Slow start and now cant keep up . 2010 year of the butterfly

[Orangeaid]

After a very slow start this year is turning out to be a great year for rearing Monarchs in NJ . May and June were so bad i couldnt even find an egg and now i have reared and released well over 100 and have about 200 in chrysalis or J forms as i write. Every time i go out back and check the plants iam finding at least 40 new eggs or 1st instar cats. At present i have at least another 200 cats in 1st or 2nd instar phase inside in my containers waiting to be transported to outside cages. Long story short ,for not having a lot of time this year to be raising i am running myself ragged looking for large quantity of milkweed and cleaning cages at weird hours of the day and for a year that i thought was going to be my worst year for rearing is turning out to be amazing

[applestar]

Sounds great! Not surprisingly, here in inland NJ, we also had a slow start. But now I'm seeing multiple butterflies every day out in my garden, and am bringing in several eggs~2nd instars each time I'm out in the garden. I have a chem-free natural garden with diverse insect population -- great for my veg garden... Not so much for the Monarchs. I see plenty of cat signs but missing cats -- ones that I didn't "rescue" in time, but As long as I keep saving a steady stream of new little ones, I can be satisfied that many that wouldn't have made it will fly south this fall. .

[Mona Miller]

http://bugguide.net/node/view/5081
The European Paper Wasp is a major predator in my garden, probably yours, too.

I'm also seeing Assassin bugs, there's Japanese Ladybugs, they'll take up to a second instar. Ants are predators too, housing keep for their aphid cows. Spiders.

http://www.amazon.com/Enlarged-Updated- ... 604&sr=1-2
I highly recommend "Milkweed, Monarchs, and More". They have an update version that is supposed to lay flat.
If you go thru the Monarch Watch Amazon Portal to buy any books, Monarch Watch gets part of the money.
http://monarchwatch.org/amazon/
Just click in the area that says "Take me to amazon.com"

[NickiM]

This is just my second year of rearing monarchs, but it's been much better than last year. I found only 9 cats last year--had to euthanize 3, but successfully released the other 6. This year, I've found 41!! I've had to euthanize 3, have 22 in chrysalis and 16 happily munching away. One of the chrysalis is a bit small and misshapen, but none show any signs of OE--so far--so I'm really hoping to be able to release all 22 in a few days.