I love your video series! I planted a butterfly garden in my backyard and enjoyed watching the butterflies and caterpillars but they all disappeared before I saw any in the chrysalis stage. After watching your videos, I brought 14 eggs inside and they hatched today, I'm in FL and our milkweed has much smaller leaves so it's harder to cut and place them but I was successful and looking forward to watching them grow. My teenage son laughed at me and said mom, we did this in kindergarten, I said "and I remember how happy it made you to see them fly away"!
I just planted a garden and saw eggs. So I bought a tomato cage and a mesh drawstring bag to put over it so they’re protected form predators. I can’t commit to do more than that, but hoping they survive!
Elementary teacher here! I bought a milkweed and planted it in my garden and was so excited to see several caterpillars on it 2 weeks ago. I am documenting the progress for my students. 2 of the caterpillars disappeared when they got big enough to make their chrysalis. I think they must have crawled back between another bush and my fence. BUT, today on started J hanging under the ridge in the siding by the plant. I am so excited to watch the process. Your videos have been very helpful. Thank you for the time and attention you put into them.
I have an excess of maternal energy coupled with a lifelong entomology obsession, this year I finally took on monarch safekeeping, your videos have made it less stressful for all of us!! I'm subscribing because anyone who takes care of the tiniest of critters is tops in my book! I don't mean to sound like I was born in the 1920s but it just happens on RUclips :) Thank you for sharing and being so conscientious!
I don't know if I'd know what someone from the 1920's would sound like. At any rate, welcome aboard! Very pleased that you can find these videos to be of use. Hope your season has gone well!
J Hook is in the chrysalis stage now after watching him/her the entire time suddenly there it was and had happened during an hour I was in the other room! Wow, relief and now I understand all the commotion they go through seeking that spot, not eating, etc. I can't believe how the entire process happens and can't wait to have more of this experience with the upcoming J II and the tiny Jimmy J now too small for the larger habitat but it won't be too long! Thanks again, you are amazing and your energy for doing all of the videos I have now found is stunning. Kids are blessed to have you in their lives.
Blessed due to me? Naw. I won't take such credit. I'd say, they benefit from some tax dollars paying for public education in the case of me being in their lives. I'll take the compliment humbly, nonetheless, so thank you. I'm excited for you getting to see the chrysalis stage! Just a few days now, and oh, the excitement you'll have. Good luck!
Observe: The male Monarch flies around garden with Milkweed for a few days. Then two to three days later the female Monarch comes and checks out the layout then she starts laying her eggs, lots of them. The eggs I was finding were on the lower New leaves and some up in the budded flowers. On the larger leaves she layed two eggs. This year I noticed there were less Monarchs. But the one or two that came to there butterfly garden, layed lots. Also this year there were different species such as Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Skippers few different types, Grey hair streak, one have not identified yet. And of course the Anise Swallowtail. And several Cabbage whites, so pretty to see white butterflies. Going to plant more host plants if I can find them...lccv
Much gratitude for your series! You broke all the steps down to where I could understand each stage and what my tasks were in nurturing. You mentioned Michigan and in your first video wore a shirt that had St. Johns on it so yes, I looked your name up, and hooray, you are from the same neck of the woods so I know now I might have a chance! Thank YOU!
I use a reptile container for my 5th instars as well, however, I put it on its side. This way, the caterpillars pupate on the clear plastic top and I have an outstanding clear view of the process. Also, it enables me to remove the lid easily for cleaning and photos/videos without disturbing the chrysalides. Try it!
Thanks for your time and effort in making these videos. I have three caterpillars that just entered the chrysalis stage! Your videos have been very helpful. Great music too.
Thanks Nami! I hope for your three chrysalides that you are at a more southern latitude than I. Here in Michigan, we've got snow on the ground! Good luck!
This is exactly the video I needed! We usually have maybe 6-8 chrysalides at a time waiting to eclose but a fertile mama laid 30 eggs so I needed to know exactly how to move them to a bigger enclosure. This video showed me how! Thank you for taking the time to film it.😊
Both have just made the change from 5th instar to chrysalides! Even though I watch your video many times I was, well, it was so amazing! The additional milkweeds have been planted. I'm in So. CA so it's going to be summer temps for a while longer here. Thanks again Mr. Lund!
You're doing amazing work here. My dad and I have milkweed seeds, and we plan to help the monarchs also. I'm learning a lot from these videos. I'll pass the info to my dad and we will also help hopefully on this kind of scale.
Greetings Toast Goddess, and welcome aboard. 1. Everything needs heat, of course, but do you need to keep them at a specific temperature? No. In nature, the Monarchs deal with all sorts of temperatures. So, keeping them indoors at room temperature is fine. 2. I would suggest, no, do not add anything else. As I show in my videos, they are given milkweed leaves, and that's it. Most Monarch caterpillars will spend their entire caterpillar stage on a milkweed plant, provided it has enough food from that plant. Giving your caterpillar other things to crawl on can only cause it to get lost, and have more work to do to get back to the milkweed. These aren't pets, and while we might think in human terms that they'd like to "spruce up" their homes, truth is, the caterpillar will not care about these things. These caterpillars care about milkweed, and that's it. 3. Usually, a leaf will dry out, even with the moist paper towel around it, in about three days. I'd say they should get a fresh leaf every three days, or sooner, of course, if it's eating through the leaf. 4. For cleaning the tank, soap and water works fine, but if you are worried about possible infections in your area, a dilute solution of bleach water can be used, but you must very very thoroughly rinse the bleach water out when finished. 5. NO! Do not use baby wipes! They have other chemicals laced within them, which can potentially harm the caterpillar. Further, paper towel is considerably cheaper than baby wipes. Why not just get some paper towel? 6. As mentioned in Part 5, the Monarchs should be released the same day they emerge as adults. The longer they are kept in captivity, the higher the probability is that it could damage its wings. These are not pets, but are animals that have declining numbers, and they have a busy schedule! Now, that being said, it's certainly understandable that you might want to spend some time checking out the amazing adult that you spent so much effort in raising. So, I would say a day would be the most they should be observed. Beyond that, though, they need to fly free to keep the generations going. Good luck!
My first year with milkweed plants and I saved 28 caterpillars! I live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We are in our fall heatwave. I’m almost completely out of milkweed but I only have one guy that would rather eat than make his journey to the top of the enclosure. I wasn’t planning on raising them so I sure hope this beautiful insects survive the trip. I’m not tagging them because I simply wasn’t prepared! I have hung the chrystilides that are ready and will free them the same way you do. I am definitely going to plant a lot more milkweed next year along with marigolds and anything else that keeps aphids away! I think my fingers are stained yellow from trying to fend those suckers off. It was a loosing battle but I found two good sized plants at Lowe’s. I’m looking forward to doing this again next year but in a more prepared and responsible way.
My monarch was J hanging at 8:30 this am. It is now 5:00 pm and caterpillar is in chrysalis form. In 10- 14 days, I hope a male butterfly is born. His name is Johnny since egg... thank you Rich for all-out help. Bayonne, NJ
Great news, Janet! Sorry that I haven't been able to be more on top of these comments. This summer, I'm getting even more per day than previous years. About 30 a day, or so. But, I want to make sure to give everyone the respect of replying, as they've taken the time to help the Monarchs, and that's always so very much appreciated! So very cool to hear that you have it already in a chrysalis form. Is this your first one ever that you've raised? Ah...I remember my first! It's so exciting!
Your videos and information has been extremely helpful. You are my go-to when I need information. Thank you! We've had one monarch emerge on 08/07. Two more are heading to 'J' hanging. These are the most exciting as we found them as eggs; so, we're experiencing the full process... Amazing!
I have 6 caterpillars right now, three of which I've raised from eggs, and the rest I found while picking milkweed or biking. Two of them, lovingly named Sausage and Meatloaf, are due to form a chrysalis any day now. This is my first time raising monarchs and I am SO excited. Thanks for the great info!
I keep a little note with the dates when the chrysalis was formed and the butterfly emerges and it has been exactly 11 days for the last three. I keep them inside my home. For a few caterpillars, I found the mesh splatter guards, plastic strainer and plastic salad bowls helpful in container the caterpillars while keeping air flow. My first time raising these beautiful creatures since last summer, 2021, and have raise 21 to date. When they first emerge from their egg, I call them Schmooie.
I don't know if another Rich Lund would be a good thing or a bad thing...or even if they'd get along. They'd probably skate together, but chess matches could get bloody.
Thanks for the informative videos! Watched them last year towards the end of the season, after planting my first milkweeds in my garden and raised and released one monarch butterfly. This year I have 22 caterpillars, and am loving this little hobby/obsession! I plan to keep the seeds of the milkweed and start as many plants as I can next spring, then I will give them away to community members in an effort to attract more monarchs to our area of Nova Scoita, Canada. Thanks again!
Yep, the number one reason I have milkweed, after the idea of just helping the Monarchs in general, is to have a source of seeds each year to give out to interested students. Planting milkweed can be pretty low commitment, and thus, many are willing to do it to help out. Great job getting your community members involved!
Thank you for creating the series. I felt reassured at each phase of their development having watched what it supposed to happen next. I just raised 5 monarch on three store-bought milkweed plants. No 1, 2 and 3 just flew the coup. Maybe some of their descendants will come back.
J. Elke Ertle That...is...awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Makes me feel great to know how these videos are being used. I appreciate it very much, and definitely appreciate you taking the time to help them!
Hi, Mr.LundScience and a great big thank you for your diligent and great work! I am looking at my first caterpillar who has moved from one spot to his third on the ceiling of my large net cage, and without your comments and the followers I would be somewhat freaked that he hasn't settled down! I have had one of the three original, (one sadly died ;'-( ), cats do this at an early stage as he/she had climbed up the sides but it was not nearly as large as this one, so assuming he/she was "lost". I replaced her on the leaves below where she was happy! Now this guy! I named him "J Hook" and "J" for short, and his little sis on the leaves hanging out now is "J II" to make it easier ,and hopeful! Thanks again for this stuff, you are amazing and I would not have been convinced to help these little guys in my garden last week without your videos that we have watched now for the 2nd time. Oh ,and yes ,I observed this J guy twitch and also his antennae looking crinkly now but this is going into 24 hrs. since he attached in first place on the top.
Yep, when the antennae look to be withering, that's an indicator that within an hour or so, they'll be forming the chrysalis. As this comment was 2 days ago, I would imagine you've gotten to enjoy that transition by now. Great job, Debbie! I'm very pleased that these videos were able to help you out. When I was trying to figure these things out, there were some videos on RUclips I looked at for guidance, but not many. Just not that many showed things very well or provided details I wanted. So, once I figured a few things out, I thought I'd make the videos I had wanted when I was trying to learn. I had no idea there'd be this many people benefiting from them. It's pretty humbling.
Thank you Mr Lund for the great info on raising monarch caterpillars. Your videos have been super helpful! This has really been a fun & exciting time raising 12 monarchs. Next year I will be starting earlier so I can save more monarchs :) Such an amazing little creature.
Thank you for these videos! They have been very informative for my 6yo and me. We currently have 3 eggs and 2 maybes, 1 tiny caterpillar, 1 likely in 4th instar, and one likely in 5th. We are excited to help take care of these insects! I hope we do them justice and it's a great learning experience for my child. We also live in Michigan and everything we have found so far has been on common milkweed.
Very cool that your 6 year old is learning to care about the environment at such a young age! Glad I could help. Thanks for helping out the Monarchs...and fair warning - it's addictive!
@@MrLundScience it really is! We now have one hatched egg and the biggest caterpillar is chilling at the top of the container. For the babies, we currently have them in peanut butter jars with paper towel rubber banded to the top. Think that's alright? Picking up a small plastic aquarium today for the bigger ones but I don't think I will be able to move the one that's at the top of the container already.
I harvested our first 6 caterpillars today. My kids and I are very excited. We have used insectlore to watch caterpillars but now, I have a milkweed garden that has been visited!
I've watched this entire series at least twice now and this is my first time raising monarchs. I have five caterpillars that have all crawled to the top of their container. The top is wire mesh and the cats all hatched just over two weeks ago. They have been on the top like this all day and I am wondering just how long before they go into the 'J-hang'? I'll feel so much better when I see that happening. Many thanks for putting together these videos.
Yesterday, the "big guy" from this video went into J-hang. It's confirmed, he was 5th Instar at the time of making this video and finding him in the field.
I am happy to report that I have five chrysalides and one in J-hang. Woo-hoo! I'm batting 1,000! I've watched your videos all several times through this process and I'll be watching the last one again in about 10 days. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
@@MrLundScience what’s the best temperature for them?? I am in Louisiana and got a few in the spring but just recently found about 30 caterpillars on my milkweed plants in September and we’ve been having some nights in the 50’s. What should I do?? I have them in a tent that has a bucket of milkweed planted in it
Wow! What an awesome series of videos! Not sure how I missed out on this hobby all these years. I am making this comment now as my first Monarch is about to J hang. This has been quite a thrill and I would not have attempted to do this without watching your videos. Thank you! I'll pay you back with dozens of Monarchs added to the world ... deal?
Bob, that's a total deal! Exactly why I made these videos. Hoping to find those interested in getting involved. Glad to hear it's J-hanging, though if all is going well, it's a chrysalis as I type this. Careful...this is addicting!
The last two days we had a beautiful experience as our two 5 year old granddaughters each released their two monarchs. Thank you again for making this possible with your wonderful series of videos!
This is a lovely exchange, and I have had the same experience, Bob, I have given away 6 chrysalides thus far -- with Mr. Lund's instructions and links -- and my three year-old granddaughter is naming the chrysalides as she carefully helps me hang them. What a simple joy and collecting new leaves every day from different patches of milkweed has gotten me outside walking more, to boot. :) Thank you, Rich.
Thank you for this amazing series, I just wanted to know the ideal temperature for a chrysalis, should they be placed under sunlight? and important Do's and Dont's.
Thanks so much for these videos! I bought a milkweed last year that went to seed and I never checked It to see if there were any monarchs on it it but this year one plant grew through the crack and I enjoyed the flowers until I saw 5 large cats chomping away. Didn't know what to do so brought in two and started doing my research on what to do and found you. The next day they went into j hang. Amazing. I went through my garden to search for the others. Three had chysalized in the compost under the lid a few inches above the grass clippings. A big spidery web was under one so I removed It even though I don't think it was more than 12 hours. I left the other two for the 24hrs before moving. I feared the one was under a spider web but could it have created a "hammock" to protect itself? A day or two later, the one under the spider web had a string of web leaking and turned brown (Tachinidae?). The others I hung but they shook a lot! one I dropped (ah) I'm worried I shook them too much and they'll come out deformed. Did I make a mistake in moving the one under the hammock or was it best to move the chrysalis if there are lots of compost flies around? Do they spin webbing to protect themselves. Anyway, Now I'm OBSESSED with taking care of them. !! I'm even keeping the infected one around to see if a fly larva comes out. I hope I didn't shake it to dead when I moved it. Could I have bumped it and made it turn brown? Nature is amazing.Another question, should I take the chysalis outside in their container to get the air / heat of their birth site? My kitchen doesn't have much climate and I was told the elements was healthier but I have to move "shake" them when I do take them outside. Please advise. Thank you!
Your videos are very helpful and amazing! I planted a butterfly garden at my house and have my first 3 J hangers! Anxiously awaiting a chance to release them! Thanks for the videos....complete instructions and timing scales! awesome!
I'm very glad that they have been able to be helpful. Congrats on your J-hangers! Getting to see them emerge in about 10-12 days will be awesome the first time through.
DEREK TONEY I new to this bur I he’d 2 healthy Caterpillars. The leaf they were j-hanging from fell from the milk weed. One even fell to the ground. Can I save them. I didn’t see any silk? Please help. Bonnie
My son and I go for walks and he likes to call them scavenger hunts!! We hunt for caterpillars! We every year hatch out about 10 or more. We have watched all your videos and we this year just found today 9 eggs on leaves and we also brought in today 21 caterpillars of all sizes! We have them all in containers from size to size so the big ones don't bother the real little ones. We have a total of 29 and on has turned into it's chrysalis and we have 9 eggs!! My son loves watching nature and releasing them back out into the wild! This is something he will remember all his life and I encourage parents to have fun like this with there children!!!
That all sounds pretty awesome. Of course, make sure you have enough food to supply all of those lil' tykes, but it sounds like you have things under control. And oh yes, this is fertile ground for lasting memories. Great job!
This video series are so well made, informative, easy to follow and a pleasure to watch. I’m only wondering about the best temperature for raising Monarchs? Thank you 😊
Hey Rob. Thanks for the kind words. As for the "best" temperature, it depends upon how you are defining "best". If we are just saying that "best" would mean temperatures where the caterpillars / chrysalides are healthy, then "best" can be anywhere from 70s to high 80s, but keep in mind, that doesn't mean 60s or 90s are necessarily bad either. The Monarchs are just more comfortable in these summer weather temps. Meanwhile, if the temperatures are cooler, 60s and low 70s, the caterpillars will have a slower metabolism, and eat food less quickly and take longer to reach chrysalis. For some, where milkweed isn't as easy to come by, this is preferred to give them time to go get more milkweed from sources they know around them that aren't easily nearby. That would make those temperatures "best". But, if you're hoping to push as many as possible through your process, 80s and 90s would be "best", getting the chemistry to run faster and having them reach the chrysalis stage a few days earlier than at cooler temperatures. Hope that helps!
MrLundScience Hi I have further temperature/location question. If warmer is better, is sunshine required? If I bring the eggs and am raising indoors I have the house a/c on so I suspect it’s too cold. I have them by a window so perhaps it’s 75-78 max if the sun is shining. Should I move this to my garage where it’s definitely warmer? But less sunshine. Looks like your hanging string is in a Sun room?
I have a swamp milkweed that on June 29th I went outside to water my plants and on one of my watering containers there was a 1 in or a little bit smaller monarch caterpillar on it. So I went and looked at my milkweed and I had at least 100 caterpillars all different sizes but no bigger than that 1 inch, so since then I have kept my eye on the plant and the caterpillars in the majority of them have disappeared and moved on and done their last stages elsewhere or I know I had found numerous ones crawling on the ground that got knocked off the plant. Today July 5th I came home quickly from work at about 1:30 checked out the two that I have in their container and checked out the ones plant and they were all munching away and crawling around and some were sleeping. I got home about 8 p.m. from work and I found 1 on the plant in its J form and the two in their container in their J form. I am so stoked and so excited, I have loved monarchs since I was a little girl and through Elementary every year my project was on monarchs. So you can imagine my excitement when I seen these three in their J form, which is odd to me to see one on its plant that it grew up on because the majority of them go about 30 feet from where they grew up to form their J and turn into chrysalis.
What is the ideal temperature for 1st instar till enclose? Also does humidity matter? I have monitors in all my cages. This is only my second year but I have become TOTALLY OBSESSED! I have also placed fans near by if I start to see the humidity over 80% THANK YOU 😊
Interesting to me that the Ad below this video is for Round Up. Love the work you doing. My whole yard has been converted to pollinator friendly and native plants. Never tried this but giving it serious thought
Yeah, there's been a few times that Round Up ads have shown up there and people have commented about it... Usually RUclips wants to take ads off of questionable, slightly adult themed, or controversial videos. I doubt they have anyone looking into what pesticide companies might not want their ads featured on.
