Date: 04/20/1997

Number: 1

Sighted one monarch ,midday, temperature 70s, female --was laying eggs! I have been letting milkweed grow in my garden for 4 years to entice monarchs, with no great success. One female laid eggs in the late fall once, but they did not hatch. Anyway, on the date above I was contemplating culling back to 3 or 4 milkweed plants, when a female flitted by and laid eggs on every plant in sight. Thrilling. Between May 5th to 15 they hatched--at least 20 of them. I have heard since I was a kid that monarch caterpillars have a noxious taste from ingesting milkweed, making them undesirable as critter food; therefore I left the caterpillars outdoors to enjoy life and nibble away. I felt that nature would provide a better environment than I might.

Unfortunately, we went away for a long weekend and when I returned they had disappeared! My guess is that as the larvae got bigger and ventured away from the protective niche of the youngest leaves, birds got them. The ladybugs

Winston-Salem, NC

Latitude: 36.1 Longitude: -80.3

Observed by:
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