Disabled butterfly HELP!!

[madmonarch_nz]

Hi,

I have a male butterfly that when he was in crysilys had hung pretty low on the side of my fishtank/butterfly cage. When he has emerged he fell to the bottom and was flaing round so i very carefully got him to climb onto my finger then placed him onto my indoor swan plant. Since then his top wings are fine but his bottom wings are still crumpled. He was born 3 days ago. Another one (female) who emerged after him flew of today & he tried to follow but was unable to fly at all (after many attempts & rescues from the dang cat ). What can i feed him? How long will he live? I did try placing the male & female together but they werent really interested in each other. This is what he looks like during his flight attempt
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[harpo787]

Well, after 3 days, I'm fairly sure the back wings are going to stay that way. I wonder....if they interfere with the flapping capabilities of the front wings, could you trim them back? Would a butterfly feel pain about this?

I've had my second one hatch, and unfortunately for me, they're both girls....at least I'm fairly certain that this newest is a girl as well. I've got another one on deck, but that's still probably 5 days away at least. I hope they don't fight one another!

[madmonarch_nz]

I have no idea as to whether the butterfly would feel pain. I had several tries at trying to straighten the wings when he first had his injury but to no avail. I did ow ever make up a small dish of sugar water & he has had a drink of that so hopefully he will survive for a bit longer. Any idea how long they live?

[harpo787]

From what I've read...it depends on time of season. It seems like 4-5 weeks for most, and then I think the wintering bunch can last two months or perhaps even longer (I think one of the "My Monarch Experience" threads is about a butterfly that someone kept as a pet for about 2 months).

I'm dealing with two monarchs, one which has died and the other appears to be dying. They were both healthy upon birth (at least, from what could be observed physically). Both were able to fly.

The first to hatch I think was a screw up on my part because I thought having flowers was enough. I watered too, which surely created puddles etc., but she just wanted to cling to the screen facing the outside world. Twice I managed to get a hold of her and have her drink from the flowers...but other than that, no luck.

This morning I came looking, spotted one, but not the other...I opened up the cage, and there she was on her side on the floor. She was alive at that point, I put her on a flower and she drank. But she simply could no longer stand upright. I gave her a spray of water (indirectly) and she sort of fluttered back to the ground. I went to the grocery store and bought some Juicy Juice (something I read of here on MonarchWatch), but when I got back I was too late. She didn't want to drink or anything. I even helped uncurl her proboscus, but she was done for. I put her in the freezer.

Now, the newer hatchling, only a day old, is tired and lathargic. I don't know if it's just the time of day (1:30 pm) or if they get too much sunlight here on the patio (from about 7 am til about 12-1 pm for direct sunlight). At least he still has a bit of fight in him. He's not drinking anything (Juicy Juice or the flowers I put him on) but at least he's making an obvious effort to hold onto whatever I put him on (seems to enjoy my fingers most of all).

I wish I knew what the hell was going on....

[madmonarch_nz]

Sorry you lost one but Totally weird. Mine are hatching in the afternoon then sitting on my swan plant over night then going the next day. I think alot of it is to do with the weather. Its pretty crap round here at the moment & I think they like to have a bit of sunshine round them to keep them warm. I remember the lady we got our monarchs from which we released at our wedding in March last year said that it couldnt happen if it wasnt a sunny/warmish day.

What sort of flowers do they prefer? These jucy jucies are they the iceblock thingies?

Today my male is just hanging out in the tank (its uncovered now as I only have one caterpiller left & three crysilis to hatch) He too likes being on my finger will try again the sugar water & will keep an eye out for some jucy thingies when I do my supermarket shop today.

[harpo787]

I think I'm losing the other one too. I've put it in a small "critter carrier" and brought indoors. I think the heat out there is too much. That's my guess. I found it and it had managed to get into (fall?) a crevice in a potted plant between the pot and soil. It had a droplet of white liquid hanging from it's rear.