Hi, Kathleen! I could not resist telling you that it would be a great thing to try out since your yard is a healthy place for all living things, especially in this world of chemically treated yards, land, etc. I imagine you can grow milkweed as well! We have been "organic" for 25 yrs. on our little horse farm, now without horses, thus we have paddocks w/ wild milkweed growing just a short hike from the front door. We have had Monarch Butterflies come to the perennial garden for the flowering things, and the milkweed that I started growing in the gardens! After seeing some caterpillars in the "wild" this year I and reading that only 10% of Monarchs make it when raised outside, I knew it would be helpful to at least give it a shot, with the guidance of this video series and the kind Mr.LundScience~ finding the 3 caterpillars I have now, (one sadly died since, I believe he was injured after I found him crawling loose off of the leaves in the cage!),but the others are healthy) was exciting. I am new at this and have fallen in love with the 2 caterpillars having them inside, in a butterlfy net cage where we can watch them, easily find a way to check them, while I put in new fresh milkweed branches/leaves (I have a technique using water pics like used at the florist, then insert them into a base form like laboratories use. Next if we are lucky they will attach to the ceiling of their home, J-hook and become the last step as a chrysalis. I can't imagine how stunning an experience it will be as the butterflies emerge! Good luck! This guy answers people's many questions, too, as do others.
sorry rich..false alarm lol..i watched 5 minute's into the video and during the transformation it pinches it's tail off while "chrysalising"..it had me a new monarch parent a little worried lol..great video's and information my friend
We had two J-Hanging but this morning, one fell from its attachment piece and bled to death but before was still trying to pupae but didn't make it. Jasmine and Belle were hanging, but Jasmine hatched the day after Belle but Jasmine is the one button first while Belle was eating still. not long after that though Belle went to look for an estate. So as of August 1st 2017, we lost one. We thought we share.
Sorry to hear that occurred. It can happen from time to time. Stay with it, though. There is, unfortunately, loss along the way, but you'll have your successes as well.
I have now planted 50 milkweeds in my backyard and for the first time in the 5 years I’ve lived at my home I’ve now seen 3 Monarchs. How, having never seen them before, do they find the milkweed? Your series is beyond fascinating. TY so much for sharing your knowledgeable. A friend recommended - she is passionate about the Monarchs and raises them as you do. I’m getting eggs from her but question here - what would be the most desirable place to place the line with the clipped chrysalides? Part sun & shade? No direct sun? Have a huge covered porch so I have lots of options. In Athens, GA. Thank you so much!!!!
Greetings CC! The antennae of butterflies is amazing. They are incredibly sensitive, and able to detect scents at the molecular level. Just like hearing a quiet sound that is still loud enough for you to hear, a Monarch can pick up on just a few molecules of an odor, and because there's two antennae, be able to have a decent idea of the direction it came from as well. Whichever antenna is receiving more of those molecules, that's the direction the molecules must be coming from. Like hearing in stereo, but they are more "smelling" in stereo. What odors/scents the milkweed gives off, these trigger the instinct in the Monarchs to visit said milkweed, be it a female looking to lay eggs, or a male looking for females who will likely be around those plants. If you are looking to hang your chrysalides, direct sunlight is probably the less favorable of the options. A bit won't hurt, as they experience that in nature, too, but non-stop intense sunlight *could* potentially have issues. Not highly likely, but it's a possibility. Another commenter said that when a heat wave went through her region for a spell of 4 days or so, many of her chrysalides that were in direct sunlight shriveled, and eventually, did not produce an adult. Whether it was just the heat, or sunlight as well, or possibly something not related, it still would make me wary of placing them in direct non-stop sunlight. Hope that helps!
@@MrLundScience Now that might make sense of why several of my chrysalides turned black recently and did not eclose. I am in South Florida, and raise the Monarchs outside, so they choose their J-spot. Some of them hang on the side of the house, unfortunately in full sun, and it has been very hot and sunny. I just don't understand how one "season" of cats and Monarchs can produce say, 12-15 chrysalides. Of those, 4 produced beautiful, perfect Monarchs. I was away, and when I came home, 4 chyrsalides were empty, and when I awoke the first morning there were 4 more empty but I saw the results of two beautiful Monarchs. The chrysalis were all over - on the house wall, in the window overhangs and above the patio doors - these all emerged safely. The last 4 were awful; 3 were eclosed with their wings still in some kind of sheath (?) and although I was able to remove this covering on one of the butterflies, it seemed a wing was missing; it never filled its wings and was unable to fly; the 2nd was the same, and the third was worse, dragging its body. Was this OE? Sadly, all three were euthanized. Lastly, one chrysalis was actually on the milkweed plant, and I could see the orange Monarch wing actually pressing against the translucent chrysalis. I sat down to watch. The chrysalis cracked. Nothing. Nothing. I was shocked, and became a scientist - I cut it open, and the wings were all there (I was wondering, since the other three were lacking one wing) but the body was mush. Again, OE?? How could it be so close to emerging and not eclose?? I can send pictures but tell me where. My milkweed has been cut back to one inch to the ground, or at best 3-5" tops and yet it's already getting leaves. I am considering covering with netting so I do not get eggs for a while. Can anyone give me some help?
Great job! Tough to say if numbers can rebound in an area, though. I mean, it could certainly be true for a summer. But, next year, these migratory Monarchs will mate in the spring before coming back up. And a PA Monarch might mate with a GA Monarch, or a TX Monarch, etc. So...where do those offspring head? I don't know that science knows yet what causes a Monarch to head up one migratory path versus another. Could be random chance. Could be that it follows wherever the food supply takes it (as in, nectaring flowers). There's always more to learn. So, I hope that numbers everywhere are going up. But it's good to hear that your PA summer has been going well!
Thanks for the reply! In my rural neighborhood for the past several years, we've got a "Monarch Factory" going. My neighbor, is much to be commended: she has released more than 100 monarch each year for the past 3 years. She's done presentations locally and there's great interest here in helping Monarchs by both rearing them and growing milkweed. I think if we all continue this grassroots effort, we'll turn things around.
To Melissa Whitehead: Sorry that I can't reply to YOUR comment. RUclips has some bug happening. Thus, I had to leave the comment here that I typed: Greetings Melissa. I'm sorry that you're having issues with your cats, and I don't know if I fully understand what's going on, but here's some questions and my attempt at some help: 1) You put the cats in containers and then took them inside, and they didn't like the cold... What's the temperature inside your home? Most go with a 70F situation. Even if it's as low as low 60's, that still shouldn't deter them from eating and developing, even if it might make the chemistry a bit slower. It's possible, too, that they may have not stopped all activity permanently. If they were about to molt, caterpillars cease eating for a day sometimes. If you happened to put them inside when they were coincidentally about to molt, it may have seemed that they stopped all activity when they were really exhibiting normal behaviors before molting. I would advise trying to keep the caterpillars in containers, and if for some reason it really is too cold inside, why not leave the containers outside? 2) Wasps and other predators are definitely a natural reason that not every egg or caterpillar makes it. As in my videos, I don't really ever run into this problem, for once I have the egg, keeping them in containers prevents natural predators from having the chance to get at them. 3) As for when the cats will decide to J-hang, they don't have a for sure indicator to you that they are going to do it necessarily. I've had a few I thought were going to, and then didn't. Still, usually, they start wandering to find a good spot, and then they remain upside down in one place for a few hours (having already spun much silk to secure themselves) and start the hang. Predicting where they will hang can be tough, but if you give them one or more obvious options (and by obvious, I mean, they can easily find it by just crawling around) they are likely to hang from there. Still, you do get those rebels who might decide to divert from your plan, and find very interesting places to hang that they are more comfortable with. Again, I don't run into this because of the use of the containers. In summary, it seems like if you do what I do and show in the video series, the issues you're having won't be able to cause you worry any longer. I know that there are others who let the caterpillars they raise hang out on actual plants in their yard, etc., but if those plants are outside, nature can and will take its course, and that includes predators. Even if our intentions are to help out the natural world, nature need not conform to our hopes and plans. It does require more work to collect fresh leaves and feed the cats in the containers, but the payoff is, you don't lose any to predators, and you (rarely) loose any of the cats due to wandering. I hope this gives you some help!
Thanks so much for your thorough reply. The temp runs around 74 degrees in my home so I must have just not given them time to do adjust. I'm so grateful for your kind helpful remarks. #1 The aquarium you show and the grating cover: Do the caterpillars climb the glass to get to the grating and did you purchase that at a Pet Store? Is it for lizards and such perhaps? #2 Okay, I'm an "old gal" so it's hard to change course but I think that's what I've got to do.
Well, now one than two fair sized cats started wandering. They acted like they wanted out of the pot. I had that plastic grating (openings just the size of a full sized cat) in with the plant but they were not interested. One managed to climb onto the porch screen but I just wasn't able to leave him there wandering. It gets very hot there full sun in the p.m. hours. I've made a tupperware tub with paper towel moistened and put a piece of the plastic screen mesh in there supporting itself. It's inside on my dining table. Got leaves in there but they are not interested in eating. Best I can do right now. This activity has a 'huge' learning curve.
I have no problem giving thorough replies, especially those who are willing to help out with this cause! So thank you for what you are doing! As for the containers, I did buy the one with the green lid at a pet store. It's normally for small lizards, hermit crabs, etc. They are WAY more expensive than they should be. Ridiculously priced for being just plastic. So, yeah, if you can make your own with tupperware, go for it. However, ventilation IS definitely important for good health, and to help prevent too much moisture building up, causing mold to grow on leaves. Have you seen Part 3 of this series? In that video, I show how I'll keep the young ones in "to go" food containers. I do that to prevent what you describe - so as they do not get out through the grating (cause they WILL if you give them the chance to). That video is here: ruclips.net/video/sJU8-FpGI78/видео.html And if you haven't, check out all Parts 1 - 5. There's a good wealth of info there that may answer questions before you even knew you had them. Thanks for what you're doing, and as more questions pop up, bring them here and I'll do the best I can!
Good job with the tupperware! I feel that it's important to keep this activism as low cost as possible. If it has a minimal price tag, more are willing to get involved.
Believe it or not, 'Teach' I viewed all your videos before writing you and was just saying to hubbie I've got to go back and review those videos again. I an sure I will be reviewing them for some time. I'm a former first grade teacher (10 yrs.) so I do know about reading comprehension and all those blasted questions!!! :) You are a good teach to be so patient and helpful with newbies to the Monarch world. Hubbie went up in attic and brought down an old aquarium and purchased a top.It's not like yours but I think it'll do. Of course I don't think cats can climb glass so I've done some inventive things to help them climb to the screening of the cover. I've transferred the two wanderers to this on the back porch. In the coolest part of the porch. While they were in there emergency tupperware in the cool of our house AGAIN they did nothing. No movement--all day. As soon as I transferred them to the porch enclosure they went right up to the grid. ?????? INTERESTING NOTE: The mature cats did NOT like being transferred off the plant to the aquarium. Your way from cradle to flight must keep all the critters satisfied with their conditions. I just can't express enough how these cats responded to the aquarium. Uh-uh. Oh no. They were furious. They careened into each other and (bit?) each other thinking it was a leaf and some just did somersaults for awhile. I'm wondering if they have 'a thing' about being 'grounded' so to speak. Not liking the touch of the paper towel perhaps? The only thing that settled them down was I noticed they all went to the one 5 "milkweed branch I had put in their container along with a number of good single leaves. So I cut a few more twigs w leaves attached and propped them up and all have settled down for hopefully a good night. Anyway! This has been quite a day for me. Here's hoping tomorrow goes a little smoother. Thanks for listening. It means alot. I do not think I could have continued 'figuring' out solutions without your intervention/tips etc. I wish you had a blog or FB page but I guess this is work enough what with your own Monarch responsibilities. Anyway, Thanks Mr. Lund!!!
If my chrysalides are close to the edge of the mesh cage should I move them? They are almost touching the wall thanks for ur info it is spot on!!!! And has helped so much!
My caterpillars are forming chrysalides and as the 5th instar migrate to the top of the cage will attack the chrysalides. I had to put one 5th instar outside because it was particularly aggressive practically lying on the newly formed pupa and biting; I had to intervene several times before it committed irreparable damage and resorted to placing it back outside. This ordeal was very stressful! Now two new 5th instars have settled in on the chrysalides which have hardened off a bit but I feel I have to keep a watchful eye since they are so curious about the chromatophore and pupa as a whole. This has made me rethink the logic of keeping the pupa form in the same enclosure as the larva, also, this issue is rarely addressed online or on RUclips. Am I the only one who has had this problem? I am convinced that the agressive cat would have eaten the new pupa if I had not intervened- this would have been an absolute tragedy. Any thoughts in what I should do?
Wow... I'm not surprised that there isn't much info on this. I know in the years doing this myself, and answering comments/questions through these videos, this is the first I've heard of this behavior. Perhaps the reason I haven't encountered this is that pretty early into doing what I do, I started having enough numbers to want to always relocate the chrysalides. If I left them in with caterpillars, perhaps I'd have seen this behavior too. My recommendation would be to yes, relocate chrysalides into a separate container. I know not everyone has a screened in porch like I do, so if I didn't have such a porch, I'd be getting myself a second container and doing it that way. Good luck!
MrLundScience Thanks for the reply. I ended up rearing 10 of the 11 eggs successfully so hopefully they will make their way up to MI soon. I found some info. about the aggressive cats, some have said they remove the j's once formed to prevent being eaten. I am hesitant to remove a J but will have to research further. I was so worried the remaining 5th instars would do the same, I watched them like a hawk for 2 days! I was worn out. Unfortunately the aggressive cat that I had to put back outside ended up being snatched by some type of animal while in the chrysalis stage :( I have to say that my intuition told me something would happen if I put it back outside but I had no other choice. Overall though, this was a very successful maiden monarch rearing!
Help! I absolutely don't know what I'm doing and am so grateful for any help. I have the cats at different stages on one very large plant in a pot on my back western facing porch. I'd tried putting them in containers from info found online but in my air conditioned home in Florida I think they did not like the cold. (They just stopped all activity!! Thought they would die) So I brought the plant that was in a pot onto the porch. This all happened because as I'm studying my year old plant I find the cats disappearing and eventually actually witness a wasp staking out the plant limb for limb for cats and attacking and eating them. Crazy!! Question: I just know from the size of one of these cats that they are going to be looking for a place to hang? Will they hang on the branches of this plant? I've stuck a piece of plastic grid that I made into a cylinder shape and secured it to the soil so that it won't move but will this be sufficient? I'm petrified I've saved all these beautiful critters from 'evil' Mr./Ms. Wasp and will end of ending their lives myself!!! What to do? What to do? Omg. Thank you in advance for your help.
I have watched all your videos about caring for and raising the monarch caterpillar and butterfly... Thank you. This has helped me so much during my first year doing this and I love it. So far I have release 6 healthy beautiful butterflies. However I ha e come across a situation that I have not encountered yet... This morning I woke up to a grouping of J hangers and two were touching... They just went into chrysalis and they are literally joined together. One of them went before the other and has dried but still very soft... The other is just starting to harden.. I know I am going to have to transfer this grouping but don't know what to do with the two of the ones stuck together.... I have checked to see where they are stuck and one is leaning against the other by the wing section...I'm very worried that the wings won't form properly. I am also afraid that if I attempt to separate the chrysalis once both are hard ( safe) enough to transfer, that I will damage in or both. Any tips or advice is needed as I am super stressed about this issue. Thank you
Greetings Dawn! Okay...first...have you seen the new video on "Chrysalis Issues"? (If not, here it is: ruclips.net/video/wB8udbV3kOY/видео.html ) In that video, I show the idea of a chrysalis being flat on one side, which usually is due to falling and being horizontal as it dries. What it sounds like is that you have two chrysalides that may have some flatness on one side. Thing is, it's not the ground, but each other that have caused this. It certainly can lead to deformity of the wings, but, often if the flatness isn't severe, they can still develop their wings just fine, and, sometimes even with some slight deformity, they are still able to fly. I definitely would not try to separate them. You are correct, this could cause them damage, and it's not a necessary risk. There isn't much of a benefit in separating them, as they have already hardened, and whatever shapes they have together, they will also have apart. The one thing that I would still look out for, though, is that since they went into chrysalis at very close times to each other, they will also emerge likely at very close times to each other. As one is emerging, if the other is already out, one could knock the other down during the time when the wings are vulnerable and they may not fill with fluid properly. So, if it's possible for you, watching that this doesn't happen on the day these emerge would be very beneficial. I wish you luck with this issue, and hope you'll keep us posted!
Thank you Rich for getting back to me....I have great news!. As I was transferring my other chrysalis from the container lid to my enclosure that I have outside( bf is awesome and made me a huge one) the next day, I left the two that were stuck together last as I was unsure what to do with them. Well in the process of figuring out how and what to do my son bumped the table and the two surprisingly separated with no issues. Yes there is flat parts on either one where they were stuck together, but I really don't think it's going to affect the development at all...the wing sections weren't touched. It was more around the back section of the chysalides (opposite the gold band) and more near the top. I will keep you posted as to how they turn out in about 12 days. Thank you again
Wow! Your videos have been by far the most informative videos on how to raise Monarchs. Thank You! My question is, I do not have a screened in porch such as yourself, what kind of cage would you recommend, so that I could allow the chrysalides to hang from a string? Thank you and also great choice of music in all your videos!
Thanks Andrea! If I didn't have a screened in porch, the size of a container (and thus, type) would depend upon the number I'd be having in there. I have a python who has grown over the years and needed larger aquariums, so I have some at my disposal. I know that since I already have them, I'd likely be using those. Multiple strings/yarn could be attached to those lids in secure ways that I could clip the chrysalides from. I'd want that large space so that when they emerge if I wasn't home at that time, they'd not be over crowded if more than one came out. I'd also be giving them plenty of surfaces to find and stand on or hang from. When they only have slick surfaces, such as glass or plastic, they tend to keep trying to grab on to something. This extra, added movement can only lead to wing damage. If large aquariums are easily at hand, I suppose I'd be in search of another plastic container like what I already keep the larger caterpillars in, but if I were spending that money, I would figure I might as well get a used aquarium, as I'd find it for probably the same price and it'd provide more space. I hope that helps!
Also, when I transfer my chrysalids, I use scotch tape to hang them in a better spot in the reptile container. I have too many critters running around my house to leave them exposed.
Thanks for the informative video. I found a monarch egg about three weeks ago and this is my first time taking care of a caterpillar. It has been about 17 days since it hatched, but it's still not doing the J hang. It's still eating and pooping a lot. I have a net on the top of a jar and a few sticks in the jar for it to hang. Sometimes it stays on a top or the stick for a long time, but it would go back to eating again. Do you have any idea what is going on? Is it normal to take that long? Thank you very much!
We really enjoyed your video and had success raising four Monarch this year. We were wondering where you got the green containers/cages you used in your video?
Glad you were able to use the videos! As for the containers, it's been long enough to where it's accurate to say, I don't honestly remember. However, such containers I have seen for sale at Meijer, Walmart, Pet Smart, Pet Co, and other non-chain pet shops. Look around for deals to keep the cost low, as these are just about always over-priced for what it actually costs to produce them. Good luck!
Update from SLC, Utah... I found a wild Milkweed patch and low and behold I've found 10 eggs. Four of the eggs have hatched and now are caterpillars. I sure hope that I can get my Milkweed garden growing next year because it's no fun driving 3 miles to get Milkweed leaves. Nonetheless, I'm driving up every other day to try and find more eggs and to replenish the leaves for the little munchers!
That's cool stuff. I've picked leaves, wrap them as shown in the videos, and then refrigerate them. When I do this, they can last for multiple days longer. I usually need them within 1, 2, or 3 days after placing them in the fridge, so I've never really found out how long they last. Point being, you could collect even more leaves, refrigerate some, and then not have to make as many trips as often.
