Date: 07/14/2023

Number: 17

The picture is caterpillars that hatched on a Tiny shoot where the leaf is not that much bigger than my thumb nail.

17 captive rearing. Not because it’s fun, but because it’s a Necessity, the eggs would be Destroyed (mulch), when I cut the grass (have to maintain some grass in my front yard to make the city happy). I can’t destroy the eggs when I know only 1% in the wild may make it. My female monarch lays eggs on tiny shoots - 3 inches tall in the grass. I wish she would lay them on tall mature plants in my garden areas, but she avoids the tall milkweed plants until later in the year, when they finally go to seed. She spends a week selecting the smallest plants and this goes on Every Year, in my yard. I hope this is something that organizations recognize, because if it comes to a threatened or endangered species status and habitats are set up for monarchs, it must include natural areas where milkweed can be grown with different timing, so different sized plants are available. I’m not sure this tiny plant selection is happening in other areas of the country, but it is happening in the Midwest.

My ½ half acre property is set up as natural habitat. There is milkweed and prairie flowers mixed, in a number of huge beds and new milkweed that pop up in new locations all the time. I can’t count all the eggs, as too hard laying on the ground trying to inspect 3-inch plants with a magnifying glass, but I know there are now upward near 500 -1,000 eggs throughout my yard. The ones I captive rear are raised as close to natural as possible, live and climb on live stems , usually 2 to a stem. They have natural light and grow lights. This year I have also grown different milkweed varieties in pots and when bigger will be transferred to plants outside in screen tents. Ants (Acrobat and Carpenter) are my biggest problem for caterpillars living outside, but I discovered putting lemons in the drip trays, deter ants looking for caterpillar food.

Braidwood, IL

Latitude: 41.3 Longitude: -88.2

Observed by: Carol
Contact Observer

The observer's e-mail address will not be disclosed.
Contact will be made through a web-based form.