tall. The lady said to just put them in the ground. They had no roots of course. I planted all six. Three did not make it but the other three did and after a few years I had many plants. So yes, it can be done but I think it would be helpful if you can dig a bit of the root/runner also. You can't expect much top growth the first year as the plants will be busy laying down a root system.

With so many caterpillars coming, you probably should check out some wild sources as Martha suggested because they will eat tons of leaves when older. You should be able to vacuum seal. I don't have a sealer so just stack leaves between layers of damp paper towels, place in a zip lock bag and put them in the refrigerator. The leaves stay in good shape for a week to ten days.

Good luck!

In my experience with Tropical MW, most transplants that are beyond seedlings do not amount to much. The exception is small young plants whose roots are undisturbed inside the pre-soaked wide, deep clod that I dig when extracting.

You always need to protect transplants from sun until reestablished.

I have harvested leaves from wild milkweed sources and kept them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator until I needed them. They will last at least a week. Unfortunately, any leaves you collect might already have eggs or caterpillars on them, so you might not be making much progress.

Martha

I put leaves with eggs in a small glass container on a wet paper towel. This keeps the leaves viable until the eggs hatch - and can take longer than 5 days. For the caterpillars I use a small condiment container with some holes drilled in the top in a larger bugbox, fill containers with water, and put the milkweed cuttings in there which keeps the leaves fresh until eaten. Food scarcity is a problem - I have a small 'start' that has 6 eggs on it - that couldn't even sustain one monarch.

I've had pretty good luck transplanting milkweed - I just soak them and put in the sun. You need to talk with your neighbor to stop cutting down the plants ;-) . Check your local nursery - they may have milkweed for sale or ask neighbors on a site like nextdoor.com .