I've been doing that and the leaves actually seem to be keeping for around 7 days (which is great!) I have a few million questions if you get some extra time :) Just kidding... But if you could answer a few questions so that I don't kill these little fellas out it would be sooooo helpful... 1. I have the caterpillars indoors in food safe containers in my house. I'm worried that since my house is air conditioned to around 73 degrees that I might shock them when I let them go. It's around 100-103 degrees outside and tends to stay that warm until the end of August. Do you think I should try leaving them outside so that they acclimate better? 2. Is there any reason I can't put newspaper in their bug houses when they get bigger so that they are easier to clean up? 3. When I release them should I release them where I found them? I haven't ever seen a Monarch in my garden, but my neighbor across the street has seen them in his, and he has a huge organic garden. Do you think it would be okay for me to let them out over there? 4. Lastly.... I bought this big butterfly mesh enclosure that I was going to put their chrysalides in so that they are safe from my dogs and other house hold elements. Can I put multiple ones in there? And if so, when one hatches how long do I have until I have to release them? Thank you soooo much all that you have done with these videos!
Hey Jennifer. Here's the best answers I can offer: 1. I would say, yes, leaving them outside would be a safer idea. I honestly don't think the abrupt change in temp would cause them a problem, but why not err on the side of caution, right? As long as they are in the containers, it should be safe. 2. I don't know if newspaper ink causes them any problems, but I highly doubt it does. (If newspaper ink was truly toxic to the environment, I doubt we'd use as much of it as we do.) Seems like a safe and good idea to me. 3. You can release them wherever you like, and at home is fine. Monarchs can travel quite a distance in a short amount of time if they wish. You're already driving far to get the milkweed. If I were in your shoes, I'd just release from home. They make it to Mexico (if they are of the east of the Rockies population) so you can count on them to travel enough to find food. But, here's a tip... Releasing them *with other people* can cause others to *easily* want to become a part of this next year! 4. As long as it's not overcrowded, yes, multiples could easily get in there. Use your best judgement. I try to always release mine the same day, unless there's a huge thunderstorm on the horizon. They have much business to attend to, be it finding food, finding a mate, or later in the season, taking the long journey to Mexico. If you wanted to keep them around to show others, certainly one or two days is fine. (There were times it was storming for two days in a row that I didn't release some of mine until it had passed. They did fine.) Questions are always just someone wanting to know something more. I'm a fan of questions. If people are wiling to take this on, I'm willing to field whatever questions I am able to answer (and admit when I don't know the answer to them as well).
Thank you again for all of your help. I have around 17 eggs and baby caterpillars as of today. The first egg that I found a few weeks ago is already a huge caterpillar who is eating around 1 leaf a day. I was reading some other sites and found out about the deadly OE parasite. I haven't rinsed any of the eggs or leaves in bleach. Should I start doing this?
Are you in an area where OE is at a high rate? These areas include Florida and the West Coast. If so, it's not a bad idea. It's actually what my next video is about, which will be up within a day or two.
Thanks for the great videos! I live in North Carolina and I have been raising Monarch caterpillars in my sunroom this summer. I have 12 beautiful seemingly perfect Chrysalis. There are 2 that have reached Day 10 today and the chrysalis is barely clarifying yet. The temps have been cooler than normal for the past week (66-70 degrees) but the room hasn't been below 60 at night. Should I do anything or add heat to the room? The high today is supposed to be 75 but is dipping to 68 later this week I am concerned about these coming out, it would break my heart if they didn't. Does the clarification stage happen quickly? Thank you in advance.
Thanks for these videos, super helpful!!! My question is that I recently found a monarch caterpillar and he's eating the flower portion of the milkweed. If I move him inside and offer him leaves instead will he survive? I am assuming so. He's been eating the flower for the last two days now. Is it normal for them to eat that part?I would assume the ones in the wild will both and the ones in captivity will eat the leaves.
I would have to imagine if offered only the milkweed leaves, yes, it should take to them. I've not encountered any eating the flowers in the wild, but, they're there for such a short part of the season, it may be that I've just never witnessed it. Kinda cool to find out about. Thank you!
MrLundScience Thanks so much for your quick response. I brought him in and he totally munched a ton on a leaf. He also went #2 a whole bunch. I am so excited to take care of him and watch him grow!!
The storage containers I've used came from your typical PetCo or PetSmart retailer, though they are available at many pet stores. Even so, they are usually overpriced. They're around $25 for that size, which is a large price considering how little it costs to make them. A well ventilated plastic food storage container is more cost effective, and I'd be more apt to use those if the ones I have ever need replacing.
Hi Rich, I have a 5th instar that hasn't eaten for two days, and has been wandering around the cage (smaller version of yours, worked great for the first two) for two days now...! settled up top last night, thru the night, so I thought today I'd see it J, but mid morning I found it back down in the leaves, wandering around, constantly up and down the walls. Should I try a new cage/container if it doesn't seem to want to settle down in this one? At this point the only change from the last two is the past two weeks it's getting darker sooner, and the temp is going down a bit in here, as the heat isn't kicking on just yet, but... that's about it! Any brilliant novice insights? ;)
If it's still moving around, continue to offer food. If it eats, that's of course good news. If not, I don't know much else that you can do to encourage it to go into chrysalis other than yes, try a new location. It may just be a picky one when it comes to finding the "right spot" to hang from.
Is their a reason you like the plastic cages instead of the “silk screen” type ones? I’m just getting into this myself and was wondering about the choice of cage. I’m not saying you’re wrong by any means. Was just interested on your opinion. I ordered two of the silk/mesh type screen ones today. I was just curious if there was a reason behind your choice. Thank you. Great videos. I enjoyed all 5 parts and I’m so excited to get this going.
The tents can work too. I had these containers already, and that's partially why. For outdoor rearing, I use the mesh tents, as seen here: ruclips.net/video/LjEgU0Ub5hY/видео.html
I love your series and was wondering where I might get those clear/green containers you use to raise the monarchs. Can't find them anywhere. Do tell--please!!
Once I had 100 monarch cats in a 30 gal aquarium. The cats that were still feeding ate some of the crysalids that had already dried because they ran out of food while I was at work. It was a little disturbing....
Just so happens, this video here shows how to treat the leaves with a dilute bleach solution, which can effectively destroy OE parasite spores on both eggs and leaves. Hope this helps! ruclips.net/video/oZYzzcGiZRA/видео.html
I am really learning a lot from your videos. Thank you. If you decide to do another video, may I recommend the song "Cousin Caterpillar" by Incredible String Band?
I don't use music I don't own these days for videos. Back when I made these, I didn't fully understand how RUclips works with such things. Usually it just means that the copyright holder will earn revenue from your video, which isn't a big deal in my opinion. But it can also mean that down the road, the copyright holder could tell RUclips to shut down any videos containing that music, and just like that, poof, they're taken down. I doubt that will happen with any of these, but still, it caused me to want to always own everything in my video production so that it's a risk I need not worry about. But I checked out the song you recommended, and gosh, that's a fun song! I agree, it'd perfectly go with certain scenes in Monarch vids.
Hey there. First I want to thank you for your monarch video series. It has helped me start my own little monarch rearing hobby. Currently I have 2 2nd instars, 2 5th instars and 22 crysalides. I just released my first two adults (Males) June 25th. So thank you for sharing your knowledge, I really appreciate it. Second, I wanted to ask you a question... Well a couple questions regarding the same topic. How do you safely transport fully formed and hardened crysalides in a vehicle for a couple hours? (Can you transport adult butterflies also?) Is this possible or safe? What would you recommend? Or have you already done this with success? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I also want to point out that transportation is for the purpose of leisure, NOT to sell or something like that Thank you very much. I look forward to hearing back from you! 😊 Laurie
Greetings Laurie. I appreciate you letting me know that the transportation question is not for a commercial reason. That gets that out of the way and saves me a few lines of type in your answer. Let's start the answer here: Any transportation of caterpillars or chrysalides involves risk. Risk can be minimized, but it's still there. So, what is the purpose of introducing that risk? There are valid reasons, I would say. For example, I have transported chrysalides to my classroom when the school year starts to show the students I have. They know I raise Monarchs, and the caterpillars and chrysalides can act as educational ambassadors to the Monarch and what its plight is that it faces. So, just make sure that the risk is minimized and that it's worth it. That said, the next question to ask is, if it's for leisure, do all that you have need to be transported, or is the same goal accomplished with only a few, or even just one. Again, minimize the risk. If the chrysalis has been hung, as I do with mine, then it's fine to have the chrysalis transported in a padded box, like say, a small jewelry box with cotton balls or paper towel in there to minimize throttles as you drive. If they are still attached to whatever the caterpillar attached to before chrysalis, it's fine to transport whatever container you had them in for doing that. They blow around sometimes a lot in the wind in nature. They can handle a car ride. The largest risk might actually be, if you stop at a gas station for a drink or such, and it's a hot day. The cabin of a car can heat up dramatically in a short amount of time. So, keep the car air conditioned, and keep the stops in and out of a rest area or gas station very quick. If it's going to be more than five minutes, I'd even say relocate them to the trunk where the greenhouse effect that takes place in the cabin won't be happening.
Thanks Mr. Lund - your videos are very helpful. Yesterday I collected 7 eggs and I can already see that several of them are showing the ridged surface that was apparent in your video on hatching. My question is what to do if I find a caterpillar in the 5th stage. I left him on the milkweed plant, but should I have brought him inside?
Hey Carol. It's up to you what you wish to do with any of the caterpillars. It's not a wrong choice to leave it to nature, but I try to mostly not operate in the thinking of "wrong" or "right" in the decision of how much aid we wish to give. It's always up to the individual what they wish to do to help, and what level of commitment they wish to enter. I will say that the mortality rate of Monarchs is pretty high in nature, with a 10% or less chance of making it from egg to successful adult. However, that mortality rate is the highest at the egg stage and the early instar stages. If it's made it to 5th instar, that's certainly safer than being at 1st or 2nd instar (or being still an egg). So, there's a much better chance it made it than just seeing an egg and leaving it be. We can't always second guess ourselves like this, either. For example, I know of a few milkweed places that I have checked in the past that I haven't checked in a few weeks. I know that there's a high probability that there's eggs and maybe cats on those milkweed plants right now. So, even though I didn't see them, did I still choose to leave them there if I don't go look at those plants tomorrow? We have to gauge what level of commitment we can provide, and still have time for our own lives too. If we overdue it, if anything, that could discourage us from doing it in the future. It's better for someone to take care of, say, 15 a year for multiple years than go for 50 in one year and get burned out and never do it again.
I planted three milkweed plants this spring and they all had larvae on them, some got larger than others and they started disappearing and finally they were all gone. They did not grow to the 5th stage so I have no idea what happened to them. Our summer weather has been insufferably hot and the young milkweed may not have had enough cover or even enough leaves for them. This happened twice over the summer. I now have another batch of young ones on one of the plants that will never have enough leaves to feed them. I am also concerned about rearing these butterflies inside as one would think that the elements which they have to face once in the wild would prepare them for that long flight back to Mexico. It makes me think of reports of young salmon raised in hatcheries not being as genetically strong as the ones being raised in the wild. Is there evidence that the butterflies being raised indoors are making it back to Mexico in good health?
Genetic stability is one of the reasons this video series is all about taking them from the wild, rearing them indoors, and then promptly releasing them. I have never discussed breeding them, and while breeding Monarchs can be done responsibly, I don't care to put the information out there, as irresponsible hands will eventually pick it up. When salmon are raised in hatcheries, typically, that means humans decided who will breed with who. This article, I found, describes such a study that found hatchery raised salmon to be less genetically fit for reproduction, often reproducing fewer eggs, and that their wild born offspring also had similar inferior reproductive fitness: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3352433/ As you can see early on in that paper, they are defining a hatchery salmon as one that had artificial crossing, meaning, humans decided who was set up on a date. If humans are deciding who mates with who, for reasons we don't fully understand and reasons that are likely different ones from species to species, ill effects to genetic fitness can and do occur. With Monarchs, if we are only taking in wild ones and rearing them, but not breeding them, we can ensure that we have not altered their genetics. And argument can certainly be made that we might be biasing some of the genetics in the pool. For example, we collect eggs that obviously, are the ones more likely to be visible to humans. We are collecting eggs that are typically on the edge of a milkweed field, near a normal walk we take, near a path, etc., and less likely to venture into the center of the milkweed field to find those eggs. That's a bias as well. Sometimes when a female lays eggs, she does an egg dump. We are the types of people likely to collect all of those eggs, thus, favoring whatever genetic impulse there may be for females to do egg dumps. (Do all females, from time to time, do this? Or, do only some do this if they have certain genetics?) Now, if any of those behaviors have genetic links to other behaviors or mutations, or variance within the species, certainly us raising them means we are biasing some of the gene pool. What if the same gene that leads to females doing egg dumps is also a gene that has information that causes Monarchs to be a little bit less precise in their migration "guidance system"? We could be causing an inadvertent negative affect. (A somewhat equal rebuttal could be that perhaps it's linked to a gene that allows their migration to go more smoothly, but being "better" at something due to genetic mutation isn't usually the case. It is safer to make the argument, though, that the highest likelihood is that there probably isn't a significant genetic link between egg dumping and something else that could harm or help the Monarchs.) With all that in mind, we have to make a decision. While our selection of eggs could bias some of the genes, likely, it's a minute amount, and with the Monarchs possibly disappearing if we don't do what we can, I think many involved are comfortable with skewing the gene pool by 1% or 2% if that's what it takes to make sure there is still a population in the first place. Some things that you might take solace in: If you choose to help out in the form of bringing them indoors to rear, you should rest easy that you are in no way changing the genetics of those individuals. They were wild laid. They will return to the wild. All you would have done is increased their chances. It may also be of some comfort that another way to restrict genetic diversity in a population is to severely limit the population's size. That's what's currently happening to the Monarchs. By providing more Monarchs out there in a population that may be experiencing some bottle neck effect of the diversity, you may be providing much more of a chance of genetic diversity in the gene pool. In a limited population, such as what the Monarch is experiencing, this may be quite a beneficial thing, as more genetic diversity leads typically to a healthier, more adaptive population. I hope that helps shed some light on the subject. While certainly those who make it out there in nature might be tough, it's possible too that the 1/10 that makes it to adult hood may have had more to do with luck than with adaptation. Great food for thought though, and I really like the responsible way you are approaching these ideas!
Wow, thanks for that thoughtful and interesting reply. I am never comfortable thinking we know what is best for nature. We seem to have created more problems than we have helped. It seems the more we know the more we know how little we actually know about nature. Our assumptions have been very wrong in our treatment of her over the years. I hate to see any of the species we share the planet with become extinct. It breaks my heart, but I still am very cautious when considering interfering. My thinking is that we would be doing better by ensuring there is enough natural habitat for the wild things. We need to seriously take control of our own behaviours and learn to live with a lot less so that there is something left for the wild. I want to save all species, I'm just not sure we can do that one species at a time considering everything is connected to every other thing.
Hi, Storm Cloud, I am chiming in here as the research and studies are showing great effects for the efforts of people increasing the planting of milkweed at the least and of rescuing/raising Moncarchs from their egg and caterpillar stages as they only are successful at a rate of 10% in the wild. I like you saw the caterpillars on my plants in our garden near our house, where we had seen countless Monarch butterlfies over the past 6-8 weeks! It was the 1st time I had witnessed the caterpillars, and also saw a real pupa in the wild, when her leaf dropped off the milkeweed plant that was slowly losing energy in fall weather, I noticed and took a moment to think, prop it up so that the pupa was hanging down. I had no way of knowing I could bring it inside safely with a few easy tools including mainly a netted cage or like Mr. LundScience here the desirable aquarium w/a top w/ air vents. She opened over night when I was not outside and the left behind crysalis was amazing. I pray she made it out without any invaders at that late stage! When I saw the several up to six at one moment, caterpillars crawling and feeding along the green leaves of the dwarfed plants I started marking where and when I saw them. In one or 2 days, I saw several were missing, hoping that they somehow hid around there, but doubting it, I knew someone who also saves Monarchs at her home, so I was online and bingo- found this site and videos and began saving the ones left outside. They were growing quickly without enough leaves to survive. We found more plants in the field on our farm. I have two of those original three caterpillars I rescued that evening when they were at the end of their ;plants's supply, and one is about to J Hook! So excited! The results from humans' carelessness effecting the numbers of all creatures and in particularly both bees and Monarch Butterflies on our planet are staggering ! There are increasingly LESS each year recorded of Monarchs who successfully return a descending generation back to Mexico where they winter-over. They are clearly also near EXTINCTION( Monarch Butterflies) mainly due to lack of milkweed, which is directly caused by human behaviour already that we need to change! As you already know, spraying chemicals like roundup and our development that will destroy nature everywhere there is a chance to make money has lead to the destruction - by humans- losing our butterflies natural resources alongside bees and others, in our woods, meadows and pond/marshes and estuaries that are being replaced by developments of housing and businesses, etc. I feel strongly that this research and data is sound enough to know we NEED to help! There is no other choice; how else have we or any species survived unless by lessons learned and detours, corrections made in order to better survive and provide habitat lands for all living creatures? To learn more go to The Monarch Joint Venture online: @ monarchjointventure.org/search The Monarch Joint Venture and other groups are very proactive and track the flights of butterflies; people, including everyday ones like myself, are joining into one faction by noting what we see in our gardens and on our property in terms of first sighting of a Monarch to first caterpillar and pupae seen and it is mapped out for folks to see on a screen picture. We don't map out how many or where/when monarchs we see and raise as a separate count,j ust the occuring sitings. Raising these guys is a small step but if we all do it we can make a difference. They are not spoiled, they are protected from the effects of humankind's "stealing" of swaths of their milkweed thus causing more competition for the plants, including invasive insects and other things so the Monarchs are at high risk now. And we are learning! You will also read about how scientists take the numbers of Monarchs being observed by a national/international group or more, as a way of calculating how well we are doing as a species! Best of luck, and hope you enjoy doing this project one day!
Mr. Lund, I released my sixth adult monarch yesterday but he does not seem to be able to fly away. He fluttered down to a plant and sits there opening and closing his wings. He is still in my garden this morning, is there something I can do to help him?
I have a video already shot, which will be edited and out soon. It talks specifically about this. What do we do with Monarchs that can't fly. There's a few options, but not really any that anyone wants to hear... 1) As it won't fly, that's kinda a death sentence for a Monarch. You *could* keep it as a pet and care for it, feeding it, giving it time outside, etc. The upside is that you're doing your best for it to make it comfortable and experience parts of life. The downside is that it takes plenty of time to do this, and, you have a butterfly that always wants to get out there and fly, but never will. It will always have the impulse to fly away, and will fail at that. 2) You can leave it out there in nature. Many dislike this option, and it's understandable why. It will either starve, or, a predator will take it out. Those are the downsides. There is an upside, though. Many birds must learn not to eat Monarchs and stay away from the coloration, and it takes a few before they learn. So, if a predator goes for it, it will receive some of that education. Therefore, a Monarch released in this way still has the potential to benefit the population. After all, if say a Blue Jay goes for it and learns, it has already learned, and is less likely to go for a flying one it sees in the future. Without this one serving that purpose, that same Jay may still go after and take out a different healthy, breeding individual. 3) Some would say it's appropriate to euthanize a Monarch that can not fly. Now, there's another possible option that my future video has not covered, as I'm still researching it, but some have done wing repair and even wing transplants. For repair, that's more if it is a damaged wing. Replacements can happen if it's a very damaged wing, or a deformed wing, but requires you usually to have already a wing from another individual you already euthanized. Again, I'm researching this topic this season to see if I can provide even better options. R&D and all. I'm sorry that you've had to experience this. I wish I had better options for you, but admittedly, I don't at the moment.
