New Years Monarch

[deemiller]

Returned to NW Houston area from a week out of town to find new Monarch emerged and drying in the sun. Three chrysalis left -- light freeze on the way -- hoping for the best.

[Mona Miller]

If they can get their wings dried, they can head further south.

[lakewoodlady]

I live in Cypress, just NW of Houston, released 7 monarchs in January, now am finding eggs and tiny worms, don"t know why they didn't fly South! Weather this year has everything screwed up.

[Mona Miller]

Do you have tropical milkweed?

[Paul Cherubini]

Monarchs are non-directional in December & January so they will not head south upon release.

[luv]

I live in Cypress (NW) of Houston. I have more then a dozen cats feeding on my milkweed. I was able to save my 6 plants from the last light freeze. In the 7 years that I have lived here, I do not remember having so many cats in late January. Isn't it kind of late for eggs ?

[Mona Miller]

It's due to the mild winter. Many coastal states have Monarchs in all stages. Do you have tropical milkweed?

[luv]

Yes, I have Tropical milkweed. That is the only species I have planted.

[Mona Miller]

This may be causing them to stick around. It is advisable to cut it back in December and let it regrow.

[luv]

Thank you...signing off

[Paul Cherubini]

It's normal for some female monarchs to develop eggs in the winter along the Gulf coast,
south Atlantic coast and California coast even in locations where there is no milkweed. These females desperately want to find milkweed to lay their eggs on. Intentionally depriving them of milkweed (via cutting the milkweed down to the ground) will cause them alot of stress and they will end up dying without breeding. Providing these females with milkweed (any kind of milkweed) will give their offspring a chance to survive and contribute to the growth of future generations of monarchs.

Paradoxically, some of the same people who think its cruel for commercial butterfly breeders to ship monarchs to the northern states in the early Spring because there is no milkweed for them that early in the year, think its beneficial for home gardeners along the gulf coast to cut tropical milkweed to the ground in the late fall and winter even though the consequences are just as cruel: the females will frantically look for milkweed and die without breeding. Another irony is that far from harming the migratory instincts of the monarchs, the monarch migrations in Australia and New Zealand are actually 100% dependent on a evergreen tropical milkweed (Asclepias fruticosa) because that's the only kind of milkweed that grows at temperate zone latitudes in those countries. So monarch conservationists in those countries would never dream of cutting tropical milkweed down to the ground in the late fall and winter.