Monarch larvae on Queen Anne's Lace

[lmd2000]

Hello all,

I'm new to butterfly gardening and a week ago my sister gave me milk weed, queen anne's lace, and cosmos to get me started. Yesterday I discovered she'd done a great job getting me started as there are two monarch caterpillars on the Queen Anne's lace. I planted the plants the same day I got them and yesterday when I was watering my gardens I noticed the caterpillars on the Queen Anne's lace. I know they feed only on milk weed (but that's the extent of my knowledge so far) and think maybe they transferred over to the Queen Anne's Lace accidentally when they were in the trunk of the car as we transported the plants. The caterpillars were still on the queen anne's lace today (which has closed up into a ball due to the rain we're getting). The milk weed is planted about 4-5 feet away. I've checked on them a lot since yesterday, and they haven't moved from where they are and they haven't been moving much at all. They were not hanging upside down and moved over pretty willingly and easily to a milkweed leaf I coaxed them onto. The second one had a tiny bit of sticky white liquid at it's tail end, but still came over onto the milk week leaf. Now I'm worried that I've interrupted their pupate stage because I've just been reading about the silk pad they create. Could that little bit of sticky liquid have been the beginning of a silk pad? Now, I'm also wondering if they were on the Queen Anne's lace because they were preparing to pupate (as I just read they'll wander when they're getting ready.) If I did disturb them will they re-create the silk pad and begin pupating again on the milk weed?

Thanks for any advice and information. I'm thrilled to have them and hope I didn't hurt anything when I was trying to help.

[Chademr]

They will probably be able to pupate again if thats what they were doing. As long as they werent in the j-stage then they can re do the silk button. The white stuff might have been the sap from the milkweed plant but i dont know why that would be on the caterpillar. If you want you could get a cage (plastic critter carrier) and put fresh milkweed leaves in it every day and watch them turn into butterflies inside so you dont miss anything. This is called rearing butterflies. Its really fun and cool to watch Good luck!

[lmd2000]

I checked the caterpillars this morning, they're still on the milk weed we transferred them to and they seem to be doing fine. We'll keep watching and see how it goes! Thanks for your reply.

[mommalepapillon]

I read some where that the tachnid fly love the Queen Anne's lace? so I got rid of mine... mmm wish I could find that info again

good luck!

[Keith Petrosky]

I think the caterpillars wandered on it accidently. Adult monarchs visit queen anne's lace for nectar though.

[monarchmama]

Welcome IMD!

A thought occured to me when I read this discussion. Seeing as you are new at raising butterflies. are you certain the the larvae are monarch larvae and not black swallowtail larvae. I only ask as the larger black swallowtail larvae are black and white with yellow dots, and look a bit similiar to a monarch cat to the novice eye. Black swallowtail larvae like any greens in the carrot family, including parsley, fennel, and Queen Ann's Lace which is a type of wild carrot. If that is what they are it would explain why you found them on Queen Ann's Lace.
I have included a link here so that you can see what I am talking about.
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/johnson/hort/Butterfly/BlackSwallowtail.htm

If in doubt, put them in a jar or small critter cage and put in both milkweed and queen ann's lace and see which the decide to eat. Either way it is fun and education to watch them transform. Good luck and have fun!

[lmd2000]

It turns out they're swallowtails and I put them back on the Queen's Lace. A couple days later I went to the garden to check on them and saw a Monarch cat on my milkweed! I couldn't believe it. Two days before that I had checked every leaf of my milkweed plants (I only had 3 because I've just started) and that cat was not there. That was about 5 days ago. Yesterday around 6pm I brought them inside. The two swallowtails are in one container and the Monarch in another until I can get butterfly cages (any suggestions on that?) I put the Monarch in a huge glass jar with milkweed and on the top of it I placed one of those mesh picnic food covers. Around 11pm the Monarch had climbed to the top was just hanging onto the mesh with all legs (it's a pretty fine guage mesh). This afternoon around 4pm I came home to find it in the J position and it's been that way for about 2 hours or so. Will it be okay hanging from the mesh? Will that be enough support? I hope so! I'm so excited. I've read they need mesh or screen to crawl up once they emerge so I'll find something else to place the mesh top on instead of the glass jar. Thanks for all the information.

[lmd2000]

The cat was still hanging in a J from the mesh top last night around midnight and I noticed it was moving a little. This morning I checked it around 10am and it's a chrysalis!