Thank you for your quick response. I checked on him again and see that one wing is either damaged or deformed. As hard as it is to do I am going to let nature take its course. I really love your videos and have learned so much. I have been growing milkweed for a few years but never thought about raising Monarchs. Last year I accidentally found one caterpillar and raised it successfully. This year I have found 14 eggs and a few small caterpillars,so far I have released 6 adults and have 2 more chrysalides. Next year I plan on expanding my milkweed bed.
hi, Betty, your story sounds like mine! I have had a butterfly garden for several years; there is a row of 5' tall milkweed propogated w/ plants I bought AND now some from our farm's field. The last ones, it is Oct. 2, are small but I may have lucked out yesterday finding one egg! The leaves otherwise are for my 2 caterpillars ,one about to go into his J hook. I am hooked by chance it seems! SO much thanks to Mr. LundScience for his advice or I would never have started this out without info, knowing it is indeed a science- but obviously a very easily done science if we follow the rules, and I am never afraid of a challenge and afterall these orphans were on stalks reduced to black tops, falling leaves & some had none left with ants marching up on top of it all! Now I have those two , an egg and look forward to being on this site alot!
If all is healthy, the J-hang should only last about 24 hours. It can be slower at colder temperatures, though, and I have had healthy ones take almost a full second day.
Hey! Love these videos! Thank you so much for your careful and thorough attention to detail. I have one question; we are in Maine, and it's mid September, but i just found a monarch caterpillar in our garden and when we took it home, it immediately whent into a J shape. It's about to be very cold here, is it really going to come out in such a breif amount of time? Will it be safe to release? We haven't started heating our house yet, but soon will- Should i be keeping the chrysalis in a natural temperature environment when we do? We have a black swallowtail chrysalis going as well, but we were told they would stay in until at least spring and indeed, ours has been in there for months now. Sorry to bombard you with questions!
Out of curiosity do you notice any night time activity from the chrisalides? Or is it mainly daytime activity, or both? I started my butterfly garden today and want to help these critters make it through the growing pains :D
+Betta Fish To be honest, after the skin is molted and the casing has hardened, I notice no activity, be it day or night, other than blowing a bit in the wind. I suppose I should be more accurate and say, the activity I do see is about 24 hours before it emerges when the casing fades from green to translucent and you can see the orange/black wing patterns through the casing.
I live on the Texas Gulf coast. Seems we have had a warm start to winter. Temps in the 70's. I have a lot of butterfly weed. I notice these past few days I have MANY monarch caterpillars. There are so many that about all the weed leaves have been eaten. I'm beginning to see them in their chrystilis . Hanging everwhere. We're due for a cold/near freeze wave this weekend (3 days). My question . . Can they survive 32 degree temps.??!!
I have noticed. If a caterpillar stays on a milkweed plant it will grow much bigger. If it is removed and put into a container it will form the J hang sooner. I left one cat on a MW plant and it got very big. I put into a container yesterday and overnight it went into the J hang. So I guess they are like gold fish. They will grow if they have room to grow.
For time lapse, it's not so much a device as it is an available feature on my video editing program. Many video editing software allows you to speed up or slow down video.
Hi, I'm really new to this. I live in Southern California and I planted milkweed about a month ago and presto! Found two 5th Instars over the weekend. Sadly, I lost them both cause I didn't find your vid in time, and left them outdoors. Still bumming :-(. But I found about 7 eggs on the milkweed I think on Monday, put them in little condiment containers, and I'm just waiting. They all look about the same an none of them are hatching. Do they ever not hatch for some reason?
I'm not sure about the use of plastics in your work here Sir. I'm wondering what impact that could have on the butterfly evolution over time. Their development impacts humanity too after all, and vice versa. I wonder too, how they feel about having gone into their chrysalis in a plastic box and then awakening hanging on a thread of wool? Feels a little too traumatic for me.
Greetings Nisha. I'm not exactly sure what to say here. Evolution is a process that happens over hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. Synthetic plastic has only been around for about 110 years, and only widespread in human use for the last 60 years. Further, the tremendous majority of Monarch butterflies never come into contact with plastic, nor humans. My concern would be much more for that of their habitat (milkweed / nectar producing flowers) and what human impact occurs there (devastation and loss due to pesticides and herbicides). We could add plastic to the list, but far higher priority should probably be given to human activity involved in climate change and the use of pesticides/herbicides. While I don't agree with your concern, please understand that I do respect it. As for how the Monarch feels coming out of the chrysalis in a new location, I suppose I don't have much information on that. What's pretty interesting, though, is that when the caterpillar has formed the chrysalis, enzymes are released within the chrysalis that essentially "digests" or dissolves the components of the caterpillar's internal structure. So, all of the organs and tissues become what is mostly a protein "soup". The brain is digested in this way as well. Only a few key cells survive this process. The genes within those cells, though, contain the information needed for the adult body to be built from the "soup". In that regard, I am skeptical that the butterfly remembers much from its caterpillar days. Still, there was a study, which this article mentions ( www.scientificamerican.com/article/caterpillar-butterfly-metamorphosis-explainer/ ) that speaks of moths somewhat having "learned" from things that they experienced in the caterpillar stage. I'm a bit of a numbers guy, though. And as nature statistically gives Monarchs a 10% or less chance of making it from egg to adult, I'm comfortable with a Monarch emerging as an adult and wondering "How'd I get here?" and not being one of the 90% that don't make it otherwise. Unrelated - I checked out that carved statue you made. That thing is awesome! A very artistic undertaking, and I hope you are proud of it. Much more talent than I when it comes to that skill!
I have found several eggs on my milkweed plants in my backyard, after realizing how hard it is for them to survive in the wild, I have decided to study up on how to raise them. I am curious where the best area in my home would be to leave the eggs, and caterpillars (indoor temperature, exposure to sunlight)? My house is very cold and I don't want that to be detrimental to their growth. I have an unair-conditioned cedar room that is exposed to sunlight with large windows that can be left open. Would this be a good place to house them?
Greetings Jessica! You're actually asking this about a week after some new research came out. It's being recommended that Monarchs that are reared at home have as much outside exposure as possible. This recommendation, however, is more for the migratory generation, which won't start being hatched from eggs until about August. That said, they have a large temperature range that suits them. Any temps they could experience outdoors are fine temps in doors. Plenty of ventilation and sunlight to mimic outside conditions, however, would be suitable. Good luck!
My first find was 125 eggs gave 15 away...lost a few along the way. Second find 50. Going to look some more...Then I will start cutting Milkweed down leaving just enough to feed Catterpillers...Question: If the Monarch has eggs to lay and she can not find Milkweed then what does she do???
Hello, I have seen all your videos and have put all your advice in practice for the last 7 weeks that I have raised monarchs and released them. This week I began having a crowding problem so I did as you suggested in this video and so far so good. BUT when manipulating the Chrysalides one of them fell from my hand, like 15 centimeters... I felt guilty, I hope I did not hurt the poor thing... What is your experience with such accidents? What may happen to the Monarch??? Thanks for the advice
Greetings Lucrecia, and I hope all is well. I have been out of town a few days for a spot of vacation, hence the delayed response. So far, I have not dropped any chrysalides, and if I were a superstitious kind of guy, I'd type "knock on wood". (I suppose I did just type that...) What I can say is that, IF something happens as a result, there's not much you can do about it other than wait and see how it turns out. It's not clear in this video, as I was filming and needed room for the camera, but usually, if I'm removing a chrysalis, I'll do so low to the table, and with some paper towel cushioning just in case some sort of unforeseen gravity accident occurs. Perhaps that may help in the future. Whether there is or isn't any visible difference in the chrysalis, if I were in your position, I'd certainly still let the chrysalis run its course and see how it comes out. I wish you much luck, and hope everything works out for this one!
Thank you! Yes, I have taken precautions now Just in Case, I was nervous being a first timer, that lead to the accident I am sure... IN ANY CASE I will observe the affected chrysalis and share here what happens.
This can be temperature dependent. The warmer it is, the faster it goes. During height of summer, I've recorded 9 or 10 days, usually. Once fall temperatures roll in and it's cooler, it has taken them usually 12 to 14 days. I've heard though, of some taking 20 days or even more from some people.
So I found one outside my house on my morning glory plants. itthere any way I can take him inside still does he still need to hang? How can I protect him?
Cool find indeed. But, did you watch this video? It shows pretty clearly how to remove the chrysalis from it's hanging position and how to relocate it by hanging it from a cord. You have a few options. Good luck, and let me know if you have further questions!
funny , this happened to me and it got me into raising these guys from cat stage when I rescued several on my milkweed! Though this is a year old, I wonder what happened? I happened upon a few cats and then the crysalis in my fading perinneal garden on a leaf of an old, fall-season milkweed plant; I photographed it, and then stunned next day I saw that it fell off during the night. I did not know what to do but knew it had to hang so I propped the leaf beneath the plant so it hung on it's steady leaf perfectly. I Had no idea what was happening 'til the next day, the "foundling" on the leaf I protected outside (I have learned alot in 2 weeks!?!? )had completed catharsis and I missed that moment during darkness of night or morning which was my sleeptime! He/she was gone and the "cocoon crysalis" was there on the leaf as evidence that indeed it was simply as if he shed his skin! I am hooked now, with a safe cage and healthy cats hoping that they J hook -or that one will- tonight!
Hi, Mr. Lund! I am raising my first group of monarchs and they have finally made it to the point of becoming chrysalides! One of my caterpillars made their chrysalis under a leaf, which after several days was quite dead and looked really to fall. So I tried to move it via that the method you showed, but there was almost no silk and it fell onto my table. I decided to try and hot glue that the chrysalis to my binder clip and in the process had to hold it for a second. I am worried that it will be deformed: do think that it will be okay? Should I have just left it on the ground? Thank you so much!
Certainly, I wouldn't have left it out on the ground. Many things could happen to it. Provided it fell not to far, and not onto something hard like concrete, I would predict that the Monarch will be developing fine in there, but only time will tell.
YAY! Great coaching from Mr.LundScience, I am so excited about this and impressed with how many hurdles people like Hay Hay are dealing with. (Me, as well, with wandering cat, who did die :'-( I think he feel either that , from his wandering btw, or when I gently coaxed him down to leaves perhaps he/she had just shed one skin and was vulnerable....still have my two rescues and look forward to doing this forever starting in the spring
Greetings Dina! I'm sorry, but I'm unaware if there is a solution to this. I too have had caterpillars that just seem to stop halfway through the forming of the chrysalis. If I notice this to happen when it happens in the future, I think I might try to very carefully help cut the skin with my surgical scissors. I only would attempt this because I have such a tool to be careful with, and only if I saw it happening at the time. I don't think that it would be much of a help an hour or two later. I could be wrong though. In the future, if this happens, I want to try and find a way to help with that situation, if there is a way. So, it's a bit in the research stage. For now, all I can say is that it does happen, and many of us have been there before. Sorry that this happened.
I've been watching all your videos, but didn't catch if you mentioned what the gold spots and the gold ring towards the top turn into. It's been on my mind for a couple of years now. There is some speculation they could be ports for oxygen? Thanks!
Hey Kristie, I'm not sure about the ports for oxygen part, as the entire chrysalis is "breathable" for gases (but not liquids) to some extent. Still, there could be something new discovered about them that I'm not aware of. There are other butterflies that incorporate the same gold coloration in their chrysalides, though. In fact, there's a couple that incorporate an entire gold and reflective coloration. Biologists still debate the evolutionary advantage. Some side with the idea that the high reflectivity confuses birds to not see it as prey. Some think that such is only true in the heavily golded ones, and something like the Monarch's is more meant to sparkle like dew on a leaf. The debate goes on. I hope that helps!
I am very interested in where you purchased the roof for the chrysalils to hang from? I have multiple types of Asclepius and intend to raise caterpillars next spring. Currently, I have one chrysalis in my fish tank hanging from a branch.
The plastic containers I've used are types of critter carriers (not sure that that is the real name for them) and usually are available at pet stores that deal with small animals. However, caterpillars can be inventive and determined. I've had plenty form a chrysalis on other lids that don't have the same groves/ventilation, but instead were smooth plastic. It's all about that silk they produce.
Thank you very much for these videos. They've helped a ton and I have 7 currently in chrysalis. My question is, where would you recommend hanging the yarn with chrysalides if you don't have a screened in porch? I figured outside was the better place since they might emerge while I'm at work and be stuck in the house. Are they in danger from pests in the garden at this point?
+Jesse Reynolds My outside screened in porch was a bonus with the house we bought. We didn't plan on having it, and that first year was also the first year I started really taking monarchs more serious. It was all a great coincidence. If it had not been there, I would still be hanging them outside. Once in the chrysalis, it's pretty safe from your average pests. I can't say it's impossible for them to come to harm from something, but nothing that wouldn't naturally be a factor. Being hung from one yarn rather than a shrub or tree is a bit better for them, unless of course you have those acrobatic squirrels in your area who love to play on tight ropes! Good luck!
HI! First time breeder here:) Quick question: If I use the reptile cage that you have, will the caterpillars crawl up the walls? I keep reading that they can't crawl up plastic and glass. Thanks from Malibu, CA
I've never had any issues with them not being able to crawl up the walls. However, this container had been scrubbed multiple times before ever being used for this task, and so it's possible that having been scrubbed by a steel pad, there was enough minor etching to cause more grip on the interior for the caterpillars. So, if you do get a plastic container and they have issues at first, I think scrubbing it a bit would likely help out.
1) If you take in eggs that hatch on common milkweed & then eat common leaves, but you start to run out of common leaves, can those caterpillars switch over to swamp milkweed leaves? Will they recognize it & will it hurt them? 2) Can caterpillars be raised from eggs in an interior room of a house that doesn’t get a lot of sunlight? Or do the require a relatively sunny room with lots of windows? I’m thinking of keeping the caterpillars in a room away from an overly inquisitive cat. Thanks
This is our first attempt...I removed the very first Chrysalis from inside the netting & successfully got it hung up. On the very next one I must have gotten the tweezer on the stem instead of the web only because the stem broke in half & it hit the ground. What do you do when that happens? Too make matters worse, my big burly wonderful hubby tried to fix it when I went inside & when I came back he was almost in tears. “I killed it” he said...I asked him if he was kidding or pranking me...”I killed it, I’m so sorry “. It was true, with his big giant beautiful hands he accidentally stabbed it right thru the middle with the tiny tweezers. So now I’m scared to touch them...
I don't tend to drop the chrysalis these days, as I've had much practice. I'm sorry that this happened, but I hope it doesn't deter you from your efforts. We learn as we go, and with more experience, this will rarely be a problem. It's a good idea in the future, though, to try to remove the chrysalis over a padded, close area. Putting paper towel in your lap can turn a tumbling chrysalis into a non-issue, rather than a tragic oozing one. Don't give up. It gets better!
MrLundScience I haven’t dropped another one! AND the first one just eclosed, but it appears one of her little legs is stuck to the pupa. I don’t want to do any damage...can I help her?
I have 3 monarch chrysalides, and it’s been 15 days since receiving them in the mail. They are all black but not transparent, 1 is becoming hollow and the other 2 have ripped!! I dont know why or what to do
This doesn't sound too good. Sounds like you were sent some unhealthy chrysalides. What I'm curious about is why they were ordered. Is this part of a learning project for someone? Was this a company that you ordered them from?
MrLundScience I ordered them on eBay from a seller and they did say to let them know if anything is wrong so I will be contacting them. I raise moths and butterflies and have never seen this
I'm sorry this happened, and am not sure what to tell you, other than I'd definitely contact the seller. Selling Monarchs online is a controversial issue. I'm neither for, nor against it. It depends on many things. How responsible is the sell er? What is the intention? Is it to make large profits by selling many Monarchs for a wedding release, or is it to sell some Monarchs in a science kit for kids to learn about life cycles? Do they test for diseases? Do they breed them from a stock source of Monarchs? Do they breed out of the natural breeding season? If a disease outbreak occurs, but they have orders to fill, do they do the right thing and not distribute diseased Monarchs that will spread it in nature, or do they send them anyway because they don't want to miss out on the profit? There are responsible ways to do these things that I am more comfortable with (and mind you, "more" comfortable doesn't mean officially comfortable, just more than less) and other ways that I'd be strongly against. It all depends upon those variables mentioned above. Because these are all messy issues, I pretty much stay out of it as far as commercial selling of Monarchs. Instead, these videos are more about finding eggs/caterpillars in nature, and what we can do to help them become adults, and then released.
MrLundScience yes I am definitely going to contact the seller. And thanks to your videos I have found the eggs on my milkweed and currently have 20 chrysalides/ 5th Instar caterpillars!
Hey, that's cool! And I have a feeling that those will fair better in your hands than what occurred with the others you received by mail. Good luck with them!
Hi Stacey -- I am in southern CA too and have the narrow leaved milkweed that I am using. Is there anything special that I should do when placing it in the container for the caterpillars? Any tips on the yellow aphids?
Can you use a mesh caterpillar cage for the chrysalis stage? To me it doesn't seem sturdy enough, but the hard top one like you have in the video is hard to find. Thanks!
I show one way of doing this in the "Outdoor Rearing" video. I've cued it up to where it gets relevant: ruclips.net/video/LjEgU0Ub5hY/видео.html I hope this helps!
I try to help as little as possible but my fifth instar cats are very naughty. They crawl long distances and attach onto the strangest places. My water bottle, my hose, across the yard and driveway and into the garage door and trash barrel. I may have to enclose then this way. I've had spiders get some and some under my patio table just hibernating. Not hatching or turning black and drying out????
I love your video series! I planted a butterfly garden in my backyard and enjoyed watching the butterflies and caterpillars but they all disappeared before I saw any in the chrysalis stage. After watching your videos, I brought 14 eggs inside and they hatched today, I'm in FL and our milkweed has much smaller leaves so it's harder to cut and place them but I was successful and looking forward to watching them grow. My teenage son laughed at me and said mom, we did this in kindergarten, I said "and I remember how happy it made you to see them fly away"!
Lol I'm doing tbe same thing . I currently have 29 eggs. I don't know if u have enough milkweed now ....
I just planted a garden and saw eggs. So I bought a tomato cage and a mesh drawstring bag to put over it so they’re protected form predators. I can’t commit to do more than that, but hoping they survive!
Elementary teacher here! I bought a milkweed and planted it in my garden and was so excited to see several caterpillars on it 2 weeks ago. I am documenting the progress for my students. 2 of the caterpillars disappeared when they got big enough to make their chrysalis. I think they must have crawled back between another bush and my fence. BUT, today on started J hanging under the ridge in the siding by the plant. I am so excited to watch the process. Your videos have been very helpful. Thank you for the time and attention you put into them.
I have an excess of maternal energy coupled with a lifelong entomology obsession, this year I finally took on monarch safekeeping, your videos have made it less stressful for all of us!! I'm subscribing because anyone who takes care of the tiniest of critters is tops in my book!
I don't mean to sound like I was born in the 1920s but it just happens on RUclips :)
Thank you for sharing and being so conscientious!
I don't know if I'd know what someone from the 1920's would sound like. At any rate, welcome aboard! Very pleased that you can find these videos to be of use. Hope your season has gone well!
MrLundScience waiting, oh so patiently for eclosure!
I have my first Crystalis. I'm so excited. Watched it turn and all. My 65 years I never seen this. Scratch another off my bucket list.
J Hook is in the chrysalis stage now after watching him/her the entire time suddenly there it was and had happened during an hour I was in the other room! Wow, relief and now I understand all the commotion they go through seeking that spot, not eating, etc. I can't believe how the entire process happens and can't wait to have more of this experience with the upcoming J II and the tiny Jimmy J now too small for the larger habitat but it won't be too long! Thanks again, you are amazing and your energy for doing all of the videos I have now found is stunning. Kids are blessed to have you in their lives.
Blessed due to me? Naw. I won't take such credit. I'd say, they benefit from some tax dollars paying for public education in the case of me being in their lives. I'll take the compliment humbly, nonetheless, so thank you.
