4th group of monarchs

[kat_langan]

This morning my daughters and I released the 4th group of monarch...and no sooner than we let them go, the 5th group started to emerge! We have had butterflies everyday for the past week! so much fun! Going be letting them go tomorrow morning, unless the weather is bad again!

I went cat hunting,today. Found three cats. I have been trying to find eggs since I started this year, and lo and behold, there was an egg, all by itself on a leaf:) I was super excited! I have seen more monarchs out than I have seen all season, and I have been trying to watch out when I see a monarch fluttering around the milkweed. Then after it flies away I will go look but never would see anything...but this time I did

I am starting on my letter to the paper tonight...hopefully it makes a difference and people read it and be more aware of the purpose of milkweeds...and the importance of wildlife habitats

[Mona Miller]

My son will be 21 tomorrow. I started out raising butterflies after I provided his preschool class of 4 year olds with some caterpillars to raise. I've been hooked ever since. Now, I have a 10x12 foot screen tent filled with caterpillars. Sometimes, it is filled with chrysalis and later adults. I have to switch host and nectar for hosts and then nectar. Tiny holes are beginning to fill the huge pot of milkweed. Soon, I will have to pull that one out and push in another and transfer the caterpillars. After they get pump and fat and decided they've had enough to eat, they will crawl here and there and find their special place to pupate. Some of the chrysalis, I will never find and they will appear as butterflies. I keep an eye on the whole crew from tiny egg to beautiful adult.

[kat_langan]

wow , that's a long time to be doing this:) amazing! we just let another batch go today, and another batch already emerged lol...its like clock work, we let em go and here comes more.

[Mona Miller]

I guess the deal is that if you let them go, they are mating and reproducing. I see this in my yard. If I don't bring some in and raise them to adults, then I don't see many. I came back from a NJ trip and the Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars that I left on the VA Snakeroot had been chopped to pieces. I found only a head left. I was out yesterday, netting those European Paperwasp and they didn't get supper yesterday. I wish that I could find their nests. Unfortunately, I live in a subdivision and I figure that they are probably over at my neighbors house and then eating at my house.

Currently, a lone male Monarch is guarding my backyard. I saw him chasing birds yesterday. That doesn't always work to his advantage because sometimes the birds turn on him.

[kat_langan]

darn those paperwasps! The monarch chases the birds lol that is probably a neat thing to see, hopefully they don't turn on him...yikes!

we let our 5th group go this morning...never gets old! 3 more emerged today...they will be out to frolic in the morning...I wish I would have started putting lil dots on them..I think I am going to do that with the next batch...I am seeing more monarchs fluttering around and I keep wondering if those are mine...lol seems that I am seeing more out since I am letting them go.

I found another egg today exciting! and the egg I found the other day, looks like he is going to hatch soon:) I cant believe that I started with so many and now all the Chrysalis is almost gone! The 3 cats that I found the other day turned, and then I found two cats today, plus the egg...the two cats 4th instarts.

I bought some swamp milkweed, and I was wondering how, I could plant it...I live in an apartment and dont have yard to plant it so, can I just get a regular soiled planter and do it that way...is it too late in season?

[Mona Miller]

I use the Sta-Green potting soil that has fertilizer and soil moist. The soil moist safes water for the plant later so you don't have to water as much. The fertilizer in the soil helps to keep the plant healthy. If you have a sunny bacony, then you can plant it there. They need lots of sun. In Virginia, 4 hours of sun is considered full sun. If you can't find the Sta-Green, then try to find the Soil Moist. I put it in the middle of the pot, put more soil in and then plant the plant on top. This keeps the chrystals in the pot. When it rains hard, they absorb more water and can pop out of the planter if they aren't down farther enough.

[applestar]

Wow you are both doing great!
I'm not seeing many butterflies or caterpillars this year. 3 butterflies in early July, but I made the mistake of not collecting the eggs at that time because I wasn't quite ready to start.
Later on, I did collect 2 cats and now have 2 chrysalises in my nursery, but haven't been able to find any more since. According to my records from last year, we really should be seeing some eggs and 1st instars by now. But it might be the weird weather patters we've been experiencing this year.

Swamp milkweed -- I'm growing mine in a Rain Garden (a flower bed designed to collect water from the raingutter) but I think they would do well in a self-watering container with a large water reservoir and water level monitor to ensure that the soil never dries out.

I haven't received my tags yet. I would've tried to catch the butterflies I saw to tag them if I already had them. I just hope they get here before the babies eclose!

[Mona Miller]

http://www.monarchwatch.org/tagmig/index.htm
Migration and Tagging

http://www.monarchwatch.org/tagmig/peak.html
Peak Migration Dates: When will the migration peak in my area?

New Jersery latitude is 39-40. Use that to determine the peak migration times. I think according to the chart, your time to tag would be about mid to the third week in September.

Swamp milkweed will adapt to regular garden soil conditions--it doesn't have to have wet feet all the time.

[applestar]

New Jersery latitude is 39-40. Use that to determine the peak migration times. I think according to the chart, your time to tag would be about mid to the third week in September.

That's true... but since we started last year, I've become addicted to tagging, and it would be nice to be able to tag every one so the "lottery" of our tags being found is increased....

We had some severe rains that delayed the first one's release, but we released the two females together yesterday.

[Mona Miller]

If you tag too early, you are tagging Monarchs that are not migrating. These would be Monarchs that will continue mating and laying--not migrating, but in reproductive mode. The reason that Monarch Watch puts those peak migration dates is to give people an idea of when they will start finding those Monarchs in reproductive diapause. Those are the Monarchs that would be flying to Mexico.

[applestar]

I was cleaning up my email inbox and came across the alert for this thread, so I re-read it... and it got me thinking.

These would be Monarchs that will continue mating and laying

... and dying, Mona?
It hadn't quite sunk in that the lifespan of the mating Monarchs are different from the migrating ones until someone at the Cape May Fall Gathering was explaining it.

Still, although I realize that the point of tagging is the migration research, if someone were to find/capture a non-migrating tagged Monarchs and reported it, we would know WHERE and HOW FAR one of our butterflies went, wouldn't we?

Do people catch, note the tag number, and release the butterflies, and report them like they do with tagged fish?

[Mona Miller]

I used to tag with an elementary school in late September. We had one that died at the location it was released. We had an early hard frost that year. I got a certificate from Monarch Watch that said it had gone zero (0) miles. The answer is yes the tag numbers are picked up along the way and yes they are reported. From that data Monarch Watch learns how far they travel from the point of tagging to the point where the tag was read. I think I remember once a butterfly had flown 250 miles in one day. A good wind can carry them pretty far. Tag numbers can be read with binoculars, its hard to get close to a migrating Monarch.

My friend Denise Gibbs was having a good laugh at me as we walked along the beach at Tom's Cove (Assateague Refuge), I would see a Monarch flying by and every time I tried to net it, it was manuvering out of my reach.

Dr. Urquhart did tagging in Mexico, too. One of his Monarchs tagged in Mexico was found in the spring in New York.