Where are they?

[Paul Cherubini]

There's been no lull in monarch abundance on the GMO farmland and tiny prairie preserves of western Minnesota. Today Denise Gibbs wrote on another forum: "Yesterday, in the Bluestem Prairie Preserve near Fargo, ND, the best sightings were the monarchs-- lots and lots of them, Showy milkweed, common milkweed and swamp milkweed a re abundant and in peak bloom. The swamp milkweed plants were loaded with chubby last instar monarch caterpillars. This fall's monarch migration down the central flyway should be a good one!"

The "Bluestem Prairie Preserve" is a tiny prairie remnant that is surrounded by GMO corn and soybean farmland. So if monarchs are abundant right now on the prairie, they're also abundant on the adjacent GMO farmland. I will be visiting this area again this summer during the first week of August to document -via taking and posting videos - the abundance.

[Mona Miller]

There's been no lull in monarch abundance on the GMO farmland and tiny prairie preserves of western Minnesota. Today Denise Gibbs wrote on another forum: "Yesterday, in the Bluestem Prairie Preserve near Fargo, ND, the best sightings were the monarchs-- lots and lots of them, Showy milkweed, common milkweed and swamp milkweed a re abundant and in peak bloom. The swamp milkweed plants were loaded with chubby last instar monarch caterpillars. This fall's monarch migration down the central flyway should be a good one!"

The "Bluestem Prairie Preserve" is a tiny prairie remnant that is surrounded by GMO corn and soybean farmland. So if monarchs are abundant right now on the prairie, they're also abundant on the adjacent GMO farmland. I will be visiting this area again this summer during the first week of August to document -via taking and posting videos - the abundance.

This is typical of Paul Cherubini, he selects sentences out of context. I just posted Denise's whole post, didn't you see it. Conservancy property in North Dakota:
http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/re ... rthdakota/

Denise Gibbs posted this to our local Virginia bugs list. She attend the MN Monarch Conference.

"After talking with many folks from around the eastern US at the Monarch Meeting in MN this past week, I learned that butterflies have been scarce recently in most areas. Lincoln Brower told me his butterfly garden in the mountains of Virginia has seen very little activity, which is surprising since it is the best garden ever. On a NABA count near Chanhassen MN with Jeff Glassburg and other excellent leaders, we found only 20 species of butterflies. However, there were some good species-- bronze coppers are abundant here and it was nice to see the dark form of the common wood nymph. Yesterday, in the Nature Conservancy's Bluestem Prairie Preserve near Fargo, ND, butterflies were more abundant, and I was lucky enough to see a Dakota skipper. But the best sightings were the monarchs-- lots and lots of them, Showy milkweed, common milkweed and swamp milkweed are abundant and in peak bloom. The swamp milkweed plants were loaded with chubby last instar monarch caterpillars. This fall's monarch migration down the central flyway should be a good one!
Denise Gibbs"

[califspaw]

I initially found 10 cats second week of June, three disappeared even though I brought them inside to a potted milkweed I have, weird. Then two got sick and died, they pooped weird jelly like poop and just stopped eating. Although before that one through up and pooped black liquid. Today I found five more on my milkweed two look like 2 nd instar, 2 in 3rd instar and the 5 th looks like it's in the 4 th instar I am going to keep these separate from the first group as I don't know why the two got sick.

[Mona Miller]

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/butt ... 31715.html
Why does a Monarch caterpillar or chrysalis turn black?

[califspaw]

Thanks for the info. Mona I got rid of the potted plant I had the cats eating off of. I lost 3 so far. I am watching 2 and I have 6 separate from those which look good.

[Mona Miller]

Oh Gosh, I had some of those same problems in the spring. Our Monarchs just arrived back in town. I've found 9 eggs so far.

I'm trying not to over do it too much this year. But, I've probably already raise over 250 butterflies of different species this year. Zebra, Black, Spicebush, and Pipevine Swallowtails, plus a bunch of Promethea moths that eat most of my potted Spicebush up. These will all be released back into the wild.

[blazing star]

There's been no lull in monarch abundance on the GMO farmland and tiny prairie preserves of western Minnesota. Today Denise Gibbs wrote on another forum: "Yesterday, in the Bluestem Prairie Preserve near Fargo, ND, the best sightings were the monarchs-- lots and lots of them, Showy milkweed, common milkweed and swamp milkweed a re abundant and in peak bloom. The swamp milkweed plants were loaded with chubby last instar monarch caterpillars. This fall's monarch migration down the central flyway should be a good one!"

The "Bluestem Prairie Preserve" is a tiny prairie remnant that is surrounded by GMO corn and soybean farmland. So if monarchs are abundant right now on the prairie, they're also abundant on the adjacent GMO farmland. I will be visiting this area again this summer during the first week of August to document -via taking and posting videos - the abundance.

Thank you, again, for confirming that prairies draw butterflies. You already provided your video evidence, last year, that the butterflies will fly over GMO crops. Nice work, Paul.

[blazing star]

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/butterfly/2006010603031715.html
Why does a Monarch caterpillar or chrysalis turn black?

Mona, How can chemicals, like those wipes referenced, be used and not kill the cats?