I'm excited for you getting to see the chrysalis stage! Just a few days now, and oh, the excitement you'll have. Good luck!
Observe: The male Monarch flies around garden with Milkweed for a few days. Then two to three days later the female Monarch comes and checks out the layout then she starts laying her eggs, lots of them. The eggs I was finding were on the lower New leaves and some up in the budded flowers. On the larger leaves she layed two eggs. This year I noticed there were less Monarchs. But the one or two that came to there butterfly garden, layed lots. Also this year there were different species such as Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Skippers few different types, Grey hair streak, one have not identified yet. And of course the Anise Swallowtail. And several Cabbage whites, so pretty to see white butterflies. Going to plant more host plants if I can find them...lccv
Much gratitude for your series! You broke all the steps down to where I could understand each stage and what my tasks were in nurturing. You mentioned Michigan and in your first video wore a shirt that had St. Johns on it so yes, I looked your name up, and hooray, you are from the same neck of the woods so I know now I might have a chance! Thank YOU!
I use a reptile container for my 5th instars as well, however, I put it on its side. This way, the caterpillars pupate on the clear plastic top and I have an outstanding clear view of the process. Also, it enables me to remove the lid easily for cleaning and photos/videos without disturbing the chrysalides. Try it!
Thanks for your time and effort in making these videos. I have three caterpillars that just entered the chrysalis stage! Your videos have been very helpful. Great music too.
Thanks Nami! I hope for your three chrysalides that you are at a more southern latitude than I. Here in Michigan, we've got snow on the ground! Good luck!
This is exactly the video I needed! We usually have maybe 6-8 chrysalides at a time waiting to eclose but a fertile mama laid 30 eggs so I needed to know exactly how to move them to a bigger enclosure. This video showed me how! Thank you for taking the time to film it.😊
Both have just made the change from 5th instar to chrysalides! Even though I watch your video many times I was, well, it was so amazing! The additional milkweeds have been planted. I'm in So. CA so it's going to be summer temps for a while longer here. Thanks again Mr. Lund!
You're doing amazing work here. My dad and I have milkweed seeds, and we plan to help the monarchs also. I'm learning a lot from these videos. I'll pass the info to my dad and we will also help hopefully on this kind of scale.
Definitely cool that your father and you are both involved. Keep it up! We need all the help we can get!
TasoanSpawn awesome!!! im doing the same, hope it helps!
Greetings Toast Goddess, and welcome aboard.
1. Everything needs heat, of course, but do you need to keep them at a specific temperature? No. In nature, the Monarchs deal with all sorts of temperatures. So, keeping them indoors at room temperature is fine.
2. I would suggest, no, do not add anything else. As I show in my videos, they are given milkweed leaves, and that's it. Most Monarch caterpillars will spend their entire caterpillar stage on a milkweed plant, provided it has enough food from that plant. Giving your caterpillar other things to crawl on can only cause it to get lost, and have more work to do to get back to the milkweed. These aren't pets, and while we might think in human terms that they'd like to "spruce up" their homes, truth is, the caterpillar will not care about these things. These caterpillars care about milkweed, and that's it.
3. Usually, a leaf will dry out, even with the moist paper towel around it, in about three days. I'd say they should get a fresh leaf every three days, or sooner, of course, if it's eating through the leaf.
4. For cleaning the tank, soap and water works fine, but if you are worried about possible infections in your area, a dilute solution of bleach water can be used, but you must very very thoroughly rinse the bleach water out when finished.
5. NO! Do not use baby wipes! They have other chemicals laced within them, which can potentially harm the caterpillar. Further, paper towel is considerably cheaper than baby wipes. Why not just get some paper towel?
6. As mentioned in Part 5, the Monarchs should be released the same day they emerge as adults. The longer they are kept in captivity, the higher the probability is that it could damage its wings. These are not pets, but are animals that have declining numbers, and they have a busy schedule! Now, that being said, it's certainly understandable that you might want to spend some time checking out the amazing adult that you spent so much effort in raising. So, I would say a day would be the most they should be observed. Beyond that, though, they need to fly free to keep the generations going.
Good luck!
My first year with milkweed plants and I saved 28 caterpillars! I live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We are in our fall heatwave. I’m almost completely out of milkweed but I only have one guy that would rather eat than make his journey to the top of the enclosure. I wasn’t planning on raising them so I sure hope this beautiful insects survive the trip. I’m not tagging them because I simply wasn’t prepared! I have hung the chrystilides that are ready and will free them the same way you do. I am definitely going to plant a lot more milkweed next year along with marigolds and anything else that keeps aphids away! I think my fingers are stained yellow from trying to fend those suckers off. It was a loosing battle but I found two good sized plants at Lowe’s.
I’m looking forward to doing this again next year but in a more prepared and responsible way.
My monarch was J hanging at 8:30 this am. It is now 5:00 pm and caterpillar is in chrysalis form.
In 10- 14 days, I hope a male butterfly is born. His name is Johnny since egg... thank you Rich for all-out help. Bayonne, NJ
Great news, Janet!
Sorry that I haven't been able to be more on top of these comments. This summer, I'm getting even more per day than previous years. About 30 a day, or so. But, I want to make sure to give everyone the respect of replying, as they've taken the time to help the Monarchs, and that's always so very much appreciated!
So very cool to hear that you have it already in a chrysalis form. Is this your first one ever that you've raised? Ah...I remember my first! It's so exciting!
*JHN-238*
Your videos and information has been extremely helpful. You are my go-to when I need information. Thank you! We've had one monarch emerge on 08/07. Two more are heading to 'J' hanging. These are the most exciting as we found them as eggs; so, we're experiencing the full process... Amazing!
I have 6 caterpillars right now, three of which I've raised from eggs, and the rest I found while picking milkweed or biking. Two of them, lovingly named Sausage and Meatloaf, are due to form a chrysalis any day now. This is my first time raising monarchs and I am SO excited. Thanks for the great info!
Cool to have you along! Many rewards await you along the way of your first time. Enjoy!
I keep a little note with the dates when the chrysalis was formed and the butterfly emerges and it has been exactly 11 days for the last three. I keep them inside my home. For a few caterpillars, I found the mesh splatter guards, plastic strainer and plastic salad bowls helpful in container the caterpillars while keeping air flow. My first time raising these beautiful creatures since last summer, 2021, and have raise 21 to date. When they first emerge from their egg, I call them Schmooie.
Thank you so much for the time you put into this! The earth needs more people like you!
I don't know if another Rich Lund would be a good thing or a bad thing...or even if they'd get along. They'd probably skate together, but chess matches could get bloody.
Thanks for the informative videos! Watched them last year towards the end of the season, after planting my first milkweeds in my garden and raised and released one monarch butterfly. This year I have 22 caterpillars, and am loving this little hobby/obsession! I plan to keep the seeds of the milkweed and start as many plants as I can next spring, then I will give them away to community members in an effort to attract more monarchs to our area of Nova Scoita, Canada. Thanks again!
Yep, the number one reason I have milkweed, after the idea of just helping the Monarchs in general, is to have a source of seeds each year to give out to interested students. Planting milkweed can be pretty low commitment, and thus, many are willing to do it to help out. Great job getting your community members involved!
Thank you for creating the series. I felt reassured at each phase of their development having watched what it supposed to happen next. I just raised 5 monarch on three store-bought milkweed plants. No 1, 2 and 3 just flew the coup. Maybe some of their descendants will come back.
J. Elke Ertle That...is...awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Makes me feel great to know how these videos are being used. I appreciate it very much, and definitely appreciate you taking the time to help them!
Hi, Mr.LundScience and a great big thank you for your diligent and great work! I am looking at my first caterpillar who has moved from one spot to his third on the ceiling of my large net cage, and without your comments and the followers I would be somewhat freaked that he hasn't settled down! I have had one of the three original, (one sadly died ;'-( ), cats do this at an early stage as he/she had climbed up the sides but it was not nearly as large as this one, so assuming he/she was "lost". I replaced her on the leaves below where she was happy! Now this guy! I named him "J Hook" and "J" for short, and his little sis on the leaves hanging out now is "J II" to make it easier ,and hopeful! Thanks again for this stuff, you are amazing and I would not have been convinced to help these little guys in my garden last week without your videos that we have watched now for the 2nd time. Oh ,and yes ,I observed this J guy twitch and also his antennae looking crinkly now but this is going into 24 hrs. since he attached in first place on the top.
Yep, when the antennae look to be withering, that's an indicator that within an hour or so, they'll be forming the chrysalis. As this comment was 2 days ago, I would imagine you've gotten to enjoy that transition by now. Great job, Debbie! I'm very pleased that these videos were able to help you out. When I was trying to figure these things out, there were some videos on RUclips I looked at for guidance, but not many. Just not that many showed things very well or provided details I wanted. So, once I figured a few things out, I thought I'd make the videos I had wanted when I was trying to learn. I had no idea there'd be this many people benefiting from them. It's pretty humbling.
Thank you Mr Lund for the great info on raising monarch caterpillars. Your videos have been super helpful! This has really been a fun & exciting time raising 12 monarchs. Next year I will be starting earlier so I can save more monarchs :) Such an amazing little creature.
Cool that you've found a new thing to enjoy. Each year, we learn from the last and it only gets better.
@@MrLundScience Thanks! :)
Thank you!...I think this is a good project to do with my kiddos I'm going to plant lots of milkweed this year
You're welcome. Thanks for getting the younger generation involved!
Thank you for these videos! They have been very informative for my 6yo and me. We currently have 3 eggs and 2 maybes, 1 tiny caterpillar, 1 likely in 4th instar, and one likely in 5th. We are excited to help take care of these insects! I hope we do them justice and it's a great learning experience for my child. We also live in Michigan and everything we have found so far has been on common milkweed.
Very cool that your 6 year old is learning to care about the environment at such a young age! Glad I could help. Thanks for helping out the Monarchs...and fair warning - it's addictive!
@@MrLundScience it really is! We now have one hatched egg and the biggest caterpillar is chilling at the top of the container. For the babies, we currently have them in peanut butter jars with paper towel rubber banded to the top. Think that's alright? Picking up a small plastic aquarium today for the bigger ones but I don't think I will be able to move the one that's at the top of the container already.
I think the jar will do the trick just fine.
I harvested our first 6 caterpillars today. My kids and I are very excited. We have used insectlore to watch caterpillars but now, I have a milkweed garden that has been visited!
I've watched this entire series at least twice now and this is my first time raising monarchs. I have five caterpillars that have all crawled to the top of their container. The top is wire mesh and the cats all hatched just over two weeks ago. They have been on the top like this all day and I am wondering just how long before they go into the 'J-hang'? I'll feel so much better when I see that happening. Many thanks for putting together these videos.
Oops!!! During the time I was writing my above comment, one went into the J-hang! Oh happy day!
Yesterday, the "big guy" from this video went into J-hang. It's confirmed, he was 5th Instar at the time of making this video and finding him in the field.
I am happy to report that I have five chrysalides and one in J-hang. Woo-hoo! I'm batting 1,000! I've watched your videos all several times through this process and I'll be watching the last one again in about 10 days. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Beautiful! I hope I can have similar success with my three remaining, struggling python eggs in a few weeks!
@@MrLundScience what’s the best temperature for them?? I am in Louisiana and got a few in the spring but just recently found about 30 caterpillars on my milkweed plants in September and we’ve been having some nights in the 50’s. What should I do?? I have them in a tent that has a bucket of milkweed planted in it
My monarchs hatched on July 5th and crysalised on July 19th!!!! So excited to release them!!!
Fabulous! Thank you!
Just the most amazing venture to witness. U so appreciate the hard work and stages that these beauties go through
So thankful for all these helpful videos and tips. I'm new to this and appreciate the guidance and advice!
Wow! What an awesome series of videos! Not sure how I missed out on this hobby all these years. I am making this comment now as my first Monarch is about to J hang. This has been quite a thrill and I would not have attempted to do this without watching your videos. Thank you! I'll pay you back with dozens of Monarchs added to the world ... deal?
Bob, that's a total deal! Exactly why I made these videos. Hoping to find those interested in getting involved. Glad to hear it's J-hanging, though if all is going well, it's a chrysalis as I type this. Careful...this is addicting!
The last two days we had a beautiful experience as our two 5 year old granddaughters each released their two monarchs. Thank you again for making this possible with your wonderful series of videos!
This is a lovely exchange, and I have had the same experience, Bob, I have given away 6 chrysalides thus far -- with Mr. Lund's instructions and links -- and my three year-old granddaughter is naming the chrysalides as she carefully helps me hang them. What a simple joy and collecting new leaves every day from different patches of milkweed has gotten me outside walking more, to boot. :) Thank you, Rich.
I hatched two or three last year ... need to raise them now ... this is addicting! also plan to get tadpoles this year ... love bull frogs!
Thank you for this amazing series, I just wanted to know the ideal temperature for a chrysalis, should they be placed under sunlight? and important Do's and Dont's.
Thanks so much for these videos! I bought a milkweed last year that went to seed and I never checked It to see if there were any monarchs on it it but this year one plant grew through the crack and I enjoyed the flowers until I saw 5 large cats chomping away. Didn't know what to do so brought in two and started doing my research on what to do and found you. The next day they went into j hang. Amazing. I went through my garden to search for the others. Three had chysalized in the compost under the lid a few inches above the grass clippings. A big spidery web was under one so I removed It even though I don't think it was more than 12 hours. I left the other two for the 24hrs before moving. I feared the one was under a spider web but could it have created a "hammock" to protect itself? A day or two later, the one under the spider web had a string of web leaking and turned brown (Tachinidae?). The others I hung but they shook a lot! one I dropped (ah) I'm worried I shook them too much and they'll come out deformed. Did I make a mistake in moving the one under the hammock or was it best to move the chrysalis if there are lots of compost flies around? Do they spin webbing to protect themselves. Anyway, Now I'm OBSESSED with taking care of them. !! I'm even keeping the infected one around to see if a fly larva comes out. I hope I didn't shake it to dead when I moved it. Could I have bumped it and made it turn brown? Nature is amazing.Another question, should I take the chysalis outside in their container to get the air / heat of their birth site? My kitchen doesn't have much climate and I was told the elements was healthier but I have to move "shake" them when I do take them outside. Please advise. Thank you!
Your videos are very helpful and amazing! I planted a butterfly garden at my house and have my first 3 J hangers! Anxiously awaiting a chance to release them! Thanks for the videos....complete instructions and timing scales! awesome!
I'm very glad that they have been able to be helpful. Congrats on your J-hangers! Getting to see them emerge in about 10-12 days will be awesome the first time through.
I'm getting all my friends involved with monarchs. Project: Save the monarch!
Yes. i must do same.
DEREK TONEY I new to this bur I he’d 2 healthy Caterpillars. The leaf they were j-hanging from fell from the milk weed. One even fell to the ground. Can I save them. I didn’t see any silk? Please help. Bonnie
My son and I go for walks and he likes to call them scavenger hunts!! We hunt for caterpillars! We every year hatch out about 10 or more. We have watched all your videos and we this year just found today 9 eggs on leaves and we also brought in today 21 caterpillars of all sizes! We have them all in containers from size to size so the big ones don't bother the real little ones. We have a total of 29 and on has turned into it's chrysalis and we have 9 eggs!! My son loves watching nature and releasing them back out into the wild! This is something he will remember all his life and I encourage parents to have fun like this with there children!!!
That all sounds pretty awesome. Of course, make sure you have enough food to supply all of those lil' tykes, but it sounds like you have things under control. And oh yes, this is fertile ground for lasting memories. Great job!
We just watched 2 hatch from eggs and the third is just trying to wiggle out now!!! This is such an amazing thing to watch nature at its best!!!
This video series are so well made, informative, easy to follow and a pleasure to watch. I’m only wondering about the best temperature for raising Monarchs? Thank you 😊
Hey Rob. Thanks for the kind words. As for the "best" temperature, it depends upon how you are defining "best". If we are just saying that "best" would mean temperatures where the caterpillars / chrysalides are healthy, then "best" can be anywhere from 70s to high 80s, but keep in mind, that doesn't mean 60s or 90s are necessarily bad either. The Monarchs are just more comfortable in these summer weather temps. Meanwhile, if the temperatures are cooler, 60s and low 70s, the caterpillars will have a slower metabolism, and eat food less quickly and take longer to reach chrysalis. For some, where milkweed isn't as easy to come by, this is preferred to give them time to go get more milkweed from sources they know around them that aren't easily nearby. That would make those temperatures "best". But, if you're hoping to push as many as possible through your process, 80s and 90s would be "best", getting the chemistry to run faster and having them reach the chrysalis stage a few days earlier than at cooler temperatures. Hope that helps!
MrLundScience Hi I have further temperature/location question. If warmer is better, is sunshine required? If I bring the eggs and am raising indoors I have the house a/c on so I suspect it’s too cold. I have them by a window so perhaps it’s 75-78 max if the sun is shining. Should I move this to my garage where it’s definitely warmer? But less sunshine. Looks like your hanging string is in a Sun room?
I have a swamp milkweed that on June 29th I went outside to water my plants and on one of my watering containers there was a 1 in or a little bit smaller monarch caterpillar on it. So I went and looked at my milkweed and I had at least 100 caterpillars all different sizes but no bigger than that 1 inch, so since then I have kept my eye on the plant and the caterpillars in the majority of them have disappeared and moved on and done their last stages elsewhere or I know I had found numerous ones crawling on the ground that got knocked off the plant. Today July 5th I came home quickly from work at about 1:30 checked out the two that I have in their container and checked out the ones plant and they were all munching away and crawling around and some were sleeping. I got home about 8 p.m. from work and I found 1 on the plant in its J form and the two in their container in their J form. I am so stoked and so excited, I have loved monarchs since I was a little girl and through Elementary every year my project was on monarchs. So you can imagine my excitement when I seen these three in their J form, which is odd to me to see one on its plant that it grew up on because the majority of them go about 30 feet from where they grew up to form their J and turn into chrysalis.
What is the ideal temperature for 1st instar till enclose? Also does humidity matter? I have monitors in all my cages. This is only my second year but I have become TOTALLY OBSESSED! I have also placed fans near by if I start to see the humidity over 80% THANK YOU 😊
Interesting to me that the Ad below this video is for Round Up. Love the work you doing. My whole yard has been converted to pollinator friendly and native plants. Never tried this but giving it serious thought
Yeah, there's been a few times that Round Up ads have shown up there and people have commented about it...
Usually RUclips wants to take ads off of questionable, slightly adult themed, or controversial videos. I doubt they have anyone looking into what pesticide companies might not want their ads featured on.
Hi, Kathleen! I could not resist telling you that it would be a great thing to try out since your yard is a healthy place for all living things, especially in this world of chemically treated yards, land, etc. I imagine you can grow milkweed as well! We have been "organic" for 25 yrs. on our little horse farm, now without horses, thus we have paddocks w/ wild milkweed growing just a short hike from the front door.
We have had Monarch Butterflies come to the perennial garden for the flowering things, and the milkweed that I started growing in the gardens! After seeing some caterpillars in the "wild" this year I and reading that only 10% of Monarchs make it when raised outside, I knew it would be helpful to at least give it a shot, with the guidance of this video series and the kind Mr.LundScience~ finding the 3 caterpillars I have now, (one sadly died since, I believe he was injured after I found him crawling loose off of the leaves in the cage!),but the others are healthy) was exciting. I am new at this and have fallen in love with the 2 caterpillars having them inside, in a butterlfy net cage where we can watch them, easily find a way to check them, while I put in new fresh milkweed branches/leaves (I have a technique using water pics like used at the florist, then insert them into a base form like laboratories use.
Next if we are lucky they will attach to the ceiling of their home, J-hook and become the last step as a chrysalis. I can't imagine how stunning an experience it will be as the butterflies emerge! Good luck! This guy answers people's many questions, too, as do others.
