Have extra Monarch eggs in Mass.

[Sueinma]

Hi, I haven't posted here much but registered last year to become of Monarch waystation and this is my 3rd year raising Monarchs.

On Thursday a somewhat tattered female Monarch with 3 wings came to the back garden and started laying tons of eggs on the Asclepias curassavica. She laid eggs everywhere - on the top of leaves, bottom of leaves, 2 eggs on the same leaf and once even 3! I collected over 50 eggs that day she has been out laying more eggs yesterday and today.

I'm not equipped to handle this many and would need a larger enclosure plus would have to collect wild A. syriaca to feed them. I wondered if anyone in Mass. wants/needs some eggs. I can mail them or someone could come by and get some.

Any other suggestions with what I can do with extra eggs? Would teachers be interested? Can anyone recommend a quick enclosure I could purchase to tend extra cats outside?

Thanks very much for any help.

[dandjtaylor]

I have about 600 in process right now and could take them with no problem. I am in Salem, MA (Waystation #2638). How do we make the exchange? Already have released 300 this season with over 50 already tagged.

I use glad sandwich containers. Even though I have hundreds of milkweed in the yard, I still depend on the large public milkweed grounds for most of my food sources. You can either try that or we can take them on here in Salem. What do you suggest?

[dandjtaylor]

You can contact me at dwayneandjentaylor@comcast.net or at www.monarchs-n-milkweed.com

[Sueinma]

Hello Dwane! Thank you for your reply. My goodness - 900 Monarchs? That's awesome. Are you sure you want more? I am so impressed. Do you collect every egg and cat that you find?

I think perhaps it would work to mail some eggs. I have done this once before with great success. I will email you at the address below to discuss details.

I would still like to raise some of these eggs in an enclosure outdoors. I don't have time to build something, but can hopefully purchase something quickly. Does anybody have any recommendations? Thanks!

[Mona Miller]

These net cages are parasite proof, they can be used outside:
http://educationalscience.com/merchant. ... tus=passed
Giant Square Pop-Up Butterfly Cage /Terrarium, 27 x 27 x 48in

http://educationalscience.com/merchant. ... tus=passed
Square Pop-Up Butterfly Cage, 16.5 x 16.5 x 30in

[Sueinma]

Dwayne, I sent you an email.

Thanks for that link Mona, I just purchased the 30 inch high one today. I will try to raise some extra cats outdoors on the deck.

Next year I could start some Tropical milkweed in pots just to use in the enclosure. Do you have to worry about insects more when you use potted milkweed?

[Mona Miller]

I wash off my potted milkweed and try to look the leaves carefully before putting it into my tent or containers (cages). Spiders don't like water.

I had put together a small container for the Monarch Teacher Network teachers so they could watch some Monarch caterpillars pupate. Wouldn't you know that somehow a spiny assassin bug had hid in the flowers and tiny crab spiders, too. I monitor the containers and squish when necessary.

If you put these on your deck, they need to be shaded. I have mine under a huge market and beach umbrellas. Siding (if you have siding) on your house reflects heat and it gets pretty hot out there. Don't put them too close to your house.

[dandjtaylor]

Sue

Update: the cats/eggs you sent are all great big and fat, some have pupated. I continue to find eggs (30 yesterday in the yard) and have released 550 with over 250 tagged. With over 700 still in process, we should easily surpass 1000 and I ordered a total of 800 tags.

Thanks again for the extra's. I hope yours went well.

[Sueinma]

Hi Dwayne, great to hear that the eggs have done well. Your numbers are tremendous!

I got about 75 eggs from the 3 winged female and mine have almost all pupated in the last couple days. I put 50 of them in the new pop up enclosure when they were 4th instar. I collected wild A. syriaca and put it in pint containers filled with floral foam and water. Kept pumping them with more leaves til they got big and fat too!

They have mostly pupated on the top of the enclosure. I really like the enclosure, it makes it easier to deal with a larger number of caterpillars and can put them out into a little sun on the deck to warm up without worrying about predators. Mona, I don't have to worry too much about them overheating - it is already cooling off here, days about 80, with nights in the 50's. Perfect weather really, but a little cool for Monarchs I think.

