Date: 09/13/2014

Number: 1

My husband and I were returning from a late afternoon errand, when I looked out the car window and didn't see the MW. I go to investigate and was shocked! Everything, and I mean everything, had been eaten! Only the spindly spines of the plants were left. I go get my camera to take a picture for the blog, fuming to my hubby that the deer ate the MW even though it was deer resistant, that I couldn't have anything. I take the picture and then think about how we have had afternoon rains everyday this week, and with the wet ground, I should be able to see deer tracks...concrete evidence of the deer. So I look closely at the ground and, lo and behold, see a caterpillar! For a nano-second, I think it might be a Monarch caterpillar, but dismiss it, thinking no way. I quickly e-mail the pictures to my sister and then call her, thankfully she was home. She looks at the pictures and exclaims that I have a MONARCH CATERPILLAR!!! I say, are you sure?!!! And she says she is positive. Then she tells me that, with the extent of the eating, I must have more than one caterpillar. So still on the phone, I go out to look closer and found three more! Then she tells me I HAVE TO GET MORE MW!!! It is now 5:40, Saturday evening, and again I'm thinking, no way. I then remembered there was suppose to be a native plant nursery not far from me, but I had never been there, didn't know where it was, and figured they would be closed anyway. But I quickly call them and they were open! In panic mode, I explained what was going on and she said they were closing at 6:00 but would stay open for me until 6:15. Because I didn't know where I was going, I told hubby he needed to come with me, this was an EMERGENCY! He was watching the University of GA football game, and to put it mildly, was not a happy camper. With him cursing me, and by the grace of God, we made it to the nursery!

The nursery is run by the nicest couple, Nearly Native Nursery in Fayetteville, GA. They were also most impressed with my four caterpillars, saying they had only found one so far this year. I bought four MW plants, two swamp MW and two of the orange, Butterfly. Thinking this still was not going to be enough foliage for four caterpillars, they gave me cuttings of a HUGE variety of MW. They did not have any of that variety to sell, had some coming it, but it is huge. I planted the four and placed the cuttings near the caterpillars. It was then that I found caterpillar #5!

First thing this morning, I checked on things and all five were eating away...three on the huge variety and two on the plantings. As I said, I cannot believe a Monarch, which I have never seen, found my little first year crop of a few plants. AMAZING! Count me in with the true believers of the power of MW.

Jonesboro, GA

Latitude: 33.5 Longitude: -84.3

Observed by: Wendy
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