Can a caterpillar be moved once it’s hanging from top with silk? It is attached to the lid that I need to open to clean out the enclosure.
I now have 32 monarch caterpillars 1st and 2nd instar and 11 eggs also 4 crysalides I am very excited because I just started raising them in June
Congrats! That's very cool! It's quite exciting to hear how much you have dived into this! Good luck!
sorry rich..false alarm lol..i watched 5 minute's into the video and during the transformation it pinches it's tail off while "chrysalising"..it had me a new monarch parent a little worried lol..great video's and information my friend
We had two J-Hanging but this morning, one fell from its attachment piece and bled to death but before was still trying to pupae but didn't make it. Jasmine and Belle were hanging, but Jasmine hatched the day after Belle but Jasmine is the one button first while Belle was eating still. not long after that though Belle went to look for an estate. So as of August 1st 2017, we lost one. We thought we share.
Sorry to hear that occurred. It can happen from time to time. Stay with it, though. There is, unfortunately, loss along the way, but you'll have your successes as well.
I have now planted 50 milkweeds in my backyard and for the first time in the 5 years I’ve lived at my home I’ve now seen 3 Monarchs. How, having never seen them before, do they find the milkweed? Your series is beyond fascinating. TY so much for sharing your knowledgeable. A friend recommended - she is passionate about the Monarchs and raises them as you do. I’m getting eggs from her but question here - what would be the most desirable place to place the line with the clipped chrysalides? Part sun & shade? No direct sun? Have a huge covered porch so I have lots of options. In Athens, GA. Thank you so much!!!!
Greetings CC!
The antennae of butterflies is amazing. They are incredibly sensitive, and able to detect scents at the molecular level. Just like hearing a quiet sound that is still loud enough for you to hear, a Monarch can pick up on just a few molecules of an odor, and because there's two antennae, be able to have a decent idea of the direction it came from as well. Whichever antenna is receiving more of those molecules, that's the direction the molecules must be coming from. Like hearing in stereo, but they are more "smelling" in stereo. What odors/scents the milkweed gives off, these trigger the instinct in the Monarchs to visit said milkweed, be it a female looking to lay eggs, or a male looking for females who will likely be around those plants.
If you are looking to hang your chrysalides, direct sunlight is probably the less favorable of the options. A bit won't hurt, as they experience that in nature, too, but non-stop intense sunlight *could* potentially have issues. Not highly likely, but it's a possibility. Another commenter said that when a heat wave went through her region for a spell of 4 days or so, many of her chrysalides that were in direct sunlight shriveled, and eventually, did not produce an adult. Whether it was just the heat, or sunlight as well, or possibly something not related, it still would make me wary of placing them in direct non-stop sunlight.
Hope that helps!
MrLundScience Yes makes perfect sense about the direct sun and heat. Fascinating about their smelling abilities. Thank you.
@@MrLundScience Now that might make sense of why several of my chrysalides turned black recently and did not eclose. I am in South Florida, and raise the Monarchs outside, so they choose their J-spot. Some of them hang on the side of the house, unfortunately in full sun, and it has been very hot and sunny. I just don't understand how one "season" of cats and Monarchs can produce say, 12-15 chrysalides. Of those, 4 produced beautiful, perfect Monarchs. I was away, and when I came home, 4 chyrsalides were empty, and when I awoke the first morning there were 4 more empty but I saw the results of two beautiful Monarchs. The chrysalis were all over - on the house wall, in the window overhangs and above the patio doors - these all emerged safely. The last 4 were awful; 3 were eclosed with their wings still in some kind of sheath (?) and although I was able to remove this covering on one of the butterflies, it seemed a wing was missing; it never filled its wings and was unable to fly; the 2nd was the same, and the third was worse, dragging its body. Was this OE? Sadly, all three were euthanized. Lastly, one chrysalis was actually on the milkweed plant, and I could see the orange Monarch wing actually pressing against the translucent chrysalis. I sat down to watch. The chrysalis cracked. Nothing. Nothing. I was shocked, and became a scientist - I cut it open, and the wings were all there (I was wondering, since the other three were lacking one wing) but the body was mush. Again, OE?? How could it be so close to emerging and not eclose?? I can send pictures but tell me where. My milkweed has been cut back to one inch to the ground, or at best 3-5" tops and yet it's already getting leaves. I am considering covering with netting so I do not get eggs for a while. Can anyone give me some help?
As of September 2018, I've released 18 monarchs and have another 14 in chrysalis. I think the numbers are rebounding here in PA.
Great job! Tough to say if numbers can rebound in an area, though. I mean, it could certainly be true for a summer. But, next year, these migratory Monarchs will mate in the spring before coming back up. And a PA Monarch might mate with a GA Monarch, or a TX Monarch, etc. So...where do those offspring head? I don't know that science knows yet what causes a Monarch to head up one migratory path versus another. Could be random chance. Could be that it follows wherever the food supply takes it (as in, nectaring flowers). There's always more to learn. So, I hope that numbers everywhere are going up. But it's good to hear that your PA summer has been going well!
Thanks for the reply! In my rural neighborhood for the past several years, we've got a "Monarch Factory" going. My neighbor, is much to be commended: she has released more than 100 monarch each year for the past 3 years. She's done presentations locally and there's great interest here in helping Monarchs by both rearing them and growing milkweed. I think if we all continue this grassroots effort, we'll turn things around.
That is SO wonderful, congratulations!
Amazing videos, thank u! Any way you could make a short video of the last part to share as a psa?
7:05 - you said that when a female comes out, she needs to dry her wings. Is it not the same with the male?
Your video on moving chrysalides was helpful. Had to move one that was coming loose from food tent mesh. I released her this morning.
I'm glad it was there for you when you, and especially she, needed it!
To Melissa Whitehead: Sorry that I can't reply to YOUR comment. RUclips has some bug happening. Thus, I had to leave the comment here that I typed:
Greetings Melissa. I'm sorry that you're having issues with your cats, and I don't know if I fully understand what's going on, but here's some questions and my attempt at some help:
1) You put the cats in containers and then took them inside, and they didn't like the cold... What's the temperature inside your home? Most go with a 70F situation. Even if it's as low as low 60's, that still shouldn't deter them from eating and developing, even if it might make the chemistry a bit slower.
It's possible, too, that they may have not stopped all activity permanently. If they were about to molt, caterpillars cease eating for a day sometimes. If you happened to put them inside when they were coincidentally about to molt, it may have seemed that they stopped all activity when they were really exhibiting normal behaviors before molting. I would advise trying to keep the caterpillars in containers, and if for some reason it really is too cold inside, why not leave the containers outside?
2) Wasps and other predators are definitely a natural reason that not every egg or caterpillar makes it. As in my videos, I don't really ever run into this problem, for once I have the egg, keeping them in containers prevents natural predators from having the chance to get at them.
3) As for when the cats will decide to J-hang, they don't have a for sure indicator to you that they are going to do it necessarily. I've had a few I thought were going to, and then didn't. Still, usually, they start wandering to find a good spot, and then they remain upside down in one place for a few hours
(having already spun much silk to secure themselves) and start the hang. Predicting where they will hang can be tough, but if you give them one or more obvious options (and by obvious, I mean, they can easily find it by just crawling around) they are likely to hang from there. Still, you do get those
rebels who might decide to divert from your plan, and find very interesting places to hang that they are more comfortable with. Again, I don't run into this because of the use of the containers.
In summary, it seems like if you do what I do and show in the video series, the issues you're having won't be able to cause you worry any longer. I know that there are others who let the caterpillars they raise hang out on actual plants in their yard, etc., but if those plants are outside, nature can and will take its course, and that includes predators. Even if our intentions are to help out the natural world, nature need not conform to our hopes and plans. It does require more work to collect fresh leaves and feed the cats in the containers, but the payoff is, you don't lose any to predators, and you (rarely) loose any of the cats due to wandering.
I hope this gives you some help!
Thanks so much for your thorough reply. The temp runs around 74 degrees in my home so I must have just not given them time to do adjust. I'm so grateful for your kind helpful remarks.
#1 The aquarium you show and the grating cover: Do the caterpillars climb the glass to get to the grating and did you purchase that at a Pet Store? Is it for lizards and such perhaps?
#2 Okay, I'm an "old gal" so it's hard to change course but I think that's what I've got to do.
Well, now one than two fair sized cats started wandering. They acted like they wanted out of the pot. I had that plastic grating (openings just the size of a full sized cat) in with the plant but they were not interested. One managed to climb onto the porch screen but I just wasn't able to leave him there wandering. It gets very hot there full sun in the p.m. hours.
I've made a tupperware tub with paper towel moistened and put a piece of the plastic screen mesh in there supporting itself. It's inside on my dining table. Got leaves in there but they are not interested in eating.
Best I can do right now. This activity has a 'huge' learning curve.
I have no problem giving thorough replies, especially those who are willing to help out with this cause! So thank you for what you are doing!
As for the containers, I did buy the one with the green lid at a pet store. It's normally for small lizards, hermit crabs, etc. They are WAY more expensive than they should be. Ridiculously priced for being just plastic. So, yeah, if you can make your own with tupperware, go for it. However, ventilation IS definitely important for good health, and to help prevent too much moisture building up, causing mold to grow on leaves.
Have you seen Part 3 of this series? In that video, I show how I'll keep the young ones in "to go" food containers. I do that to prevent what you describe - so as they do not get out through the grating (cause they WILL if you give them the chance to).
That video is here: ruclips.net/video/sJU8-FpGI78/видео.html
And if you haven't, check out all Parts 1 - 5. There's a good wealth of info there that may answer questions before you even knew you had them. Thanks for what you're doing, and as more questions pop up, bring them here and I'll do the best I can!
Good job with the tupperware! I feel that it's important to keep this activism as low cost as possible. If it has a minimal price tag, more are willing to get involved.
Believe it or not, 'Teach' I viewed all your videos before writing you and was just saying to hubbie I've got to go back and review those videos again. I an sure I will be reviewing them for some time. I'm a former first grade teacher (10 yrs.) so I do know about reading comprehension and all those blasted questions!!! :) You are a good teach to be so patient and helpful with newbies to the Monarch world.
Hubbie went up in attic and brought down an old aquarium and purchased a top.It's not like yours but I think it'll do. Of course I don't think cats can climb glass so I've done some inventive things to help them climb to the screening of the cover.
I've transferred the two wanderers to this on the back porch. In the coolest part of the porch. While they were in there emergency tupperware in the cool of our house AGAIN they did nothing. No movement--all day. As soon as I transferred them to the porch enclosure they went right up to the grid. ??????
INTERESTING NOTE: The mature cats did NOT like being transferred off the plant to the aquarium. Your way from cradle to flight must keep all the critters satisfied with their conditions. I just can't express enough how these cats responded to the aquarium. Uh-uh. Oh no. They were furious. They careened into each other and (bit?) each other thinking it was a leaf and some just did somersaults for awhile. I'm wondering if they have 'a thing' about being 'grounded' so to speak. Not liking the touch of the paper towel perhaps?
The only thing that settled them down was I noticed they all went to the one 5 "milkweed branch I had put in their container along with a number of good single leaves. So I cut a few more twigs w leaves attached and propped them up and all have settled down for hopefully a good night.
Anyway! This has been quite a day for me. Here's hoping tomorrow goes a little smoother. Thanks for listening. It means alot. I do not think I could have continued 'figuring' out solutions without your intervention/tips etc.
I wish you had a blog or FB page but I guess this is work enough what with your own Monarch responsibilities.
Anyway, Thanks Mr. Lund!!!
If my chrysalides are close to the edge of the mesh cage should I move them? They are almost touching the wall thanks for ur info it is spot on!!!! And has helped so much!
Same here! What did you do?
My caterpillars are forming chrysalides and as the 5th instar migrate to the top of the cage will attack the chrysalides. I had to put one 5th instar outside because it was particularly aggressive practically lying on the newly formed pupa and biting; I had to intervene several times before it committed irreparable damage and resorted to placing it back outside. This ordeal was very stressful! Now two new 5th instars have settled in on the chrysalides which have hardened off a bit but I feel I have to keep a watchful eye since they are so curious about the chromatophore and pupa as a whole. This has made me rethink the logic of keeping the pupa form in the same enclosure as the larva, also, this issue is rarely addressed online or on RUclips. Am I the only one who has had this problem? I am convinced that the agressive cat would have eaten the new pupa if I had not intervened- this would have been an absolute tragedy. Any thoughts in what I should do?
Wow... I'm not surprised that there isn't much info on this. I know in the years doing this myself, and answering comments/questions through these videos, this is the first I've heard of this behavior. Perhaps the reason I haven't encountered this is that pretty early into doing what I do, I started having enough numbers to want to always relocate the chrysalides. If I left them in with caterpillars, perhaps I'd have seen this behavior too. My recommendation would be to yes, relocate chrysalides into a separate container. I know not everyone has a screened in porch like I do, so if I didn't have such a porch, I'd be getting myself a second container and doing it that way. Good luck!
MrLundScience Thanks for the reply. I ended up rearing 10 of the 11 eggs successfully so hopefully they will make their way up to MI soon.
I found some info. about the aggressive cats, some have said they remove the j's once formed to prevent being eaten. I am hesitant to remove a J but will have to research further. I was so worried the remaining 5th instars would do the same, I watched them like a hawk for 2 days! I was worn out.
Unfortunately the aggressive cat that I had to put back outside ended up being snatched by some type of animal while in the chrysalis stage :(
I have to say that my intuition told me something would happen if I put it back outside but I had no other choice.
Overall though, this was a very successful maiden monarch rearing!
What if the old caterpillar body doesn't fall off once the chrysalis is formed? Will that create an issue with eclosing?
Help! I absolutely don't know what I'm doing and am so grateful for any help. I have the cats at different stages on one very large plant in a pot on my back western facing porch. I'd tried putting them in containers from info found online but in my air conditioned home in Florida I think they did not like the cold. (They just stopped all activity!! Thought they would die) So I brought the plant that was in a pot onto the porch.
This all happened because as I'm studying my year old plant I find the cats disappearing and eventually actually witness a wasp staking out the plant limb for limb for cats and attacking and eating them. Crazy!!
Question: I just know from the size of one of these cats that they are going to be looking for a place to hang? Will they hang on the branches of this plant? I've stuck a piece of plastic grid that I made into a cylinder shape and secured it to the soil so that it won't move but will this be sufficient?
I'm petrified I've saved all these beautiful critters from 'evil' Mr./Ms. Wasp and will end of ending their lives myself!!!
What to do? What to do? Omg. Thank you in advance for your help.
I have watched all your videos about caring for and raising the monarch caterpillar and butterfly... Thank you. This has helped me so much during my first year doing this and I love it. So far I have release 6 healthy beautiful butterflies. However I ha e come across a situation that I have not encountered yet... This morning I woke up to a grouping of J hangers and two were touching... They just went into chrysalis and they are literally joined together. One of them went before the other and has dried but still very soft... The other is just starting to harden.. I know I am going to have to transfer this grouping but don't know what to do with the two of the ones stuck together.... I have checked to see where they are stuck and one is leaning against the other by the wing section...I'm very worried that the wings won't form properly. I am also afraid that if I attempt to separate the chrysalis once both are hard ( safe) enough to transfer, that I will damage in or both. Any tips or advice is needed as I am super stressed about this issue. Thank you
Greetings Dawn!
Okay...first...have you seen the new video on "Chrysalis Issues"? (If not, here it is: ruclips.net/video/wB8udbV3kOY/видео.html )
In that video, I show the idea of a chrysalis being flat on one side, which usually is due to falling and being horizontal as it dries. What it sounds like is that you have two chrysalides that may have some flatness on one side. Thing is, it's not the ground, but each other that have caused this. It certainly can lead to deformity of the wings, but, often if the flatness isn't severe, they can still develop their wings just fine, and, sometimes even with some slight deformity, they are still able to fly.
I definitely would not try to separate them. You are correct, this could cause them damage, and it's not a necessary risk. There isn't much of a benefit in separating them, as they have already hardened, and whatever shapes they have together, they will also have apart. The one thing that I would still look out for, though, is that since they went into chrysalis at very close times to each other, they will also emerge likely at very close times to each other. As one is emerging, if the other is already out, one could knock the other down during the time when the wings are vulnerable and they may not fill with fluid properly. So, if it's possible for you, watching that this doesn't happen on the day these emerge would be very beneficial.
I wish you luck with this issue, and hope you'll keep us posted!
Thank you Rich for getting back to me....I have great news!. As I was transferring my other chrysalis from the container lid to my enclosure that I have outside( bf is awesome and made me a huge one) the next day, I left the two that were stuck together last as I was unsure what to do with them. Well in the process of figuring out how and what to do my son bumped the table and the two surprisingly separated with no issues. Yes there is flat parts on either one where they were stuck together, but I really don't think it's going to affect the development at all...the wing sections weren't touched. It was more around the back section of the chysalides (opposite the gold band) and more near the top. I will keep you posted as to how they turn out in about 12 days. Thank you again
Oh and yes I have watched the video....I have watched all of them !
Hey, that's excellent news. A happy accident bump. Good luck to them, and yes, if you can, I'd like to hear how they turn out.
Wow! Your videos have been by far the most informative videos on how to raise Monarchs. Thank You!
My question is, I do not have a screened in porch such as yourself, what kind of cage would you recommend, so that I could allow the chrysalides to hang from a string? Thank you and also great choice of music in all your videos!
Thanks Andrea! If I didn't have a screened in porch, the size of a container (and thus, type) would depend upon the number I'd be having in there. I have a python who has grown over the years and needed larger aquariums, so I have some at my disposal. I know that since I already have them, I'd likely be using those. Multiple strings/yarn could be attached to those lids in secure ways that I could clip the chrysalides from. I'd want that large space so that when they emerge if I wasn't home at that time, they'd not be over crowded if more than one came out. I'd also be giving them plenty of surfaces to find and stand on or hang from. When they only have slick surfaces, such as glass or plastic, they tend to keep trying to grab on to something. This extra, added movement can only lead to wing damage. If large aquariums are easily at hand, I suppose I'd be in search of another plastic container like what I already keep the larger caterpillars in, but if I were spending that money, I would figure I might as well get a used aquarium, as I'd find it for probably the same price and it'd provide more space. I hope that helps!
Also, when I transfer my chrysalids, I use scotch tape to hang them in a better spot in the reptile container. I have too many critters running around my house to leave them exposed.
Thanks for the informative video. I found a monarch egg about three weeks ago and this is my first time taking care of a caterpillar. It has been about 17 days since it hatched, but it's still not doing the J hang. It's still eating and pooping a lot. I have a net on the top of a jar and a few sticks in the jar for it to hang. Sometimes it stays on a top or the stick for a long time, but it would go back to eating again. Do you have any idea what is going on? Is it normal to take that long? Thank you very much!
We really enjoyed your video and had success raising four Monarch this year. We were wondering where you got the green containers/cages you used in your video?
Glad you were able to use the videos! As for the containers, it's been long enough to where it's accurate to say, I don't honestly remember. However, such containers I have seen for sale at Meijer, Walmart, Pet Smart, Pet Co, and other non-chain pet shops. Look around for deals to keep the cost low, as these are just about always over-priced for what it actually costs to produce them. Good luck!
Mark Wallace where did you get containers
Update from SLC, Utah... I found a wild Milkweed patch and low and behold I've found 10 eggs. Four of the eggs have hatched and now are caterpillars. I sure hope that I can get my Milkweed garden growing next year because it's no fun driving 3 miles to get Milkweed leaves. Nonetheless, I'm driving up every other day to try and find more eggs and to replenish the leaves for the little munchers!
