Date: 09/14/2021

Number: 37

About three weeks ago, I walked the yard trying to get an idea of Monarch caterpillar numbers, as I had been seeing many egg-laying females. While I found a good number of healthy eggs and larvae, I also found several deceased caterpillars, so I decided I would try something that I had wanted to do for awhile; a netted 'butterfly house' to keep the caterpillars safe and healthy as they pupated. I placed a mixture of potted Asclepias Incarnata, common milkweed leaves, and sprigs of honeyvine milkweed in the enclosure and slowly introduced the caterpillars as I found them. Most of them were found feeding on the honeyvine milkweed in the wild, but they all preferred the Incarnata plants once inside the enclosure and I was replacing them with new every day, along with swapping old milkweed leaves and vines for new. Long story short, we have had a successful nursey, currently housing 32 chrysalises and 5 caterpillars. We released our second butterfly today (both have been female) and will be welcoming a third shortly. The majority of the 32 formed their chrysalises within a few days of each other, so there's going to be a lot of action in there in about another week.

Bement, IL

Latitude: 39.9 Longitude: -88.6

Observed by: Thomas
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