Mr. Lund, Today...the final two Monarch Butterflies hatched. We will release them this afternoon. I am proud to say we were able to raise and release over 100 healthy Monarch Butterflies this season. I learned A LOT. There were definitely some "highs" and "lows" along the way, but well worth the experience. Thank you so much for your videos. They were definitely the inspiration for us to participate in this wonderful experience. Looking forward to next Spring. All the best to you. Tracee
I'm very happy that you kept with it, despite some early set backs you described. It's great to have a committed person such as yourself along for those ups and downs. Next spring, I'm hoping for a better beginning than I was able to get this year. And, keep an eye out for some more Monarch vids this winter. I have footage, but need to get some other things out first. I'm hoping for a November or December vid that will be a pretty important one.
I swore I watched the whole series just a couple weeks ago to get ready for the monarchs to come here (TX) on their way back to Mexico and now that I’ve spotted my first tiny instars on my milkweed, I forgot everything and freaked out! So here for a refresher :). Thank you again for all you have done to help educate!
GhostBoyX13 That's definitely another way to go about it. As long as one can supply their caterpillars with enough leaves, then their system is working just fine. For me, the year I made the Raising Monarchs series, I collected exactly 150 eggs. This year, I've collected 267 so far. For me, collecting complete plants is not a feasible option. I collect leaves from plants in nearby locations, and never take enough leaves from a plant to decimate it. Once I get going with a number of eggs, I don't really go on specific egg hunts any longer, but just end up finding eggs while collecting leaves for caterpillars I'm already rearing.
I’m currently showing the 4 year old who is amazed by the caterpillar we discovered; coincidentally being monarch, and what I know about extinction, we’re taking this on and your videos are so helpful! Wish us luck! I hope he gets to see the entire transformation. Also adding, ky girl, I found a milk weed abundant at red river gorge engulfed in monarchs! I am going to be buying a lot of joe Pye weed next year, I would encourage everyone to do the same to support our butterflies. Designated one corner of your yard to wild flowers and weeds, go pull the weeds if bad... no chemicals. Not just for butterflies but our honey bees which make the world go around!
Greetings Andi! I definitely do wish yourself and the 4 year old mentioned luck in the rearing. Hopefully the 4 year old will get to witness some of the really cool (and quick) transformations that can happen, such as forming the chrysalis or the adult eclosing from it. It is always breathtaking. Amazing and humbling at the same time, with a dash of pride thrown in. You can't help but feel some pride when it makes it to the adult stage. Best of luck!
A friend posted your videos on Facebook and I was like wow I can do this and my kids will love it. Next day I went out and found 3 eggs, the next day they hatched, now i have three baby caterpillars. Hoping we can get all of them to butterfly. We hardly see monarchs anymore (only 2 sightings this year) but now I'm going to search my yard for eggs each time I see one in hope of helping them survive. Thank you!
Very cool, and so awesome to be getting your kids involved! Nice work, and I'm glad to hear that you have already had some early luck in looking for eggs!
I'm so happy to have found your channel! Two days ago I found a monarch chrysalis in an area on my property where it would surely be destroyed. After doing a lot of research, I decided to not only keep it indoors until it emerges a butterfly but also went on an egg hunt. Got a little more than I bargained for and now have 10 eggs, two larva in the second instar, three in the third instar and one pupae. The information you've shared here is so incredibly helpful. New subscriber, here, and very excited to see more videos!
Very cool, Liane! There's many videos these days, but if you're getting started at this time in the season, you may wish to watch these two videos next... "Captive Rearing And Migration" - ua-cam.com/video/XcH7I9CtZRQ/v-deo.html "Outdoor Rearing" - ua-cam.com/video/LjEgU0Ub5hY/v-deo.html These two discuss some recent information about the outdoor environmental cues that are necessary for the Monarchs to "know" to migrate. Good luck, and welcome aboard!
I found 3 eggs on a plant here in NW IL yesterday, thanks to watching your video series. I brought them home. Have ample milkweed around for them. Two were fresh and one was ready to hatch. It hatched over night in a separate container and ate the whole egg and was eating on the leaf before 6 a.m. Really cool. Our family will enjoy watching them grow.
