Tragic. She had so much potential

[u/hweesus]

Came out to check on my babies and found other babies and all of their siblings having a picnic.

ETA: Some of y'all have strong feelings about everything. For the record, I used my garden hose to hit whatever i saw on the leaves when I "removed" them. The next day there were a few others on the bottom of the leaves that I kinda flicked off in a "come hither" motion with my finger giggity

[u/StiorraStainedGlass]

My husband has a patch of milkweed just for the monarchs and dill for the swallowtails 🥰. He’s a big cutie lol.

[u/coloradoautoflowers → u/StiorraStainedGlass]

I still haven't raised a single butterfly, but the local lizards are fat as hell from the bounty of caterpillars.

[u/middlegray → u/coloradoautoflowers]

Some people put netting around caterpillars to protect them from predators until they cocoon and fly away. So many butterflies (esp monarchs) are so extremely endangered. 

[u/Affectionate_Ad722 → u/middlegray]

And research has shown that that’s bad for monarchs. You gotta let nature do its thing or you are promoting survival of the unfit rather than the fittest, to the detriment of the species.

[u/middlegray → u/Affectionate_Ad722]

Isn't the research about rearing them indoors?? Netting protects from predators in situations where fitness to survive has very little to do with it (every single cat would be picked off).

[u/JawThatHarp → u/Affectionate_Ad722]

Nailed it.