[NickiM]

Over 1000!!!! How do you manage to feed so many? Do you raise in a tent with potted milkweed plants?

I feel like all I've gotten done the last month is gather and wash milkweed leaves and then feed cats, and I'm only going to end up releasing about 200. I feel really good about that number, since 100 was my goal for this year. I had little plastic containers stacked as high as was safe--the "caterpillar condos"--and several large eclosing containers--the "hatching houses".

[dandjtaylor]

Nicki

I rear 4 per Glad sandwich container until they are about a day away from pupation, then they get their own container, the taller Glad style, with a mesh fabric on top.

I gather most of the food in the public places that I look for eggs. Once the last eggs have been found, I begin using the milkweed in my yard, this should be in the next week or so. (Had another warn female deposit another 60 eggs Sunday and Monday).

Two hours per night is spent cleaning, sorting, feeding then counting. The new potential total is now over 1300. 650 have already been released with 330 tagged. I have purchased 800 tags this year and still have over 650 in process.

[Sueinma]

Wow, Dwayne, 1300! Amazing numbers really, I don't know how you do it. I feel like Nicki, all I've been doing is tending caterpillars, often checking them in the middle of the night, and I'll only release about 125 or so this year.

I've been releasing the 3-winged butterfly's babies the past few days. Yesterday there were 21 that eclosed, the most I've ever had in one day. They have been very healthy strong butterflies.

How many do you release on an average day Dwayne? Do you release them at your house?

[dandjtaylor]

Release numbers per day vary greatly now that night time temperatures are lower. Following the 3 days of rain the other day we released over 60. Yesterday it was 12. Today it appears that only one will go.

With all of the moisture due to the 3 days of rain, I lost about 100, mostly first to third instars. Even with paper towels and ventilation, enough moisture would collect on the walls of the container suffocating them. So, now, it will probably be less than 1200 releases, hopefully 800 tagged.

I release all of my 'flies at home. The garden, especially the two days following the 60 released, was abuzz with dozens of monarchs.

Even now, I have one female, still laying eggs around the yard. We also have a male over four weeks old that still flies around with less than 30% of his forewings left. He is a survivor. He was "born" with really distorted wings. I placed a couple of the unuseable orange tags on him and once he nectared for the first time, he started flying. He stayed in our yard his entire life. Every day we wander if we'll see him again.

[Sueinma]

Hi Dwayne, sorry to hear about the losses. I wonder if a dehumidifier in your rearing room would help? Those 3 days of rain were tough. I had chrysalises turning transparent in the house, and with the weather they predicted, figured it was a bad idea for them to eclose yet. I put the enclosure out on the deck under the eave so they would have a more accurate sense of the weather conditions, and not eclose. That seemed to work pretty well and even the transparent ones didn't eclose for about 2 days until the rain stopped.

I was worried about several butterflies that I had released right before the rain, and in fact one spent 3 days hanging onto one of my hanging plants (again under the eaves). She apparently was okay, because as soon as the rain stopped and it dried out, she was gone. Amazing that a newly emerged butterfly can go 3 days without food?

How interesting that your deformed guy has flown and lived for 4 weeks already. Not a bad life, although I assume he won't be breeding or migrating.

[dandjtaylor]

He is what I like to call, one of the "patrollers", the males that hang around the yard as their territory, spending their entire lives just cruising until an intruder or a female comes along. You'll even see him struggling really hard to chase a female around. He looks like a humming bird in slow motion because he has to beat his wings abour 3 times as fast to stay aloft and to land on a target flower.

I expect he will not be around many more days, but I take a picture of him every day now. Today at lunch, yet again, there he was.

He has led a pretty good life, even if he did have to work harder than most to get where and what he wanted.

The de-humidifier is not a bad idea for those kind of long wet periods. It happened last summer as well when I kept them out in my shed...thus the reason I brought them indoors this year. Well, at least we are still better than nature in yields, right?