Normally I don't interact with monarchs. I provide plenty of nectar flowers and a lot of milkweek, mostly swamp milkweed (incarnata). However, by the middle of September, I walk around checking milkweed, and at some point most of the leaves have been eaten and there's nothing left but stems with only a leaf or two. But there are still monarch caterpillars on the stems, which is fine for the larger caterpillars but the tiny new ones need leaves. And then the unthinkable happens...along comes a monarch to lay another egg on what has become milkweed scraps. At this time I am compelled to take action. I will buy milkweed or cut milkweed from the roadside and put it in a vase of water. The mom instinct kicks in and I have to provide for the season's last caterpillars.
Fortunately this year my nursery had six large, scraggly milkweed plants available for sale. Since it was so late in the season, they were missing quite a few leaves and were filled with seed pods so I got them for half price. I would have paid double if necessary so that I could re-balance the caterpillar to milkweed ratio at my house. End of season milkweed is better than no milkweed, if you are a monarch caterpillar. I brought home the plants, watered them and put them by my side door. Then using scissors, I snipped a bit of stem containing a caterpillar and relocated it to the new milkweed. I don't mind touching them but I think it may be better for them if I don't.
Finally the six new plants were full of caterpillars of various sizes doing what caterpillars do best, eating and pooping. Within a day or two, several crawled up the porch to the doorway and porch eaves and pupated. Beautiful green chrysalises began popping up everywhere as caterpillar numbers finally began to decline. Once the green chrysalis turns clear, the butterfly soon emerges. I was lucky to catch one on camera but the others disappeared one by one, leaving an empty chrysalis hanging on my porch.
Not all of there caterpillars would be successful. I don't know how many pupated in the yard on their own before I got involved. I collected and relocated about 16 caterpillars which pupated. I found one chrysalis blackened, opened and empty, a victim of some predator. Two turned black and never eclosed, due to predatory wasps or perhaps the OE disease. One emerged but I later found pieces of wings on the porch steps. I don't know who got the body. But at least a dozen or more made it. I watched some of them dry their wings and begin their flight to Mexico.
I have four fat caterpillars and a few milkweed leaves left. One of the caterpillars today is hanging upside down in a J shape so I expect to see a chrysalis there tomorrow.
It was so moving to see a chrysalis crack open, watch a leg come out, followed by the rest of the butterfly. It was a miraculous birth. I could not contain my joy. I sent photos to friends and family and everyone I have ever known. Nature gives us amazing miracles every day. We have to look carefully to find them.
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| Caterpillars are eating machines, growing and shedding their skin four or five times. |
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| The chrysalis is green for about 10 days and then turns clear. |
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| The chrysalis breaks easily. |
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| The proboscis is in two parts and has to be fused in to one straw-like piece for sipping nectar. |
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| The wings are wrinkled and folded and appear smaller than the body. |
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| A butterfly can take several hours to stretch and pump fluid into its wings. |
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| It's a boy! And he is going to Mexico. |
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