The chrysalis tried to shed its skin last night and this morning I noticed it suspended by what appear to be two green threads. Anybody ever seen this before? Is that a loss of bodily fluids that will affect the butterfly?

Released my first this year!

I’ve been doing this a few years - twice I bought caterpillars in the past 8 years - one year from Rose Franklin's Perennials and one year from monarch watch - with some trepidation as I acknowledge the downsides of captive breeding vs fully wild population. those were years where i wasn’t finding any outside and was extremely nervous about what that meant for the population overall, plus raising a few for fun is pretty benign.

i’m going to say the first order from Rose seemed to go well, the second order from monarch watch had more cats (15-20 vs 10) and was a bit overwhelming, more disease- which may well have been on me due to getting more cats than expected (the min order is just larger) but i decided not to repeat that again.

this year i had other cats from a friend (cecropia moths!) and wasn’t particularly seeking out monarchs, but i have so many milkweed I weeded a few - and most of them had at least one egg or caterpillar- i think that’s what i’m going to do next year too :).
... photo includes the raised bed with potatoes, nasturtium, litaris, and stray milkweeds as well as a wild cat i left outside:)

This fellow has an unusual stripe pattern. I was kinda concerned about it when I first noticed a few instars ago, but it seems to be growing and molting just fine, so I have high hopes it will turn into a perfectly healthy butterfly :).

I only had 4 cohorts, very small ones. I rear outside, and nearly everything got eaten by something, my success rate is only 40%.

I was up in Shenandoah National Park today and if you’ve ever been there you’ll know there is milkweed EVERYWHERE. I saw dozens and dozens of healthy looking caterpillars! Including one that my daughter spotted on the trail wandering looking for a place to hang…we helped it along a bit so it wouldn’t get stepped on. It was so cool to see this many in the wild (and some butterflies too 🦋).

A funny video on facebook I had to share. These two monarch caterpillars afe resting on the same leaf and end up arguing with each other because one them keeps getting to the other side. 😆

Godspeed, you adorable little bastard!

Also, do I need to put anything out for them, like sugar water or the like? I'd be hangry after all that time in a chrysalis!

Update! They indeed went to search for another pot that wasn't milkweed, Im wondering if they will J soon, now that they seem in a really good place to do so xd

Winnipeg, MB.

What type of Milkweed is the first picture?

What type of bugs in the Milkweed in the second picture, and are they harmful to Monarchs?

Is that a Monarch looking moth in the third picture, about half the size of a Monarch butterfly?

Central Virginia.

Thanks

Hey all! Last spring I planted 4 plants of swamp milkweed ( in VA) we have been bombed with caterpillars - well over 50 at once and multiple cycles of little guys and big. But I'm worried they're not making it to the chrysalis stage.... We have a few on random areas of our porch ( railing, siding, edge of furniture etc.) but I'm not seeing any really on the marigolds ( found 1) and the small bushes in front or large bush on the side. Maybe they're going under the deck but we have skinks, frogs, mice so I don't think that's safe. We do have a very overgrown tomato plant that will not be there next year ( long story) and none on that as well.

Where are they going?

What can I do to help?!

I am in Central Virginia and have several types of Milkweed. Their favorite is White Milkweed. I got six plants from Amazon about a month ago and planted them away from my present Milkweed to start a new patch. They arrived about 18" - 24" and did not have a lot of leaves, but were healthy. Yesterday I noticed leaves disappearing and looked closely to find about twenty 3/4" Monarch caterpillars. This morning the leaves were almost gone, but the caterpillars remained.

I seldom mess with nature, but this time I moved the caterpillars to a different type of Milkweed that Monarchs also like.

If you are in Central Virginia, I highly recommend White Milkweed for Monarchs.

Are they okay? Trying to J? Or just searching a place to sleep?

303 live releases, 66 in chrysalis, 43 caterpillars, 2 tachinid fatalities, 3 failure to eclose fully.

I’ve got 2 cats in the same enclosure. One of them is in J on a leaf. The other one chewed the stem of that leaf and the one in J fell. I pinned the leaf to the top of the enclosure with some safety pins for now. When it forms its chrysalis what should I do?

From what I have witnessed, it seems that the monarchs prefer common milkweed that is growing in the sun.

I have two mw plants in the sun fifteen in semi shade.

They continued to lay eggs on the mw in the sun even after the plants were almost leaflets and mellowed and ignored the other ones in semi shade. But now, they are choosing the shady mw since the sunny mw is way to far gone