That's cool stuff. I've picked leaves, wrap them as shown in the videos, and then refrigerate them. When I do this, they can last for multiple days longer. I usually need them within 1, 2, or 3 days after placing them in the fridge, so I've never really found out how long they last. Point being, you could collect even more leaves, refrigerate some, and then not have to make as many trips as often.
I've been doing that and the leaves actually seem to be keeping for around 7 days (which is great!)
I have a few million questions if you get some extra time :) Just kidding... But if you could answer a few questions so that I don't kill these little fellas out it would be sooooo helpful...
1. I have the caterpillars indoors in food safe containers in my house. I'm worried that since my house is air conditioned to around 73 degrees that I might shock them when I let them go. It's around 100-103 degrees outside and tends to stay that warm until the end of August. Do you think I should try leaving them outside so that they acclimate better?
2. Is there any reason I can't put newspaper in their bug houses when they get bigger so that they are easier to clean up?
3. When I release them should I release them where I found them? I haven't ever seen a Monarch in my garden, but my neighbor across the street has seen them in his, and he has a huge organic garden. Do you think it would be okay for me to let them out over there?
4. Lastly.... I bought this big butterfly mesh enclosure that I was going to put their chrysalides in so that they are safe from my dogs and other house hold elements. Can I put multiple ones in there? And if so, when one hatches how long do I have until I have to release them?
Thank you soooo much all that you have done with these videos!
Hey Jennifer. Here's the best answers I can offer:
1. I would say, yes, leaving them outside would be a safer idea. I honestly don't think the abrupt change in temp would cause them a problem, but why not err on the side of caution, right? As long as they are in the containers, it should be safe.
2. I don't know if newspaper ink causes them any problems, but I highly doubt it does. (If newspaper ink was truly toxic to the environment, I doubt we'd use as much of it as we do.) Seems like a safe and good idea to me.
3. You can release them wherever you like, and at home is fine. Monarchs can travel quite a distance in a short amount of time if they wish. You're already driving far to get the milkweed. If I were in your shoes, I'd just release from home. They make it to Mexico (if they are of the east of the Rockies population) so you can count on them to travel enough to find food. But, here's a tip... Releasing them *with other people* can cause others to *easily* want to become a part of this next year!
4. As long as it's not overcrowded, yes, multiples could easily get in there. Use your best judgement. I try to always release mine the same day, unless there's a huge thunderstorm on the horizon. They have much business to attend to, be it finding food, finding a mate, or later in the season, taking the long journey to Mexico. If you wanted to keep them around to show others, certainly one or two days is fine. (There were times it was storming for two days in a row that I didn't release some of mine until it had passed. They did fine.)
Questions are always just someone wanting to know something more. I'm a fan of questions. If people are wiling to take this on, I'm willing to field whatever questions I am able to answer (and admit when I don't know the answer to them as well).
Thank you again for all of your help. I have around 17 eggs and baby caterpillars as of today. The first egg that I found a few weeks ago is already a huge caterpillar who is eating around 1 leaf a day.
I was reading some other sites and found out about the deadly OE parasite. I haven't rinsed any of the eggs or leaves in bleach. Should I start doing this?
Are you in an area where OE is at a high rate? These areas include Florida and the West Coast. If so, it's not a bad idea. It's actually what my next video is about, which will be up within a day or two.
Thanks for the great videos! I live in North Carolina and I have been raising Monarch caterpillars in my sunroom this summer. I have 12 beautiful seemingly perfect Chrysalis. There are 2 that have reached Day 10 today and the chrysalis is barely clarifying yet. The temps have been cooler than normal for the past week (66-70 degrees) but the room hasn't been below 60 at night. Should I do anything or add heat to the room? The high today is supposed to be 75 but is dipping to 68 later this week I am concerned about these coming out, it would break my heart if they didn't. Does the clarification stage happen quickly? Thank you in advance.
Thanks for these videos, super helpful!!! My question is that I recently found a monarch caterpillar and he's eating the flower portion of the milkweed. If I move him inside and offer him leaves instead will he survive? I am assuming so. He's been eating the flower for the last two days now. Is it normal for them to eat that part?I would assume the ones in the wild will both and the ones in captivity will eat the leaves.
I would have to imagine if offered only the milkweed leaves, yes, it should take to them. I've not encountered any eating the flowers in the wild, but, they're there for such a short part of the season, it may be that I've just never witnessed it. Kinda cool to find out about. Thank you!
MrLundScience Thanks so much for your quick response. I brought him in and he totally munched a ton on a leaf. He also went #2 a whole bunch. I am so excited to take care of him and watch him grow!!
I once had some pet rats. They were awesome, and very sociable. They pooed often.
Monarch caterpillars do it way more.
Thank You Mr. Lund - I appreciate your guidance!
+Athena D
Guidance Thru Science, y'all...
ruclips.net/video/BG8noTCZ0K8/видео.html
Fantastic video! I have my first cat on a milkweed that is almost denuded. Where did you get the storage container for the chrysalis?
The storage containers I've used came from your typical PetCo or PetSmart retailer, though they are available at many pet stores. Even so, they are usually overpriced. They're around $25 for that size, which is a large price considering how little it costs to make them. A well ventilated plastic food storage container is more cost effective, and I'd be more apt to use those if the ones I have ever need replacing.
Hi Rich, I have a 5th instar that hasn't eaten for two days, and has been wandering around the cage (smaller version of yours, worked great for the first two) for two days now...! settled up top last night, thru the night, so I thought today I'd see it J, but mid morning I found it back down in the leaves, wandering around, constantly up and down the walls. Should I try a new cage/container if it doesn't seem to want to settle down in this one? At this point the only change from the last two is the past two weeks it's getting darker sooner, and the temp is going down a bit in here, as the heat isn't kicking on just yet, but... that's about it! Any brilliant novice insights? ;)
If it's still moving around, continue to offer food. If it eats, that's of course good news. If not, I don't know much else that you can do to encourage it to go into chrysalis other than yes, try a new location. It may just be a picky one when it comes to finding the "right spot" to hang from.
Is their a reason you like the plastic cages instead of the “silk screen” type ones? I’m just getting into this myself and was wondering about the choice of cage. I’m not saying you’re wrong by any means. Was just interested on your opinion. I ordered two of the silk/mesh type screen ones today. I was just curious if there was a reason behind your choice. Thank you. Great videos. I enjoyed all 5 parts and I’m so excited to get this going.
The tents can work too. I had these containers already, and that's partially why. For outdoor rearing, I use the mesh tents, as seen here: ruclips.net/video/LjEgU0Ub5hY/видео.html
I love your series and was wondering where I might get those clear/green containers you use to raise the monarchs. Can't find them anywhere. Do tell--please!!
Once I had 100 monarch cats in a 30 gal aquarium. The cats that were still feeding ate some of the crysalids that had already dried because they ran out of food while I was at work. It was a little disturbing....
Hi, how do I clean the milkweed leaf so the caterpillar won't get infected with OE bacteria?
Just so happens, this video here shows how to treat the leaves with a dilute bleach solution, which can effectively destroy OE parasite spores on both eggs and leaves. Hope this helps!
ruclips.net/video/oZYzzcGiZRA/видео.html
I am really learning a lot from your videos. Thank you. If you decide to do another video, may I recommend the song "Cousin Caterpillar" by Incredible String Band?
I don't use music I don't own these days for videos. Back when I made these, I didn't fully understand how RUclips works with such things. Usually it just means that the copyright holder will earn revenue from your video, which isn't a big deal in my opinion. But it can also mean that down the road, the copyright holder could tell RUclips to shut down any videos containing that music, and just like that, poof, they're taken down. I doubt that will happen with any of these, but still, it caused me to want to always own everything in my video production so that it's a risk I need not worry about. But I checked out the song you recommended, and gosh, that's a fun song! I agree, it'd perfectly go with certain scenes in Monarch vids.
Hey there. First I want to thank you for your monarch video series. It has helped me start my own little monarch rearing hobby. Currently I have 2 2nd instars, 2 5th instars and 22 crysalides. I just released my first two adults (Males) June 25th. So thank you for sharing your knowledge, I really appreciate it. Second, I wanted to ask you a question... Well a couple questions regarding the same topic. How do you safely transport fully formed and hardened crysalides in a vehicle for a couple hours? (Can you transport adult butterflies also?) Is this possible or safe? What would you recommend? Or have you already done this with success? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I also want to point out that transportation is for the purpose of leisure, NOT to sell or something like that Thank you very much. I look forward to hearing back from you! 😊
Laurie
Greetings Laurie.
I appreciate you letting me know that the transportation question is not for a commercial reason. That gets that out of the way and saves me a few lines of type in your answer. Let's start the answer here:
Any transportation of caterpillars or chrysalides involves risk. Risk can be minimized, but it's still there. So, what is the purpose of introducing that risk? There are valid reasons, I would say. For example, I have transported chrysalides to my classroom when the school year starts to show the students I have. They know I raise Monarchs, and the caterpillars and chrysalides can act as educational ambassadors to the Monarch and what its plight is that it faces. So, just make sure that the risk is minimized and that it's worth it. That said, the next question to ask is, if it's for leisure, do all that you have need to be transported, or is the same goal accomplished with only a few, or even just one. Again, minimize the risk. If the chrysalis has been hung, as I do with mine, then it's fine to have the chrysalis transported in a padded box, like say, a small jewelry box with cotton balls or paper towel in there to minimize throttles as you drive. If they are still attached to whatever the caterpillar attached to before chrysalis, it's fine to transport whatever container you had them in for doing that. They blow around sometimes a lot in the wind in nature. They can handle a car ride. The largest risk might actually be, if you stop at a gas station for a drink or such, and it's a hot day. The cabin of a car can heat up dramatically in a short amount of time. So, keep the car air conditioned, and keep the stops in and out of a rest area or gas station very quick. If it's going to be more than five minutes, I'd even say relocate them to the trunk where the greenhouse effect that takes place in the cabin won't be happening.
Thanks Mr. Lund - your videos are very helpful. Yesterday I collected 7 eggs and I can already see that several of them are showing the ridged surface that was apparent in your video on hatching. My question is what to do if I find a caterpillar in the 5th stage. I left him on the milkweed plant, but should I have brought him inside?
Hey Carol. It's up to you what you wish to do with any of the caterpillars. It's not a wrong choice to leave it to nature, but I try to mostly not operate in the thinking of "wrong" or "right" in the decision of how much aid we wish to give. It's always up to the individual what they wish to do to help, and what level of commitment they wish to enter. I will say that the mortality rate of Monarchs is pretty high in nature, with a 10% or less chance of making it from egg to successful adult. However, that mortality rate is the highest at the egg stage and the early instar stages. If it's made it to 5th instar, that's certainly safer than being at 1st or 2nd instar (or being still an egg). So, there's a much better chance it made it than just seeing an egg and leaving it be. We can't always second guess ourselves like this, either. For example, I know of a few milkweed places that I have checked in the past that I haven't checked in a few weeks. I know that there's a high probability that there's eggs and maybe cats on those milkweed plants right now. So, even though I didn't see them, did I still choose to leave them there if I don't go look at those plants tomorrow? We have to gauge what level of commitment we can provide, and still have time for our own lives too. If we overdue it, if anything, that could discourage us from doing it in the future. It's better for someone to take care of, say, 15 a year for multiple years than go for 50 in one year and get burned out and never do it again.
I planted three milkweed plants this spring and they all had larvae on them, some got larger than others and they started disappearing and finally they were all gone. They did not grow to the 5th stage so I have no idea what happened to them. Our summer weather has been insufferably hot and the young milkweed may not have had enough cover or even enough leaves for them. This happened twice over the summer. I now have another batch of young ones on one of the plants that will never have enough leaves to feed them. I am also concerned about rearing these butterflies inside as one would think that the elements which they have to face once in the wild would prepare them for that long flight back to Mexico. It makes me think of reports of young salmon raised in hatcheries not being as genetically strong as the ones being raised in the wild. Is there evidence that the butterflies being raised indoors are making it back to Mexico in good health?
Genetic stability is one of the reasons this video series is all about taking them from the wild, rearing them indoors, and then promptly releasing them. I have never discussed breeding them, and while breeding Monarchs can be done responsibly, I don't care to put the information out there, as irresponsible hands will eventually pick it up. When salmon are raised in hatcheries, typically, that means humans decided who will breed with who.
This article, I found, describes such a study that found hatchery raised salmon to be less genetically fit for reproduction, often reproducing fewer eggs, and that their wild born offspring also had similar inferior reproductive fitness: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3352433/
As you can see early on in that paper, they are defining a hatchery salmon as one that had artificial crossing, meaning, humans decided who was set up on a date.
If humans are deciding who mates with who, for reasons we don't fully understand and reasons that are likely different ones from species to species, ill effects to genetic fitness can and do occur. With Monarchs, if we are only taking in wild ones and rearing them, but not breeding them, we can ensure that we have not altered their genetics.
And argument can certainly be made that we might be biasing some of the genetics in the pool. For example, we collect eggs that obviously, are the ones more likely to be visible to humans. We are collecting eggs that are typically on the edge of a milkweed field, near a normal walk we take, near a path, etc., and less likely to venture into the center of the milkweed field to find those eggs. That's a bias as well. Sometimes when a female lays eggs, she does an egg dump. We are the types of people likely to collect all of those eggs, thus, favoring whatever genetic impulse there may be for females to do egg dumps. (Do all females, from time to time, do this? Or, do only some do this if they have certain genetics?)
Now, if any of those behaviors have genetic links to other behaviors or mutations, or variance within the species, certainly us raising them means we are biasing some of the gene pool. What if the same gene that leads to females doing egg dumps is also a gene that has information that causes Monarchs to be a little bit less precise in their migration "guidance system"? We could be causing an inadvertent negative affect. (A somewhat equal rebuttal could be that perhaps it's linked to a gene that allows their migration to go more smoothly, but being "better" at something due to genetic mutation isn't usually the case. It is safer to make the argument, though, that the highest likelihood is that there probably isn't a significant genetic link between egg dumping and something else that could harm or help the Monarchs.)
With all that in mind, we have to make a decision. While our selection of eggs could bias some of the genes, likely, it's a minute amount, and with the Monarchs possibly disappearing if we don't do what we can, I think many involved are comfortable with skewing the gene pool by 1% or 2% if that's what it takes to make sure there is still a population in the first place.
Some things that you might take solace in: If you choose to help out in the form of bringing them indoors to rear, you should rest easy that you are in no way changing the genetics of those individuals. They were wild laid. They will return to the wild. All you would have done is increased their chances. It may also be of some comfort that another way to restrict genetic diversity in a population is to severely limit the population's size. That's what's currently happening to the Monarchs. By providing more Monarchs out there in a population that may be experiencing some bottle neck effect of the diversity, you may be providing much more of a chance of genetic diversity in the gene pool. In a limited population, such as what the Monarch is experiencing, this may be quite a beneficial thing, as more genetic diversity leads typically to a healthier, more adaptive population.
I hope that helps shed some light on the subject. While certainly those who make it out there in nature might be tough, it's possible too that the 1/10 that makes it to adult hood may have had more to do with luck than with adaptation.
Great food for thought though, and I really like the responsible way you are approaching these ideas!
Wow, thanks for that thoughtful and interesting reply. I am never comfortable thinking we know what is best for nature. We seem to have created more problems than we have helped. It seems the more we know the more we know how little we actually know about nature. Our assumptions have been very wrong in our treatment of her over the years. I hate to see any of the species we share the planet with become extinct. It breaks my heart, but I still am very cautious when considering interfering. My thinking is that we would be doing better by ensuring there is enough natural habitat for the wild things. We need to seriously take control of our own behaviours and learn to live with a lot less so that there is something left for the wild. I want to save all species, I'm just not sure we can do that one species at a time considering everything is connected to every other thing.
Hi, Storm Cloud, I am chiming in here as the research and studies are showing great effects for the efforts of people increasing the planting of milkweed at the least and of rescuing/raising Moncarchs from their egg and caterpillar stages as they only are successful at a rate of 10% in the wild.
I like you saw the caterpillars on my plants in our garden near our house, where we had seen countless Monarch butterlfies over the past 6-8 weeks! It was the 1st time I had witnessed the caterpillars, and also saw a real pupa in the wild, when her leaf dropped off the milkeweed plant that was slowly losing energy in fall weather, I noticed and took a moment to think, prop it up so that the pupa was hanging down. I had no way of knowing I could bring it inside safely with a few easy tools including mainly a netted cage or like Mr. LundScience here the desirable aquarium w/a top w/ air vents. She opened over night when I was not outside and the left behind crysalis was amazing. I pray she made it out without any invaders at that late stage! When I saw the several up to six at one moment, caterpillars crawling and feeding along the green leaves of the dwarfed plants I started marking where and when I saw them. In one or 2 days, I saw several were missing, hoping that they somehow hid around there, but doubting it, I knew someone who also saves Monarchs at her home, so I was online and bingo- found this site and videos and began saving the ones left outside. They were growing quickly without enough leaves to survive. We found more plants in the field on our farm. I have two of those original three caterpillars I rescued that evening when they were at the end of their ;plants's supply, and one is about to J Hook! So excited!
The results from humans' carelessness effecting the numbers of all creatures and in particularly both bees and Monarch Butterflies on our planet are staggering ! There are increasingly LESS each year recorded of Monarchs who successfully return a descending generation back to Mexico where they winter-over. They are clearly also near EXTINCTION( Monarch Butterflies) mainly due to lack of milkweed, which is directly caused by human behaviour already that we need to change! As you already know, spraying chemicals like roundup and our development that will destroy nature everywhere there is a chance to make money has lead to the destruction - by humans- losing our butterflies natural resources alongside bees and others, in our woods, meadows and pond/marshes and estuaries that are being replaced by developments of housing and businesses, etc.
I feel strongly that this research and data is sound enough to know we NEED to help! There is no other choice; how else have we or any species survived unless by lessons learned and detours, corrections made in order to better survive and provide habitat lands for all living creatures?
To learn more go to The Monarch Joint Venture online:
@ monarchjointventure.org/search
The Monarch Joint Venture and other groups are very proactive and track the flights of butterflies; people, including everyday ones like myself, are joining into one faction by noting what we see in our gardens and on our property in terms of first sighting of a Monarch to first caterpillar and pupae seen and it is mapped out for folks to see on a screen picture. We don't map out how many or where/when monarchs we see and raise as a separate count,j ust the occuring sitings.
Raising these guys is a small step but if we all do it we can make a difference. They are not spoiled, they are protected from the effects of humankind's "stealing" of swaths of their milkweed thus causing more competition for the plants, including invasive insects and other things so the Monarchs are at high risk now. And we are learning!
You will also read about how scientists take the numbers of Monarchs being observed by a national/international group or more, as a way of calculating how well we are doing as a species!
Best of luck, and hope you enjoy doing this project one day!
Mr. Lund, I released my sixth adult monarch yesterday but he does not seem to be able to fly away. He fluttered down to a plant and sits there opening and closing his wings. He is still in my garden this morning, is there something I can do to help him?
I have a video already shot, which will be edited and out soon. It talks specifically about this. What do we do with Monarchs that can't fly.
There's a few options, but not really any that anyone wants to hear...
1) As it won't fly, that's kinda a death sentence for a Monarch. You *could* keep it as a pet and care for it, feeding it, giving it time outside, etc. The upside is that you're doing your best for it to make it comfortable and experience parts of life. The downside is that it takes plenty of time to do this, and, you have a butterfly that always wants to get out there and fly, but never will. It will always have the impulse to fly away, and will fail at that.
