FYI for Ohio taggers

[ohiomonarchmama]

I found out this week from the Cleveland area Metroparks butterfly lady that tagging in our area should begin the 3rd week of August. Just thought it might be helpful to some of you.

[Teresa]

I timed that just right If your meaning this week.

[Teresa]

Are you finding any eggs? Seems to really have slowed down around here.

[ohiomonarchmama]

Nope, I haven't been seeing eggs for about a week, but I have seen about 4 "couples" in my garden, something I hadn't noticed before. Might just be a coincidence, but I have tagged about twice as many males as females.

Question for you...I have common milkweed in my garden and of course some of it is getting pretty ratty by now...but some smaller plants popping up to take their place. I am seeing brown powdery blotches on the bottom of some of the older and even newer leaves. It doesn't seem to correlate with amount of sun or age of plant. I'm worried to give any of that to the caterpillars, but I'm running out of "good leaves". I've picked off the worst of them and disposed of them, but wondering if anyone else is seeing this or have suggestions of what to do. I'm kinda glad I'm not seeing eggs now with this situation. Hope they find a better patch of milkweed somewhere for the rest of this season.

[Teresa]

I'm seeing different colorations on mine too. I just figured if they were in the wild they would eat it and its normal for it to look that way. I feel safe with it along as I know it wasn't sprayed.

[Teresa]

What lays the eggs that are in perfect little rows and in clumps (small areas ?)