I wanted to leave a Thank you for your videos and tips. I’ve e been rearing for over ten years and last winter I was looking on UA-cam to see how others reared. I watched all your videos and decided to use your leaf method this year. In the past I’d bring home stalks but a lot of times they’d wilt so I was wasting it. This year I was able to get cats from my own milkweed patch, and feed them from the same patch. I brought in 29 eggs and only had one casualty (made it to chrysalis stage, turned black). 28 healthy Monarchs this year! Your shoe box idea of stage separation worked great because I knew how much I’d have to supply. Thank you!
Very informative series. I started raising them this year after seeing so many Monarchs on my Mexican Sunflower plant last year. They love those flowers! I planted milkweed seeds last fall and now have 4 nice size plants. I cut out the center of the plastic lids on some Sterilite plastic bins, shoebox size and 16 qt size, and covered the smaller bin with a piece of very fine mesh voile from fabric store, and the larger bin with fiberglass screen then put the lids on to hold in place. I trim the leaf away from the bottom of stem about an inch and stick them into little florists tubes filled with water. So far I have 2 chrysalides, one cat building a button, 2 on walkabout and 4 smaller instars. I am so excited for eclose! You would think I've never seen a butterfly before! I have to say, a tad overkill on the music, but thanks for your hard work on the vids themselves.
Yeah, some like the music, some don't. Honestly, when I was making these first five vids, I had zero idea that they would become popular videos. So, I was making them with music I enjoy. In hindsight, I suppose to reach a wider audience, I'd not have as much, but as my father likes to say, "It is what it is." Thank you for taking this task to heart! They appreciate it!
I am in Macedon NY. Started finding caterpillars on our milkweed last July 2017. I watched your excellent videos and learned so much. Thank You! It is now June 2018 and I found my first 6 caterpillars on June 9 th. Then I found my first egg that hatched June 16th. Just found another egg today June 17 th. I now have three chrysalis and two J hanging and one still eating. Last year I released 14 healthy monarchs. I love your videos. Thank you so much, you are a great teacher. I am ordering my tags soon for tagging the last generation. Keep up the videos!
Thank you Janet! Much appreciated. I'm very pleased to hear that the videos have helped. I try to do my best with them, and if they can help spur on others to help out this animal, man, it just means so much to me. I appreciate the feedback very much. Keep up the efforts, and know that it's making a difference!
I have raised larger caterpillars and today found much smaller ones on my milkweed. Thanks for the video in caring for 2nd instar caterpillars. Great series. Ty.
Just watched your entire series. I have been raising monarchs since I was in grade school (I'm 57) and I had to learn for myself what works and what doesn't. I can find no fault with your videos except for this omission: When the caterpillars are about to molt, they will spin a thin layer of silk to attach their feet to. If they are removed from this anchoring, they will have difficulty shedding their skin completely and could die as a result. I always check a caterpillar that is not active before moving it to see if it's in the process of molting. This is indicated by the head being translucent with a new, larger head showing behind it. If this is the case, I'll move the caterpillar along with the leaf it's attached to. The "wanderer" in this video is about to molt. At 4:26 you can clearly see the small, translucent, old head with the larger, new one behind it. That caterpillar should not have been moved. You should also advise your viewers not to move molting caterpillars from their anchoring.
Your advice is much appreciated. I too have wanted to correct this a bit, and plan on showing a more accurate video about the molting process. If it's any consolation, I only try to coax the caterpillar onto the leaves in this way, and if they aren't into it after just a few seconds, I wouldn't move them. These days, though, it's been a lot easier for my eyes to spot what you are saying about the translucent cap, and the silk pad. Hence why I wanted to make another video about it. Many thanks for your input!
Thank you for all this info. I have grown milkweed for years, specifically for Monarchs. In addition I have many other butterfly host and nectar plants. Monarchs have always visited and laid eggs, very rarely have I found any caterpillars. In following your suggestions about gathering eggs and bringing indoors, I am happy to report I have 12 !!!!! Chrysali and more happy caterpillars who will soon transform! Thanks again
I have those water picks that you get when you buy cut flowers - they help keep the leaves fresh and there is minimal leakage. I went to a local flower shop and the associate just gave me a handful. I cut up the stalk so there is more of the milkweed stem in the tube and lay them or prop them in my container so I don't have to worry about the ends drying out. Works for me !!!! BTW love your videos .... they have been a great help.
