Gender ratio

[Mom2RJA]

For those of you who raise many monarchs, what are your gender ratios? Of my 12 so far this year, there have been 9 females and 3 males. That seems like a huge difference, but it's a small sample so far, so maybe it doesn't mean anything. But from a species survival perspective, a 3:1 ratio of females to males makes a whole lot of sense!

[Paul Cherubini]

ratio is 1:1 if you rear thousands

[Mom2RJA]

Getting closer to 1:1 but still female heavy. Out of 47 butterflies I have had 28 female to 19 male. So why can't I find any eggs or caterpillars on the abundant milkweed around here?

[Paul Cherubini]

So why can't I find any eggs or caterpillars on the abundant milkweed around here?

My theory: Warm winter and spring allowed predator and parasite populations to increase to above normal levels and they've had a big adverse impact on the survival rate of the monarch eggs and caterpillars.

[Mona Miller]

Or the other scenario is that my area may have gotten sprayed with pesticide. I still haven't gotten a straight answer from my county official. In late April I found eggs. Many did not hatch. Some of the caterpillars showed signs of being feed pesticides. They were leaking green fluid. That is a sure sign of being poisoned. I collected milkweed from my garden. I don't use pesticides.