Collecting Caterpillars and Eggs

[Gwynne]

What time of the day do people have the most success with finding caterpillars and eggs? I found all mine after work, but that is probably because I hardly ever get a chance to look around in the morning. I found all five of my caterpillars in the same patch of milkweed. The first four were all on separate days but they all grew at the same rate and formed their chrysalises within 30 hours and emerged within 12 hours of each other. I would guess they came from one or two butterflies. I found one lonesome caterpillar in that patch last week. He is currently in the "J" position.

Also, will people in Wisconsin find eggs the same months as people in Pennsylvania and New Jersey? Or because of the migration, will one region stop finding eggs before another region? I am not taking storms into account here, just the migration process and wonder how long into the summer other people look.

[Pat in PA]

Once they start appearing, there are monarchs laying eggs throughout the summer here in PA and I usually look early in the morning while the light's good but the heat's not so annoying.

I've had the first females show up as early as the middle of May, but the past couple of years it's been the last week of June / first week of July before they've put in an appearance. The last eggs of the season around here will mature into butterflies in early October if raised indoors.

This year I just got my first 5 eggs last week. It's been extremely rainy.

Pat
Monarch Waystation #12

[dzyg]

Hi Gwynne! Seriously if you have the time to look, any time of the day is good. I work at home so I am outside various times of the day and have found eggs/caterpillars at any given time. Here in WI I normally found the most eggs/caterpillars in July and August so finding so many in May was really exciting. Things have slowed alot but I am still finding both cats and eggs. I have a huge milkweed patch in my flowerbed, over 100 plants, several other batches on our property in the weedy/brushy areas and then we have a park withing walking distance that has tons more of milkweed. I have a hard time going by any of them without looking. LOL! I have no clue how your area compares to ours in terms of finding the eggs and cats but I would think since you are finding cats and have butterflies hatching the process will just keep continuing until the weather cools off in the Fall, probably like till the end of Aug/beginning of Sept. I am in Central WI and we are just a bit further north than you so I would think our Monarch seasons would be pretty similar, if not ours a bit shorter.

Donna

[Gwynne]

Thanks again, guys! Remember how I said I looked in previous years and never found anything? I think I may have only looked once or twice in the years I did look and maybe I had searched four different years. I erroneously thought that butterflies laid eggs at the same time, all over PA, and if I missed it, I missed it and no sense going out after the beginning of July. I will keep looking thanks to your info.

I am now experiencing another problem. Ticks. The four milkweed patches where I have been looking are next to the road sort of in the underbrush and I already found one tick crawling on me and the other night, I found one on my neck. Neither one had attached, but I was wondering if you guys have the same problem or if you search milkweeds where there arent as many ticks.

I do see milkweed all up and down the road. I dont know if you guys live in rural sections or on busy highways, but the other day I was walking on the highway back to my house, with a caterpillar no less, and someone felt compelled to blare their horn really loudly right when they were practically on top of me. The places along the highway dont have sidewalks, which wouldnt bother me so much. It is also there is no parking near a lot of these patches so I have been sticking to the ones within walking distance. This is the first year I have seen any right near my apartment. I dont think they were there before. Living in a condo, I cant grow a garden. What do you guys think of the idea of my planting milkweed on my balcony? I hear you just need a pot or a planter? Am hoping that might attract some butterflies. Has anyone tried growing milkweed in pots? How big a flower pot do you think I would need?

Just to update you, my last caterpillar is in the "J" position and struggling to shed his skin. I feel badly for him, but there is nothing I can do and had to go to work. I cant even check his progress. I sure hope he is okay. This guy ate so much and my first four were very light eaters. He certainly was big enough.

[Farfalla]

Hiya Gwynne!
That wiggle-jiggle dance they do as they shed their skin for the last time is normal ,natural and very cool to watch.

Ticks.. While I appreciate that all critters have their place in the natural scheme of things..I can't for the life of me name one good thing about a tick. I get them on me all the time and could not function without this product http://www.tickedoff.com/ . It is the best thing in my first aid kit!

[dzyg]

Ticks, yuck, hate them too! I have never gotten one while looking for eggs/cats though. We live in a very rural area, just out of the city limits, small town of about 20,000. We plenty of roads like you are talking about. Luckily for me I don't need to look that far for milkweeds. There are lots of people that grow milkweeds in pots, it is a great idea for those that don't have any near them. I have never done this so don't have any advice but good luck to you! They seem so strong and hardy though, you can pull them out of the ground and they just grow right back so you wouldn't think growing them in pots would be that hard.

Oh and about not realizing that all eggs are laid at once, here is a quick life cycle of a Monarch. The Monarchs that start migrating back north in the Spring, mate and lay eggs, these eggs hatch eventually turn into caterpillars/butterflies and the butterfly then heads further north and starts the whole egg laying process again and so on with the next butterfly. The butterflies that hatch and the ones we are releasing in the early to mid summer stay here and mate and lay eggs and die after about 3 weeks or so. The ones that hatch late summer/early fall are the ones that migrate south.

Donna