Juicy-Juice is some sort of fruit juice. Not sure if you'll have it in NZ, but surely you'll have something like it:

[madmonarch_nz]

DOH!! Might help if I read where you were from LOL Im sure I will be able to find something. Hope your butterfly gets better. It could be that its getting too hot. What temps are you experiencing over there at the moment?

Yesterday my boy had another attempt at flying. I can find him anywhere round the house. Fourtunitly so far the cats have ignored him and yesterday i feed him some more sugared water but from my finger tip & while he was sitting on it . My last caterpiller didnt quite make it to crysilis he died half way no idea what went on there?? Now I have my last 3 crysilys hanging from my indoor swanplant (moved them from my tank with the cotton trick), and I will say that will probably be it as is starting to cool down here.

I will try & add some photos at some stage either to my blog or my yahoo photos.

[harpo787]

I do believe my buddy (who I named Buddy) is on his last legs. He's no longer clinging on to anything, and falls on his side if his wings are not opened. Oh yes, and this morning when I found him, he had a bit of milkish liquid coming out his rear end. Not sure what that's about...

I honestly have no idea what temperature it's been around here as of late. All I know is it's been hot...maybe between upper 80's and low 90's? The cage they have been contained in receives direct sunlight (with the various plants inside for shade) from sunrise (around 7am) until noon or maybe 1 pm.

[madmonarch_nz]

oh dear thats not good. My boy is still hanging in there but he has given up trying to fly. I put a puddle of sugar water on the bottom of the tank & he has had a little drink of that. Is buddy your last caterpiller/butterfly?

[harpo787]

I've got one last pupa. The plan with this one is to let it hatch, give it a few hours to get itself together, and then I'll release it. I'll probably release it at my mom's (she's got a butterfly/rock garden in her backyard that we "built") where I can collect more caterpillars. I'm afraid to get anymore though until I can hear from someone as to what's going on.

The idea behind my cage set up was to get at least one boy and girl in there and have them mate. I'd keep a watch for egg laying. Once she'd laid a few eggs (perhaps 10 or so?) I'd let them both go. I want my garden to be self-perpetuating if you will.

On a fun side, I've been taking all the seeds that pop up from the milkweeds and releasing them off my balcony in hopes that they'll take root somewhere in the neighborhood and we can make this area a bit more butterfly friendly.

One final note: Buddy's dead. Sad but true.

[madmonarch_nz]

Oh sorry buddy died sending lots of *cyber hugs*.

Cool idea about spreading the seed LOL hope the neighbours dont pull it out as a weed

Thats a cool idea to do the male & female butterfly thing. Sorry i cant help you with what is going on. Everything has been totally trail & error for me. eg I have no idea as to why some of my crysilis dies nor the caterpiller who was half way thru going into crysilis.

Good luck with it all. Your Mum's butterfly garden sounds beautiful. My male is still hanging in there & feeding off drops off my finger. Hoping that my last 3 crysilis turn soon so that he mate have a mate to play with.

[harpo787]

Thanks for the cyber hugs. As I posted in another forum here, the last pupa hatched this morning. Another boy. It would have been the perfect set up to have the female laying eggs ASAP: two boys and one girl. Oh well...hopefully I'll figure out what I've done wrong. After being out giving a few friends a ride to the airport, I came home and tried to feed him some Juicy Juice. He was full of vigor though, and wanted no part of feeding. Kept flying to the cage walls. So I decided to let him go, rather than watch a 3rd butterfly die.

I guess I should start another thread in "My Monarch Experience" about mom's garden. It deserves a full "virtual tour". I believe I'll call it "A butterfly/rock garden" to go along with my own "a second floor garden" entry.

[He. katie]

I had the same exact problem you did a year ago. The poor monarch couldn't fly because his pupa fell, and when he emerged, he didn't hang upside down so his wings were all funny. Unfortunatley, it is really hard to fix a butterfly's wings.
After the first day or so, he started licking anything in sight because he was hungry, so I gave him cool aid, since he responed to it better then sugar water. I've noticed that most monarchs will respond almost immediately to the flowers on the milkweed plants. Just make sure he has fresh flowers to eat.