Too Late for Caterpillar to Survive??????

[TN Monarch]

I have 2 milkweed plants this year. First ever! It has a few seed pods on it and today found a monarch caterpillar. My concern is will it survive this late. (Oct. 6.) Temperatures this week will be lows in the 50's and highs in the 70's with temps dropping to the low 40's by the weekend.

FYI - We had a large monarch migration through TN this week but it seems to have declined compared to mid-week.

[psi_chemie]

It depends - if it has pupated already there may be a chance if there are enough 60 degree days and no frosts between TN and MX in the next couple weeks. Otherwise, chances aren't so good. Life in the insect world.

[TN Monarch]

It is at the 5th instar stage and eating like mad. Now they are calling for a low of 37 this week.

[psi_chemie]

You could always just keep the butterfly in a large cage inside. Some people do keep them over the winter. Or you could just let nature take its course and see what happens. Anyways, if it pupates now and you keep the pupa inside at room temp it should emerge in 10 days and you can decide to let it go or not.

[Gene Sengstake]

Having found myself in a similar situation - and finally securing a successful release in Texas - I (and I'm sure others) are interested in how things have turned out.

[Jeanine L. Shaffer]

I had a couple of experiences in Oct. 2005. On Oct. 4-05 a very tattered female Monarch came into my yard and laid about 170 eggs on my Tropical Milkweed. I felt it was too late for them to make it but decided to bring them into my workroom and try to raise them. I had just cleaned us all my containers etc. that I raise them in and had put everything away. They started hatching in a few days and I ended up with about 100 to care for. They were growing and doing just fine when a few started dying. The rest all looked O.K. but a few days later a few more died. This continued till there were only 2 left that were about to the last instar stage and they died also.

ON Nov. 6-05 I found 2 large Monarch caterpillars and brought them in to care for them. They pupated on Nov. 10-05 and emerged on 11-23 but they were both too weak to hang on to the chrysalis and died. If they would've survived, I had no way to care for them through the winter.

Nature takes care of things.

Where are you in Tn. I'm near Nashville.

Jeanine