Scarcity of Monarchs

[Robert61]

My Waystation #613 in NW Ohio has virtually no eggs laid on the Swamp and Common MW plants. I drove this week to NW Pa. to visit my brother and his Waystations #1704 has zero eggs. He's spotted only 1 Monarch Butterfly this year in NW Pa. and I've spotted only 1 in NW Ohio (Fremont), save the two out of the 8 collected from the roadside as eggs and reared and released. So much of an abundance of MW plants but no Monarchs to enjoy them. I hope the 2nd and 3rd generation of Monarchs increases their numbers. Robert at CREATE A WILDLIFE-FRIENDLY YARD
http://wildlifefriendlylawn.blogspot.com/

[Monarch MaMa]

I found 7 eggs in SE MI on 5/27, six hatched on 5/29. Those have all successfully matured into butterflies and they are in my screen house. Ratio 2 Males: 1 Female. I've also found a dozen caterpillars but probably close to 100 eggs.

They are out there - look at the young plants or the bottom leaves of the larger milkweeds. I also seem to find them mostly in hilltops where the milkweed stands out like a sentinal.

Debbie, Davisburg MI

[raycope]

I usually raise ~20 caterpillars a year here in the Chicago area, but this year it's a drought. Today I found a full-grown cat on a stray milkweed in front of the picture window and brought it in-doors, since a storm is coming tonight. This is the first egg/cat I saw this year. I have a butterfly garden with 3 species of 20+ milkweeds and counting, but haven't seen any others this year. We do see 2 or 3 monarchs at a time, compared to 7 or 8 previous years.