2) You can leave it out there in nature. Many dislike this option, and it's understandable why. It will either starve, or, a predator will take it out. Those are the downsides. There is an upside, though. Many birds must learn not to eat Monarchs and stay away from the coloration, and it takes a few before they learn. So, if a predator goes for it, it will receive some of that education. Therefore, a Monarch released in this way still has the potential to benefit the population. After all, if say a Blue Jay goes for it and learns, it has already learned, and is less likely to go for a flying one it sees in the future. Without this one serving that purpose, that same Jay may still go after and take out a different healthy, breeding individual.
3) Some would say it's appropriate to euthanize a Monarch that can not fly.
Now, there's another possible option that my future video has not covered, as I'm still researching it, but some have done wing repair and even wing transplants. For repair, that's more if it is a damaged wing. Replacements can happen if it's a very damaged wing, or a deformed wing, but requires you usually to have already a wing from another individual you already euthanized. Again, I'm researching this topic this season to see if I can provide even better options. R&D and all.
I'm sorry that you've had to experience this. I wish I had better options for you, but admittedly, I don't at the moment.
Thank you for your quick response. I checked on him again and see that one wing is either damaged or deformed. As hard as it is to do I am going to let nature take its course. I really love your videos and have learned so much. I have been growing milkweed for a few years but never thought about raising Monarchs. Last year I accidentally found one caterpillar and raised it successfully. This year I have found 14 eggs and a few small caterpillars,so far I have released 6 adults and have 2 more chrysalides. Next year I plan on expanding my milkweed bed.
As I've informed others, and as you can already tell...it's addicting!
hi, Betty, your story sounds like mine! I have had a butterfly garden for several years; there is a row of 5' tall milkweed propogated w/ plants I bought AND now some from our farm's field. The last ones, it is Oct. 2, are small but I may have lucked out yesterday finding one egg! The leaves otherwise are for my 2 caterpillars ,one about to go into his J hook. I am hooked by chance it seems! SO much thanks to Mr. LundScience for his advice or I would never have started this out without info, knowing it is indeed a science- but obviously a very easily done science if we follow the rules, and I am never afraid of a challenge and afterall these orphans were on stalks reduced to black tops, falling leaves & some had none left with ants marching up on top of it all! Now I have those two , an egg and look forward to being on this site alot!
What time would my monarch make his/her chrysails? It's still J hanging
If all is healthy, the J-hang should only last about 24 hours. It can be slower at colder temperatures, though, and I have had healthy ones take almost a full second day.
Thanks! :)
Hey! Love these videos! Thank you so much for your careful and thorough attention to detail. I have one question; we are in Maine, and it's mid September, but i just found a monarch caterpillar in our garden and when we took it home, it immediately whent into a J shape. It's about to be very cold here, is it really going to come out in such a breif amount of time? Will it be safe to release? We haven't started heating our house yet, but soon will- Should i be keeping the chrysalis in a natural temperature environment when we do? We have a black swallowtail chrysalis going as well, but we were told they would stay in until at least spring and indeed, ours has been in there for months now. Sorry to bombard you with questions!
Out of curiosity
do you notice any night time activity from the chrisalides? Or is it mainly daytime activity, or both?
I started my butterfly garden today and want to help these critters make it through the growing pains :D
+Betta Fish
To be honest, after the skin is molted and the casing has hardened, I notice no activity, be it day or night, other than blowing a bit in the wind. I suppose I should be more accurate and say, the activity I do see is about 24 hours before it emerges when the casing fades from green to translucent and you can see the orange/black wing patterns through the casing.
I live on the Texas Gulf coast. Seems we have had a warm start to winter. Temps in the 70's. I have a lot of butterfly weed. I notice these past few days I have MANY monarch caterpillars. There are so many that about all the weed leaves have been eaten. I'm beginning to see them in their chrystilis . Hanging everwhere. We're due for a cold/near freeze wave this weekend (3 days). My question . . Can they survive 32 degree temps.??!!
I have noticed. If a caterpillar stays on a milkweed plant it will grow much bigger. If it is removed and put into a container it will form the J hang sooner. I left one cat on a MW plant and it got very big. I put into a container yesterday and overnight it went into the J hang. So I guess they are like gold fish. They will grow if they have room to grow.
Pat are you still raising Monarchs and where are you in Florida? North or South, East or West?
South.... 1 hr north of Miami
Great info. Love your footage. What are you using for a time lapse devise? I have one chrysalis I have hanging now.
For time lapse, it's not so much a device as it is an available feature on my video editing program. Many video editing software allows you to speed up or slow down video.
Hi, I'm really new to this. I live in Southern California and I planted milkweed about a month ago and presto! Found two 5th Instars over the weekend. Sadly, I lost them both cause I didn't find your vid in time, and left them outdoors. Still bumming :-(. But I found about 7 eggs on the milkweed I think on Monday, put them in little condiment containers, and I'm just waiting. They all look about the same an none of them are hatching. Do they ever not hatch for some reason?
Usually, there can be one that is a "dud" and just shrivels up. However, I've never experienced all of a batch not hatching.
I'm not sure about the use of plastics in your work here Sir. I'm wondering what impact that could have on the butterfly evolution over time. Their development impacts humanity too after all, and vice versa. I wonder too, how they feel about having gone into their chrysalis in a plastic box and then awakening hanging on a thread of wool? Feels a little too traumatic for me.
Greetings Nisha. I'm not exactly sure what to say here. Evolution is a process that happens over hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. Synthetic plastic has only been around for about 110 years, and only widespread in human use for the last 60 years. Further, the tremendous majority of Monarch butterflies never come into contact with plastic, nor humans. My concern would be much more for that of their habitat (milkweed / nectar producing flowers) and what human impact occurs there (devastation and loss due to pesticides and herbicides). We could add plastic to the list, but far higher priority should probably be given to human activity involved in climate change and the use of pesticides/herbicides. While I don't agree with your concern, please understand that I do respect it.
As for how the Monarch feels coming out of the chrysalis in a new location, I suppose I don't have much information on that. What's pretty interesting, though, is that when the caterpillar has formed the chrysalis, enzymes are released within the chrysalis that essentially "digests" or dissolves the components of the caterpillar's internal structure. So, all of the organs and tissues become what is mostly a protein "soup". The brain is digested in this way as well. Only a few key cells survive this process. The genes within those cells, though, contain the information needed for the adult body to be built from the "soup". In that regard, I am skeptical that the butterfly remembers much from its caterpillar days. Still, there was a study, which this article mentions ( www.scientificamerican.com/article/caterpillar-butterfly-metamorphosis-explainer/ ) that speaks of moths somewhat having "learned" from things that they experienced in the caterpillar stage. I'm a bit of a numbers guy, though. And as nature statistically gives Monarchs a 10% or less chance of making it from egg to adult, I'm comfortable with a Monarch emerging as an adult and wondering "How'd I get here?" and not being one of the 90% that don't make it otherwise.
Unrelated - I checked out that carved statue you made. That thing is awesome! A very artistic undertaking, and I hope you are proud of it. Much more talent than I when it comes to that skill!
In one of the episodes you mentioned a book. I can’t find the episode- what’s the name of the book?
I believe you are referencing this one here...
ruclips.net/video/VPRBZeQ6Hgk/видео.htmlm20s
MrLundScience Perfect - Thanks so much and thanks for the videos!!!!
I have found several eggs on my milkweed plants in my backyard, after realizing how hard it is for them to survive in the wild, I have decided to study up on how to raise them. I am curious where the best area in my home would be to leave the eggs, and caterpillars (indoor temperature, exposure to sunlight)? My house is very cold and I don't want that to be detrimental to their growth. I have an unair-conditioned cedar room that is exposed to sunlight with large windows that can be left open. Would this be a good place to house them?
Greetings Jessica! You're actually asking this about a week after some new research came out. It's being recommended that Monarchs that are reared at home have as much outside exposure as possible. This recommendation, however, is more for the migratory generation, which won't start being hatched from eggs until about August. That said, they have a large temperature range that suits them. Any temps they could experience outdoors are fine temps in doors. Plenty of ventilation and sunlight to mimic outside conditions, however, would be suitable. Good luck!
My first find was 125 eggs gave 15 away...lost a few along the way. Second find 50. Going to look some more...Then I will start cutting Milkweed down leaving just enough to feed Catterpillers...Question: If the Monarch has eggs to lay and she can not find Milkweed then what does she do???
That's a question I have no answer for. I'm entirely unsure.
Hello, I have seen all your videos and have put all your advice in practice for the last 7 weeks that I have raised monarchs and released them. This week I began having a crowding problem so I did as you suggested in this video and so far so good. BUT when manipulating the Chrysalides one of them fell from my hand, like 15 centimeters... I felt guilty, I hope I did not hurt the poor thing... What is your experience with such accidents? What may happen to the Monarch??? Thanks for the advice
Greetings Lucrecia, and I hope all is well.
I have been out of town a few days for a spot of vacation, hence the delayed response. So far, I have not dropped any chrysalides, and if I were a superstitious kind of guy, I'd type "knock on wood". (I suppose I did just type that...) What I can say is that, IF something happens as a result, there's not much you can do about it other than wait and see how it turns out. It's not clear in this video, as I was filming and needed room for the camera, but usually, if I'm removing a chrysalis, I'll do so low to the table, and with some paper towel cushioning just in case some sort of unforeseen gravity accident occurs. Perhaps that may help in the future.
Whether there is or isn't any visible difference in the chrysalis, if I were in your position, I'd certainly still let the chrysalis run its course and see how it comes out.
I wish you much luck, and hope everything works out for this one!
Thank you! Yes, I have taken precautions now Just in Case, I was nervous being a first timer, that lead to the accident I am sure... IN ANY CASE I will observe the affected chrysalis and share here what happens.
How many days does it take a caterpillar that just made it's chrysalis into a caterpillar that is going to hatch
This can be temperature dependent. The warmer it is, the faster it goes. During height of summer, I've recorded 9 or 10 days, usually. Once fall temperatures roll in and it's cooler, it has taken them usually 12 to 14 days. I've heard though, of some taking 20 days or even more from some people.
So I found one outside my house on my morning glory plants. itthere any way I can take him inside still does he still need to hang? How can I protect him?
Cool find indeed. But, did you watch this video? It shows pretty clearly how to remove the chrysalis from it's hanging position and how to relocate it by hanging it from a cord. You have a few options. Good luck, and let me know if you have further questions!
funny , this happened to me and it got me into raising these guys from cat stage when I rescued several on my milkweed!
Though this is a year old, I wonder what happened? I happened upon a few cats and then the crysalis in my fading perinneal garden on a leaf of an old, fall-season milkweed plant; I photographed it, and then stunned next day I saw that it fell off during the night. I did not know what to do but knew it had to hang so I propped the leaf beneath the plant so it hung on it's steady leaf perfectly. I Had no idea what was happening 'til the next day, the "foundling" on the leaf I protected outside (I have learned alot in 2 weeks!?!? )had completed catharsis and I missed that moment during darkness of night or morning which was my sleeptime! He/she was gone and the "cocoon crysalis" was there on the leaf as evidence that indeed it was simply as if he shed his skin! I am hooked now, with a safe cage and healthy cats hoping that they J hook -or that one will- tonight!
Hi, Mr. Lund! I am raising my first group of monarchs and they have finally made it to the point of becoming chrysalides! One of my caterpillars made their chrysalis under a leaf, which after several days was quite dead and looked really to fall. So I tried to move it via that the method you showed, but there was almost no silk and it fell onto my table. I decided to try and hot glue that the chrysalis to my binder clip and in the process had to hold it for a second. I am worried that it will be deformed: do think that it will be okay? Should I have just left it on the ground? Thank you so much!
Certainly, I wouldn't have left it out on the ground. Many things could happen to it. Provided it fell not to far, and not onto something hard like concrete, I would predict that the Monarch will be developing fine in there, but only time will tell.
Thank you so much! She just emerged this morning and was perfect!
Great to hear!
YAY! Great coaching from Mr.LundScience, I am so excited about this and impressed with how many hurdles people like Hay Hay are dealing with. (Me, as well, with wandering cat, who did die :'-( I think he feel either that , from his wandering btw, or when I gently coaxed him down to leaves perhaps he/she had just shed one skin and was vulnerable....still have my two rescues and look forward to doing this forever starting in the spring
Hello, i´m in Guatemala been watching your videos and have trouble with a chrysalide that didn´t finish forming, is ther anything I can do?
Greetings Dina! I'm sorry, but I'm unaware if there is a solution to this. I too have had caterpillars that just seem to stop halfway through the forming of the chrysalis. If I notice this to happen when it happens in the future, I think I might try to very carefully help cut the skin with my surgical scissors. I only would attempt this because I have such a tool to be careful with, and only if I saw it happening at the time. I don't think that it would be much of a help an hour or two later. I could be wrong though. In the future, if this happens, I want to try and find a way to help with that situation, if there is a way. So, it's a bit in the research stage. For now, all I can say is that it does happen, and many of us have been there before. Sorry that this happened.
I've been watching all your videos, but didn't catch if you mentioned what the gold spots and the gold ring towards the top turn into. It's been on my mind for a couple of years now. There is some speculation they could be ports for oxygen? Thanks!
Hey Kristie,
I'm not sure about the ports for oxygen part, as the entire chrysalis is "breathable" for gases (but not liquids) to some extent. Still, there could be something new discovered about them that I'm not aware of. There are other butterflies that incorporate the same gold coloration in their chrysalides, though. In fact, there's a couple that incorporate an entire gold and reflective coloration. Biologists still debate the evolutionary advantage. Some side with the idea that the high reflectivity confuses birds to not see it as prey. Some think that such is only true in the heavily golded ones, and something like the Monarch's is more meant to sparkle like dew on a leaf. The debate goes on.
I hope that helps!
I am very interested in where you purchased the roof for the chrysalils to hang from? I have multiple types of Asclepius and intend to raise caterpillars next spring. Currently, I have one chrysalis in my fish tank hanging from a branch.
The plastic containers I've used are types of critter carriers (not sure that that is the real name for them) and usually are available at pet stores that deal with small animals. However, caterpillars can be inventive and determined. I've had plenty form a chrysalis on other lids that don't have the same groves/ventilation, but instead were smooth plastic. It's all about that silk they produce.
Thank you very much for these videos. They've helped a ton and I have 7 currently in chrysalis. My question is, where would you recommend hanging the yarn with chrysalides if you don't have a screened in porch? I figured outside was the better place since they might emerge while I'm at work and be stuck in the house. Are they in danger from pests in the garden at this point?
+Jesse Reynolds
My outside screened in porch was a bonus with the house we bought. We didn't plan on having it, and that first year was also the first year I started really taking monarchs more serious. It was all a great coincidence. If it had not been there, I would still be hanging them outside. Once in the chrysalis, it's pretty safe from your average pests. I can't say it's impossible for them to come to harm from something, but nothing that wouldn't naturally be a factor. Being hung from one yarn rather than a shrub or tree is a bit better for them, unless of course you have those acrobatic squirrels in your area who love to play on tight ropes! Good luck!
HI! First time breeder here:) Quick question: If I use the reptile cage that you have, will the caterpillars crawl up the walls? I keep reading that they can't crawl up plastic and glass. Thanks from Malibu, CA
I've never had any issues with them not being able to crawl up the walls. However, this container had been scrubbed multiple times before ever being used for this task, and so it's possible that having been scrubbed by a steel pad, there was enough minor etching to cause more grip on the interior for the caterpillars. So, if you do get a plastic container and they have issues at first, I think scrubbing it a bit would likely help out.
I use glass terrariums and they crawl up fine. They lay down a whole network of fine fibers as they climb up.
1) If you take in eggs that hatch on common milkweed & then eat common leaves, but you start to run out of common leaves, can those caterpillars switch over to swamp milkweed leaves? Will they recognize it & will it hurt them?
2) Can caterpillars be raised from eggs in an interior room of a house that doesn’t get a lot of sunlight? Or do the require a relatively sunny room with lots of windows? I’m thinking of keeping the caterpillars in a room away from an overly inquisitive cat.
Thanks
This is our first attempt...I removed the very first Chrysalis from inside the netting & successfully got it hung up. On the very next one I must have gotten the tweezer on the stem instead of the web only because the stem broke in half & it hit the ground. What do you do when that happens? Too make matters worse, my big burly wonderful hubby tried to fix it when I went inside & when I came back he was almost in tears. “I killed it” he said...I asked him if he was kidding or pranking me...”I killed it, I’m so sorry “. It was true, with his big giant beautiful hands he accidentally stabbed it right thru the middle with the tiny tweezers. So now I’m scared to touch them...
I don't tend to drop the chrysalis these days, as I've had much practice. I'm sorry that this happened, but I hope it doesn't deter you from your efforts. We learn as we go, and with more experience, this will rarely be a problem. It's a good idea in the future, though, to try to remove the chrysalis over a padded, close area. Putting paper towel in your lap can turn a tumbling chrysalis into a non-issue, rather than a tragic oozing one. Don't give up. It gets better!
MrLundScience I haven’t dropped another one! AND the first one just eclosed, but it appears one of her little legs is stuck to the pupa. I don’t want to do any damage...can I help her?
I have 3 monarch chrysalides, and it’s been 15 days since receiving them in the mail. They are all black but not transparent, 1 is becoming hollow and the other 2 have ripped!! I dont know why or what to do
This doesn't sound too good. Sounds like you were sent some unhealthy chrysalides. What I'm curious about is why they were ordered. Is this part of a learning project for someone? Was this a company that you ordered them from?
MrLundScience I ordered them on eBay from a seller and they did say to let them know if anything is wrong so I will be contacting them. I raise moths and butterflies and have never seen this
I'm sorry this happened, and am not sure what to tell you, other than I'd definitely contact the seller.
Selling Monarchs online is a controversial issue. I'm neither for, nor against it. It depends on many things. How responsible is the sell er? What is the intention? Is it to make large profits by selling many Monarchs for a wedding release, or is it to sell some Monarchs in a science kit for kids to learn about life cycles? Do they test for diseases? Do they breed them from a stock source of Monarchs? Do they breed out of the natural breeding season? If a disease outbreak occurs, but they have orders to fill, do they do the right thing and not distribute diseased Monarchs that will spread it in nature, or do they send them anyway because they don't want to miss out on the profit? There are responsible ways to do these things that I am more comfortable with (and mind you, "more" comfortable doesn't mean officially comfortable, just more than less) and other ways that I'd be strongly against. It all depends upon those variables mentioned above.
Because these are all messy issues, I pretty much stay out of it as far as commercial selling of Monarchs. Instead, these videos are more about finding eggs/caterpillars in nature, and what we can do to help them become adults, and then released.
MrLundScience yes I am definitely going to contact the seller. And thanks to your videos I have found the eggs on my milkweed and currently have 20 chrysalides/ 5th Instar caterpillars!
Hey, that's cool! And I have a feeling that those will fair better in your hands than what occurred with the others you received by mail. Good luck with them!
In Southern California, our native milkweed leaves are smaller.
Hi Stacey -- I am in southern CA too and have the narrow leaved milkweed that I am using. Is there anything special that I should do when placing it in the container for the caterpillars? Any tips on the yellow aphids?
Can you use a mesh caterpillar cage for the chrysalis stage? To me it doesn't seem sturdy enough, but the hard top one like you have in the video is hard to find. Thanks!
I show one way of doing this in the "Outdoor Rearing" video. I've cued it up to where it gets relevant: ruclips.net/video/LjEgU0Ub5hY/видео.html
I hope this helps!
@@MrLundScience Thanks so much! That was a huge help! They have formed Chrysalides on top of the cage!
I try to help as little as possible but my fifth instar cats are very naughty. They crawl long distances and attach onto the strangest places. My water bottle, my hose, across the yard and driveway and into the garage door and trash barrel. I may have to enclose then this way. I've had spiders get some and some under my patio table just hibernating. Not hatching or turning black and drying out????