Still finding caterpillars on my Milkweed!

[DonnaZ2011]

I live just north of Houston TX. I am still finding Monarch caterpillars munching on my Milkweed. In my garden ,if I don't bring the caterpillars into a container something eats them and I get no chrysallis formation. I just finished rearing 10 more Monarchs and releasing them, now I have 6 more caterpillars. It is still quite warm here. Should I continue to collect caterpillars when I see them or just forget about it and let nature take its course?

[Mona Miller]

You do know that the caterpillars go off the milkweed to pupate. Perhaps that is what is happening instead of them getting eaten.

[DonnaZ2011]

No Mona I didn't realize that, I'm new to this. However, I have looked all around for chrysallis and could not find any. I also do not see any vacated chrysallis anywhere. How far away from the milkweed do they travel to pupate? I will see the caterpillars one day and the next they will be gone. I just assumed something was eating them. I do have wasps and lizards around my backyard. I read that wasps are predators of the caterpillars.
Should I continue to raise the butterflies here in TX this time of year? My five year old Grandson and I really enjoy watching the cycle and we aren't expecting a cold winter this year. Will the butterflies survive here in the winter?

[Mona Miller]

They can travel as far as 100 feet or more and the chrysalis are very hard to find. Yes, wasp and lizards do eat them. They can withstand temps down to 25 degrees if they are not wet. If you continue to raise inside then you will have to keep them if the weather gets bad. I can help you with that. This year scientist think that the population will be low again so every Monarch counts.

[DonnaZ2011]

Mona, I'll do whatever it takes to increase the numbers of this beautiful creature. I recently certified my garden as a waystation for them and have built a rearing cage for the spring. I took my grandson to see Flight of The Butterflies at the IMAX theater at Houston Museum of Natural Science. We both enjoyed it very much. Between last Spring and this Fall we have raised about 45 butterflies. Three chrysallids didn't open this Fall and one opened with a deformed butterfly. We were looking forward to Spring and I did not expect to find so many caterpillars in the Fall. Thanks for your help.

[Mona Miller]

Monarchs will take every chance they can to multiply. I've heard from other people in TX that there was a lot of fall laying this year.

I'm on the Monarch Watch main email list, too: http://www.monarchwatch.org/dplex/index.htm

I also follow Journey North. Monarch Watch has a links page:
http://www.monarchwatch.org/resource/index.htm

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/index.html
Journey North
You can report what's going on in your area to their website:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/maps/Gallery.html
The data is used to do research.

[jillians]

I was still finding eggs over the weekend in Austin. Lots of milkweed blooming. Watched Monarchs & Queens battle it out all afternoon. I still have cats in various stages and a few waiting to eclose. So they should be ok for a brief cold snap? We might be close to freezing for an hour or two tomorrow night, but the high today was 81. It's a big change for all of us.

I would also say that I've noticed I lose a lot of cats to predators in their first instars. I will see the tiny hole in a leaf where an egg has hatched, but no cats. I can watch the wasps move down the milkweed, checking each leaf as they go.

[Mona Miller]

The same thing happens in my area with the paper wasp and yellow jackets, too. Ants, eat them. Ladybugs, etc. Invertebrates have no problems with eating monarchs. The toxins don't bother them.