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pollinators

Monarch caterpillars are here! (and other activity on the milkweeds)

Posts: 9119

Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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posted 10 months ago

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After complaining about cicada damage I'm overjoyed to have these monarch caterpillars eating my milkweed!!!
And the flowers smell so good!
After three years (from seed) the milkweed has spread enough and finally bloomed to attract the monarchs🦋🦋🦋

It's 'common milkweed' from Twisted Tree Farm.
http://www.twisted-tree.net/seeds

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

Posts: 9119

Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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posted 10 months ago

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And the fritillaries love the milkweed flowers also.

Their caterpillars feed on passionflower vine though.
Will have to check on them soon.

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

May Lotito

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posted 10 months ago

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Isn't it fun to see caterpillars and butterflies? I found one caterpillar too. This is also a common milkweed about to flower for the first time in the third season. I have other milkweeds but they have fewer and small leaves to feed a lot of monarch caterpillars, especially from the generation heading south. I would transfer all the cats onto the big leaves of common milkweed so the butterflyweeds won't get demolished.

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

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Judith Browning

Posts: 9119

Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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posted 10 months ago

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May, I haven't noticed any caterpillars on my butterfly weed...it's just starting to bloom and the lone survivor from a pkt of seed. Had not thought about moving the caterpillars to the common milkweed. Great idea as the common is running rampent and looks as though I'll be needing to control its spread some.

My butterfly weed is one large clump and has been blooming for a few years now...I wonder if I can divide it?

What other milkweeds do you grow?
Whorled is native here but I haven't tried to grow it in our yard and gardens.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

May Lotito

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posted 10 months ago

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Currently I have several kinds: green-flowered, tall green, whorled, purple, swamp, orange and yellow butterfly weeds and showy milkweed. Only three are from purchased seed packs and the rest are from local wildflowers.

Swamp milkweed propagates easily by dividing. I haven't tried on butterflyweed but it grows easily from seeds and blooms in the first year.

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

May Lotito

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posted 9 months ago

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I get most of my milkweed collections from wild plants growing in my area. Today I took a 10-minute walk from home and I found quite a few of them. As well as other showy wildflowers.

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Found a butterfly with very deep red-orange color

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So many common milkweed shy of being invasive

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Short green and whorled milkweed side by side

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

Timothy Norton

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Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall

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posted 9 months ago

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This is my first year that I can identify milkweed quickly and I'm so pumped at the sheer amount all over the area that I live in. I haven't seen caterpillars yet, I'm going to have to keep an eye out!

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May Lotito

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posted 6 months ago

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How is the fall migration doing in your area Judith? I usually start to see them a lot since August but this year I only spotted the first one this morning. I checked the common milkweed and found a few eggs. Population is way down compared to previous years and I don't know if it has to do with drought in the mid Atlantic this summer or not.

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

Judith Browning

Posts: 9119

Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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posted 5 months ago

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May Lotito wrote:How is the fall migration doing in your area Judith? I usually start to see them a lot since August but this year I only spotted the first one this morning. I checked the common milkweed and found a few eggs. Population is way down compared to previous years and I don't know if it has to do with drought in the mid Atlantic this summer or not.

We saw 2 monarchs total...and my common milkweed that had caterpillars in the early summer dropped leaves during the early fall drought.
They didn't seem attracted to the butterfly weed even though it bloomed a second time and was greener than the common.

We had an abundance of many types of butterflies a few years ago all summer and very few since.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

May Lotito

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posted 5 months ago

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I saw a total of two monarch butterflies from the fall generation. They love the sunchoke flowers the best among other late blooms.

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

Anne Fletcher

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Location: Berkeley CA

posted 1 month ago

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People often ask me about whether to raise monarch caterpillars indoors, and if so, how

According to Xerces, it's not a great idea to raise them indoors in large numbers because that interferes with natural breeding. However, they make an exception for education and children. It's very worthwhile to raise one or two caterpillars indoors to show kids the magic, and hopefully raise future butterfly enthusiasts!

Here's a blog post I wrote showing how to raise a monarch caterpillar indoors.

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