My First Eggs!!

[NickiM]

I found a gorgeous patch of milkweed today for all the cats I'm raising, so I pulled a bunch of leaves. I didn't see any eggs, but I reinspected them after a quick mild bleach dip and found 3 tiny eggs. I understand now why I've never found any on the milkweed in my garden, since it has lots of spots on the leaves. I'm really excited to see if any of these eggs actually hatch, plus I'll have to go back to my new "grocery store" to look for more babies in a day or so.

[tartandtiny]

How exciting. They are so small, they can be easily missed. Now you know just what to look for. Good luck.

I am currently rearing 67 cats. I have 2 that went into chrysalys this morning. I cannot wait for our first butterfly's of the year.

It ends up that whenever I go to the "grocery store" I end up bringing more babies home with me. I cannot resist to leave them there considering their odds of survival.

I was out getting food and found a 2nd instar, I was so excited until I saw that it was being attacked by an army of tiny red bettles. Very sad All the more reason to feel the need to bring them home.

[Mona Miller]

Make sure you rinse the leaves that were bleached with the eggs on they. Hopefully, they will be okay. How long did you leave them in the bleach? How strong was the bleach?

[NickiM]

I put the leaves in a very mild--1 capful to half a sink of water--bleach solution. I didn't leave them in there for even a minute and I rinsed them several times.

The eggs haven't shown any sign of hatching yet. But, I'm still hopeful. I need to go back to that patch tomorrow for more leaves and to look for babies.

[NickiM]

I went back to the "grocery" patch yesterday and found 15 more eggs. Three have hatched so far. They're sooooo tiny, it makes me wonder if I haven't missed some on other leaves in the past. I'll be extra cautious and examine all my leaves very closely from now on.

[applestar]

You've seen by now how the off white eggs turn black just before the baby caterpillar hatches. It's easy to mistake those for a bit of frass. I've found tiny babies on leaves in older cat enclosures more than once. I'm always thankful, especially when it's the 4th/5th instar cage, that I found the baby before it accidentally got eaten

I swish rinse leaves that are still good during daily cleaning, and if a tiny frass don't float away, I give it a good second look!

[blazing star]

I'm sure bleach won't be good for monarchs. It's toxic, after all. Is bleach recommended for rearing monarchs? I never heard of this.

[Mona Miller]

It is recommended by the University of Georgia for sterilizing milkweed/containers. I do not use it. I have enough bleach in my city water.

[Mona Miller]

I need to clarify the statement I made about bleach. I do not bleach the milkweed. I wash my plastic containers in the dishwasher with a double rinse. I do bleach my net containers. Right now, I have my washing machine full of water and bleach. I let the net containers soak and then I carefully dump them into my tub near the washing machine and put very warm water over them to rinse them. Then, I let them drain. I put them into a large plastic garbage bag to take them outside and then I rinse them again with the garden hose. It is very important to rinse them thoroughly. Bleach residue can kill butterflies.

[NickiM]

I never bleached the leaves until I read that it was a good idea to prevent OE, plus I read that eggs found in the wild should be dipped in a mild bleach solution. I use about a half capful of bleach for an entire sink of water. And, then I rinse and rinse.

8 of the eggs I found have hatched and are growing like crazy. I was wondering if anyone knows what an average percentage of eggs actually hatch? I've tried to keep them a bit warmer than the cats I find and definitely keep them away from the air conditioner vents.

[Mona Miller]

My city water already has bleach in it. If I add more bleach, that's probably way too much bleach.

[applestar]

You probably definitely don't want to soak the eggs in too strong of a bleech solution for a prolonged time. Look what happens to tomato seeds:
http://www.helpfulgardener.com/phpBB2/v ... 014#115014

(Not saying this is what you're doin NickiM -- this is a FYI only)

[Mona Miller]

I'm curious applestar. How do you rear your caterpillars? Do you rear inside or outside? What procedures do you use?