First egg sighting

[drexel.n@gmail]

I was at a girlfriend's house last night and after dinner we took a garden walk. She has 8 butterfly milkweeds in one of her beds. The plants have just exploded in the past week. Last week we could ony see 3 of them! Last night we saw 5 eggs on the biggest of the plants! So of course when I got home I got out the flashlight and searched my yard. Alas, no eggs yet. But I did see a lot of tiny slugs dining on my milkweeds. How can I encourage them to eat elsewhere?

Has anyone else in Southwest Ohio seen butterflies yet? Does anyone else in the region have eggs yet?

Nancy

[drexel.n@gmail]

At the same friend's house again last night - between thunderstorms we saw 2 TINY cats! She said yesterday morning there had been 7. Hopefully the others were there and I just didn't see them. =) Still nothing in my yard yet. The milkweed is nearly blooming, so perhaps the females will find me soon.

[ChrysCook]

On Sunday, 5/17, near Aurora, IN (southeast part of the state) I saw a female monarch flitting from milkweed to milkweed laying eggs, in my field! Many more milkweed plants came up this year since we killed the fescue last year. With about 50 plants or so, it's only the beginning!

[ChrysCook]

On 5/24, I found a nearly full-grown caterpillar munching on milkweed, also on my acreage in SE Indiana.

[raycope]

We are in the Chicago area. A lone monarch stopped at our butterfly border a few weeks ago in early May, when the milkweeds were just a few inches tall. During the Memorial Day weekend we collected 15 caterpillars ranging from one half to one full inch long. We haven't seen any other monarchs, though.

It could be that the butterfly border is new, planted just 2 years ago. Last summer was the first time we had monarchs/caterpillars. We raised and released 18 monarchs.

[drexel.n@gmail]

My butterfly weed bloomed yesterday! At least one stalk did. I'm so excited! My swamp weed is still a few days (weeks?) behind. So hopefully the mom monarchs can find me now.

[raycope]

All our caterpillars had formed chrysalises by 6/4/09. 2 days ago (6/9/09) the first monarch emerged. Today 4 followed suit. The flowers on my milkweeds are still in buds, good thing the salvias and yarrows are in full bloom to feed the released monarchs.

[drexel.n@gmail]

I saw my first monarch of the year in my yard Saturday afternoon! She was awesome and really wasn't bothered by the bees. I watched her lay half a dozen eggs on my Swamp Weed, which I will check if it ever stops raining again. She was incredible to watch! I'm so excited that one finally found me!

Nancy
Cincinnati, Ohio
Waystation 3037

[dandjtaylor]

Nancy

See, patience. Here...the same...terrible weather for pretty much the entire month. I am concerned about the North East population of fall monarchs that need to migrate back to Mexico. The 13 Cats that I have are taking about a week or two longer than usual to get to the "J" stage.

Hopefully, there will be an explosion as soon as the weather turns warmer and dryer.

Good luck.

Dwayne
WS 2638

[Teresa]

I seen my first monarch today. I don't usually see them till the middle of July. Hope this is a sign it's going to be a good year :)

[kali]

Hi all,

found my first egg tonight on my whorled milkweed. I have only seen one monarch in my yard but there must be others.

kali
new richmond wi

[drexel.n@gmail]

Well, it hasn't rained in a few days and the temperature is hovering near 90 with a bunch of humidity. I'm glad I brought in the eggs I have. Of 4, only 2 hatched (the other 2 might not actually have been eggs). They are doing quite well so far. I hope to find more eggs tonite, but I haven't seen any in several days. The milkweeds (swamp & butterfly) are about finished blooming but the liatris opened yesterday - it looks like light purple fireworks! Just a stunning plant! Lots of columbine and zinnias, too. Sounds like a lovely butterfly meal to me - I've only seen the one so far. I hope she tells her friends. =)

Nancy
WS3037

[Mona Miller]

I use a product called Sluggo. It helps keep the slug population down. I even saw a slug eating a chrysalis that had fallen on the gound. It's also planet friendly.

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/sluggo.html

[kali]

hi all
my egg hatched yesterday and the little one is eating away on a sprig of whorled milkweed.

[goshawks00]

Here it is 7/12 and so far this year we have seen a total of 6 adults and no eggs on any of our over 2oo plants... :>(

We made a conserted effort to make a drive around and spent almost 40 miles of plant looking with no eggs or cats found and no sightings either... Is anyone else experiencing this type of failure?
Barry
( SE Mich)

[kat_langan]

yeah its hard for me to find them and I live in Northern Michigan. I have to go out aways from town to find them. I see Milkweed all over the place and I always stop to look and no Cats or eggs. Its like becoming more rare around here and its sad. I have only seen a monarch butterfly probably twice this year. I have had success finding them but I spend about 2 hours a day looking for them. Hopefully you have more luck!

[Mona Miller]

This is why when I do find them that I start breeding them in my screen tent. With all this development, pesticides, spraying for gypsy moths, herbicides, bad weather, more bad weather. I raised 168 pupae recently, but it is incredibly hard to do this. I end up raising lots of tropical milkweed. The common doesn't grow back so fast. Anyways, the tropical is more toxic and gives them more protection. I released 73 at the park last Sunday and by the next Sunday never sighted one Monarch. Matter-of-fact, no much flying at all. Our swallowtail populations have crashed big time--along with many of the other butterfly species. I do have plenty of cabbage whiles.

[ChrysCook]

I live in Cincinnati, OH. The natural area I own and am restoring that I've posted photos of is about 40 minutes away near Aurora, IN. Until yesterday, I hadn't collected any cats I'd seen until I knew I had enough milkweed here to feed them and was going to be here to do so. Having identified a big healthy vine on our fence here as definitely the blue sand vine, I collected 3 cats of different sizes yesterday! It's my first time doing this with monarchs. They were all on the butterfly weed. One is big enough to pupate, one is still munching on the butterfly weed, and the smallest is resting under a twig. Maybe it's going to molt. I must have looked at about 50 plants before finding all 3 very close together. Before that, I found 2 small dead ones. I saw the biggest, most brilliant adult ever and just one other smaller one. In the 10-acre area that has a lot of butterfly weed and some common milkweed, I usually see just 1 or 2. And down below, I occasionally see 1 more. I hope their numbers increase there over the years. I just discovered Monarch Watch early this year; it's through the info and people on this website that I learned how much of a plight the monarchs are in and became determined to try to do what I could.

The zebra and pipevine swallowtails seem the most plentiful of the swallowtails there this year. With all the spice bush in the woods, I'm surprised I don't see more of those. Maybe they tend to come out much earlier in the day when I'm not around. Fritillaries are perhaps the most abundant big butterfly there. There are loads of cabbage whites, many sulphurs, the occasional buckeye, and many small butterflies, such as pearl crescents, skippers, wood nymphs, and tailed blues. I haven't seen any red-spotted purples yet this year; they're usually pretty common there also.

[goshawks00]

Spent another two hours looking today and found 2 cats a 1/4"er and a much larger one... also 3 eggs. Again didn't see a single adult and only 3 so far this year... Lots of milk weed no butterfies.
Barry

[knitter1]

I have been watching a monarch laying her eggs this week in my milkweed patch...I am wondering if anything eats them as their are holes where I thought I had seen eggs previously...

[Mona Miller]

Many, many things eat them. Wasp, ladybugs, assassin bugs, birds, lizards.... it really depends on which state you are in.

http://monarchwatch.org/biology/pred1.htm
Predation