[Mona Miller]

I've never tried this technique, but I'd imagine that a thorough rinse would be needed to remove any residue before using the milkweed.

[dani]

Update from Madison, WI: We've had some rain in the past couple of weeks, and suddenly I'm finding Monarch eggs again. Not sure if it's a coincidence... I still haven't seen any butterflies, but yesterday and this morning I collected 10 eggs. Two have already hatched and are munching away...

[Mona Miller]

Wonderful!

[dani]

Update from Madison, WI: We've had some rain in the past couple of weeks, and suddenly I'm finding Monarch eggs again. Not sure if this is coincidence... I still haven't seen any butterflies, but I collected 10 eggs in my garden recently. Two hatched yesterday and are munching away...

[freda]

Where are the monarchs? Three or four weeks ago I couldn't pick leaves to feed my caterpillars without finding another 20 eggs. Now I haven't seen an egg or a caterpillar in over a week. I have been picking milkweed in 7 different locations within about a 10 mile radius. I have looked at hundreds of milkweed plants. Nothing! What's going on? I'm down to eight caterpillars, all within a few days of pupating.

I'm going to jump in here and respond to your question. I tried to get to the end of the thread to add my comment but by that time the topic had become so diluted that there was no point. The point is, I'm experiencing the same situation here in Kenora, ON. We had a very early and abundant crop of eggs. I collected 300+ eggs and released more than 250. I lost a lot of eggs and 1st instars to a lacewing larva that was hidden in the milkweed bouquets I used. Lesson learned about checking leaves more carefully. But we released 60 monarchs one day, 30 each of the next two days and the rest in smaller numbers, totalling more than 250. And never saw another monarch in the garden after that. I was away for a few days and came home to a hundred or so hatching holes so I did miss one 'batch' but it seemed to me there should have been thousands of eggs beginning a second generation. There's not a lot of milkweed in our area. We brought one plant here in 1996 and now have about 400. So where did the monarchs go? Where will they lay their eggs that will result in flyers? I just don't get it.

One observation is that if the purpose of the first generation is simply to increase numbers, that same rule applies to ants, spiders and other predators which are prolific in my milkweed at the moment.

[Mona Miller]

I remember someone from Northern Ontario saying that along with the early Monarchs came more predators. Predators that they had never seen before and those predators were decimating the Monarch population. This person said that people were having to take the eggs in ASAP to save them from being eaten.

BTW, I wash off my milkweed and try to check the stems and leaves carefully before feeding larvae. But, I do understand how a predator can still sneak in. It happens. They are good at hiding.

[Mom2RJA]

I'm still having a hard time finding any monarchs. After the big boom in May/June, I have hardly been able to find anything. I found two eggs the whole month of July, and one of the caterpillars unexpectedly died with no clue as to why. I released the one butterfly last week. I'm now on vacation at a resort where I found a lot of caterpillars last summer. I have searched many milkweed plants only to find ONE tiny caterpillar (approximately two days old). I'm happy to have one to care for again, but I sure wish I could find more. This will be #50 for this summer, but 48 of them were in May/June.

In the meantime, we found a big black swallowtail caterpillar last week on Queen Anne's Lace growing at the side of our driveway. It is now a chrysalis. This is our first time raising a swallowtail, so it's fun to experience something different.

[freda]

In the meantime, we found a big black swallowtail caterpillar last week on Queen Anne's Lace growing at the side of our driveway. It is now a chrysalis. This is our first time raising a swallowtail, so it's fun to experience something different.[/quote]

I'm very envious of your swallowtail! I don't see a reference to your location. I'm in Kenora ON and raised 8 black swallowtails last summer, imports from herbs purchased in Winnipeg. They were fascinating! As much as I love my monarchs, the different instars of the swallowtail make them very special. I made a video of my "guys" last year and you might find it interesting, but be aware that it's almost 5 minutes. (It took me about 6 hours to edit it to 5 minutes!)

Freda

[freda]

Oops...
http://youtu.be/jIfGSTL9Bww

[dandjtaylor]

They are not slowing down here in Salem, MA. Just today I found several multiple egged leaves on my common milkweed in my Waystation. We are at 927 monarchs reared so far with still over 400 in process. Number 1000 is expected this weekend. Success rate is only about 80%, due probably to large numbers and high temperatures.

[Mom2RJA]

I'm very envious of your swallowtail! I don't see a reference to your location.

Our swallowtail was already in its last instar by the time we found it, so I didn't get to experience much of it. It turns out my kids had seen it several days earlier, but they didn't tell me! We're in Michigan.

[freda]

I'm very envious of your swallowtail! I don't see a reference to your location.

Our swallowtail was already in its last instar by the time we found it, so I didn't get to experience much of it. It turns out my kids had seen it several days earlier, but they didn't tell me! We're in Michigan.

The friend who brought her mixed herb pot from Winnipeg, called me to say that there were caterpillars running all through her plants and would I come and look at them. I was very excited as there were BS in FOUR different stages. Her takeaway from the experience was that she was going to be sure to rinse her herbs more carefully from now on...

[Mona Miller]

FYI. There's an off topic section to talk about all other butterflies.