Am I too late?

[RozieMozie]

im just east of Toronto On. ... am i too late to find caterpillars or eggs?

ive been tromping around what i am rather sure is common milkweed for a couple of days and have not seen one caterpillar, i may have found an egg (or two) but im not sure ... i have also found lots of milkweed beetles, and when i picked a leaf the stem "bleed" lots of white sap ... thts y im sure tht it is milkweed

here is a pic ... do thy look like eggs?


i'll be taking my cam with me this aft when my daughter and i go out lookn again ... and will get a pic of the plant and beetles

[my monarchs]

Hi Rozie Marie
I'm north of Toronto in Barrie so perhaps I can answer your question, although I'm an amateur compared to a lot of people who post here.
The last time I found eggs was the Civic Holiday Weekend in August. Since then, I haven't spotted any.
But eggs were quite plentiful this year, and it does look like you have some eggs on that leaf. Of course, it's hard to to tell from a two-dimensial point of view. When you look at an egg with a magnifying glass, you can see that they are mostly oval, and there is a pattern to their lines. (Dried up milk and other white bits don't have any pattern of lines) Just google monarch eggs and you'll get some excellent examples.
But even if you don't find any eggs, keep looking because you're bound to find caterpillars at instar 1 through 4. I have seven critters in my cage, and most are at instar 1 or 2 -- just babies.
So keep looking.

Karen in Barrie