None of the eggs on my milkweed are hatching

[flgflowers]

I had some caterpillars on my milkweed up until about two weeks ago.
Now there are eggs on the plants but they aren't hatching. I have had
several Monarchs laying eggs every day and I even brought in some of
the plants with eggs on them but they aren't hatching either.

I read an article several days ago that wasps will find the eggs and
inject them and kill the larve before they can even hatch. Is this true?
If so, in order to save them do I have to watch and take the eggs off
the plants as soon as they are laid? I don't recall having this problem
last year (which is when I started my butterfly garden). I have about
300 mw plants - all empty.

[harpo787]

Well, I'm going to leave this one for the experts to answer! I couldn't find anything using google or ask.com...

I know I've read of wasps attacking butterflies, larvae, and pupae but eggs seem so minute in size as to be a worthless thing to attack. I'm sure out of all the eggs that each monarch lays that many of them simply don't hatch various reasons.

Perhaps there's some small predator on the plants (like the size of an aphid or smaller) that feeds on the eggs? Just speculation...paging Jim to the thread!

[MILW]

How many days has it been since the eggs were laid? I've had some eggs take up to 8 days to hatch, I'm not sure why (other than obvious things like cool temps).
Here in Wisconsin, a lot of eggs disappear during the night if left out on the plants- I have some footage of earwigs crawling around on the leaves on the same night the eggs disappeared, suggesting that they are eating the eggs. I routinely bring bits of leaf with the Monarch eggs indoors so they'll be safe, otherwise I wouldn't have many survivors.
I think the parasitoids that lay their eggs in other eggs, usually the wasp larva develops along with the host larva and doesn't emerge until the host is ready for pupation. There is one that parasitizes Drosophila eggs- and those are really tiny!

cheers- Scott

[flgflowers]

I have had the eggs I brought into the house for over two weeks.
However, I remember that the Monarch that was laying most of
the eggs appeared to be very old. She was so faded - the black on her
was a light gray and the orange a very pale color. She looked like
she had weathered many storms. Do you think its very possible that her
eggs were just no good - being that she was so old?

I am also going to start bringing in the leaf with the egg as soon
as I see the Monarchs lay them. Maybe I can get some of them to
survive that way.

[harpo787]

I look forward to hearing a positive update on this last post soon!

We seem to be bereft of monarchs at the moment...where's our supposedly permanent residents?!?

[lfurr]

I'm new to this forum and was searching for reasons why our eggs aren't hatching. We have been very successful with our eggs - catepillars, & crysillis until a few weeks ago. We have a bunch of eggs and Monarch's keep laying more - but none are hatching. It seems to me we should have catepillars in all different stages. I'm a bit concerned.

My husband did spray some systemic insecticide on our trees (about 15 feet away) a few weeks ago. Also, I have seen wasps around the milkweed.

Any ideas or help?

Thanks,
Concerned Monarch Mommy

[psi_chemie]

I'm not sure what a wasp would do to an egg because they seem to small to be of any use to a wasp.

If you had any overspray from the insecticide application it may have an effect. Depending on the method used, 15 feet may not be enough separation. Especially if the winds are wrong.

[flgflowers]

I had a problem with the eggs hatching for awhile but in the past two weeks the eggs I brought in have all seemed to be hatching. Before this
I was having a problem.

When the eggs hatched, I waited until 7 of the caterpillars were an inch long before I put them back outside on the milkweek. I thought
nothing would bother them. How wrong I was. The next day I went out and couldn't find any of the caterpillars except 1 that a large wasp was in the process of killing. I guess I will have to try to raise them all in my garage on plants.

I noticed from some messages and pictures that some of the members are able to raise a bunch of caterpillars. How do you keep enough plants to feed them all? And where do you keep the plants? I have about 25 small caterpillars and will have more and dont think I can maintain enough plants. I have been digging them up and putting them in pots to feed my caterpillars. Pls. let me hear from some of you. Thanks!

[lfurr]

We started with one plant that we transplanted to our backyard by accident. When we realised this last Spring that we had empty chrysillis hanging from our house we began to pay closer attention. Everytime the pods would open with seeds my husband and my 4 year old daughter would push the seeds down into the flower bed around the original plant. I also bought two more milkweed plants from a local natural garden supply place (along with 1500 or so ladybugs to eat the aphids). Even with all this 20 or so catepillars took care of all greenery and we were down to the stalks on the one large plant and the two new plants.

The seeds have now put out a ton of new growth and I can only imagine the huge plants we will have for the monarchs. And the mature plants look great, also. Monarchs come by daily and lay eggs.

Now the eggs just won't hatch, ugh!!! Hopefully we (or nature) will figure it out and they will begin to thrive again.

I thought Monarchs had no natural enemies. Is this only true of the butterflies? What are their enemies at each stage? Anyone know or know where to find the answers? I'm about to call our local Butterfly Center at the Natural Museum of Science in Houston.

[lfurr]

I don't know about ya'll but I've had a hard time finding milkweed to buy. Here is a link to the only place I've found it around Houston.

http://www.buchanansplants.com/

Good Luck.

[harpo787]

Good to see some activity in one of the threads again!

Regarding eggs not hatching...it's hard to say. A wide variety of things could be wrong. Perhaps the monarch(s) laying them could be sterile somehow? Temperatures could be too extreme (either hot or cold) for them to develop/hatch. As someone else suggested, it's possible that earwigs or some other of parasitic pest could be affecting them.

I had a small gap in time of finding scarlett milkweed to purchase around here, but it's back again. However, I'm having a helluva time finding giant milkweed, which I personally love because they seem to last much longer under the "caterpillar crunch." The leaves are larger and thicker.

[spyder954]

I have seen ants clean out eggs and leave a shell that's close in appearance to a good egg. And they and wasps will take the brand new babies fast.

[MILW]

When I have a lot of cats growing, I got out in some local fields and collect leaves- they can be kept in the fridge for a few days before feeding to the cats, if you put them in a plastic bag with a damp paper towel, kind of like lettuce.

[paulakcmo]

I've been watching this topic and comparing my own experiences this year with the monarchs. I have planted curissavica and tropical milkweed (yellow fleurs) after overwintering them with a grow light in the basement. They are doing fantastic, but no butterflies. I [/b]have seen some wasps at ground level this year[b] I hadn't seen any last yr. I thought wasps only made nests high, is it possible they are nesting low and if they are predators to monarchs, how can one get rid of them without harming the butterflies?

[MILW]

What kind of wasps? Yellow jackets often nest in cavities underground, or under old pieces of wood. I had a huge nest under a railroad tie at the edge of my patio last year. They can be so aggressive, its generally not recommended to try to get rid of them, unless it is a solitary queen just beginning a nest. You would have to try to follow the wasp to find its nest and decide from there. I like to use a squirt bottle of soapy water to knock the wasps down, but it doesn't kill them and they get pretty mad! I wouldn't use the soapy water near the milkweed plants either.

I only just found the first eggs at my house yesterday, though there is evidence of feeding on a couple of plants. Unfortunately those plants are being patrolled by ants, so I'm afraid they ate the caterpillars. I'm bringing all eggs that I find into the house for rearing.

Where are you located? I've seen a lot of Monarchs heading north over the past couple of weeks.

cheers- Scott

[harpo787]

I've got red spider mites that are ruining my milkweeds. I'm not sure how they found my plants on the second floor, but they have.

I had a milkweed that was perhaps 2 feet tall and had wonderful bushiness going on, and eventually it became very limp looking all the time, with the leaves starting to yellow. I can also see the fine webbing between leaves and the dark spots they seem to create. I cut the plant back SEVERELY so that there are few leaves/flowers on it. Well, they have shown up on the few remaining leaves and are starting to ruin those too. Do I need to make the plant "bald" of leaves to end the madness?

Just wondering how to get rid of them, without harming cats/butterflies obviously. Would a simple soapy water mixture be enough to kill 'em?

[lfurr]

Try ladybugs - thats what we do for the yellow milkweed aphids that all milkweed seems to get. They work great and its fun to release them. You can buy them on the internet and sometimes you can find them at local nurserys. If your near Houston - I can tell you that Buchanan's carries them.

[lfurr]

Hi all. Here is the email I got back from the Houston Museum of Science, butterfly center:

It sounds like you might have a parasitoid wasp called Trichogramma.
There are several species of this guy. Some of them will effect caterpillars and some will effect the eggs. Take the eggs that are black and put them in a container and see if anything comes out. They are very small but you can see them with the naked eye. If that is what is going on there is not much you can do. I could also be that the eggs have some sort of virus but I doubt it.
I hope this helps.


My husband found a strange wasp in our garden one night sometime after receiving this email. I cut and pasted the word Trichogramma into ask.com and found a picture of this parasitoid wasp and it was exactly what we have. There is nothing we can do, but at least we know.

We did bring in our eggs and they did hatch in the house. Those cats ate all of the milkweed plant I had brought in so we released them into the milkweed garden outside. We'll be keeping a close eye on them. Hopefully they'll be safe now that they are bigger cats.

[harpo787]

Try ladybugs - thats what we do for the yellow milkweed aphids that all milkweed seems to get.

Ladybugs work wonderfully....for aphids. They've taken care of that problem in the past. I also tried them for red spider mites previously, but virtually no success. I guess there has to be a ton of 'em to be noticed.