Yep. That's a great innovation too. I haven't gone with that, as the paper towel has worked for me, but it's been long enough that probably purchasing such water picks once would be more cost effective than going through the paper towel over the years. Something I might look into. Good tip!
Thank you for the information. 4 years ago I hatched 4 monarchs from caterpillars to butterflies. This year I planted 5 different types of milkweed into my gardens and pots. The monarchs are laying eggs like crazy. I've seen some small caterpillars but now I've lost them. Because of your information I will bring some of the eggs inside to safely rear.
Greetings Mona. I do collect the "cats" that I find on the milkweed plants when looking for eggs, solely in the hopes of ensuring their survival as well. I question whether I should, as they did make it "that far" on their own. Even so, I have had a 100% success rate with collected cats, so I have continued to collect them.
Great video. I was given a milkweed plant from my girlfriend as a new home owner and have now several from which I have had at least over 100 monarch butterflies. Actually made a crib type enclosure and it has helped protect them from the wasps that killed a couple previously. And just had another 35 or more that we still have in their chrysalis stage still to go and just had one butterfly emerge and let it out on its new journey. Just love them and watching & helping more monarchs to their new beginnings 💓
I'm always a tad jealous of those in climes that allow you to raise Monarchs throughout the year. Here in Michigan, we are a number of months away (and a few inches of snow away) from getting to see some adults from the south. I hope they are roosting well down there in Mexico.
Laura Eriksen hello does the cold kills them I live in Florida I took them in for 3 days today is 77 degree but I found 3 dead and on the tree the bigger ones seem to be frozen are they sleeping .
Mr.Lund I am in Northern Ontario. But thanks for all information. I am anxious for summer gonna make a monarch garden. Will plant milk weed plants and nectar plants. I hope to be able to help these little fellows. Love love love butterflies and flowers. Hope they come for a visit so happy to have found your videos. So so helpful💚🌅🌞
I’m watching this and I thought my playlist of music started playing! Faith No More - one of my top 5! Anyhow I have 6 eggs on leaves that I can’t wait to get home and start taking care of! Great videos!
I appreciate that much. Others have complained about the music. Can't please everyone all of the time. In retrospect, I suppose I would have just made my own music, perhaps more soothing. Who knows. But, I tried to choose songs that went along with what was happening in the video, and at the later caterpillar stages, "Midlife Crisis" seemed fitting.
The "wandering cat" that was on the plastic lid had secured itself ans was waiting to molt. You can tell by the detached face plate that looks like it's just barely sitting on the face (but their not easy to get off). The cat removes the face plate after it sheds the skin by wiping it's head back and forth agains the plant or other object it's attached to. The cat will often wander off the plant in the hours before molting looking for a quiet private place because they do not want to move or be handle while their waiting to molt. Molting takes a lot of energy and effort and any interruption could cause problems.
That may be true, and I'll trust your assessment of the head caps. Back then, I wouldn't have known enough to spot that. However, at the time, I had previously had some caterpillars do such a wandering (perhaps to molt) only to never make it back to the leaf. I lost some of those. So, it could be a risk either way, I think. I can say, I haven't had any wanderers I've relocated have any noticeable negative consequences to being relocated back to the leaf.
Hi, Mr. Lund, I love your videos! SO helpful. I haven't seen this question raised yet, so here it is: I have the net cages for the several, now 2 but one has J hooked AND is now in Crysalis which is amazing, caterpillars I rescued during Hurricane Florence off our Milkweed plants near our house. Now we have found a new one, tiny 1/2 inch long fellow ,and since not having an egg w/ container needs limited to plastic take-out containers, (marvelous idea btw), so I put him on his leaf from our field into a wide-mouth mason jar, with it standing a bit at an angle, top perforated and he is actually next-day on the side of the jar right now, which Not sure if it's just his instar stage- he is a young'un for me- or perhaps not liking the nice cozy single-bed glass jar though he has ventilation and food. Then I read someone saying that the temperature had been high- in the 90's - when they discovered the cats and you plus others commented that the temp. diff. could be why they stopped eating for a day since they were moved into AC. I hope I am right thinking he/she is ok plus moved her into the sunlight at my kitchen window while we did a photo shoot! We look forward to our "first" flying away after metamorphosis, in days numbered now, and this new baby growing like a weed! Thanks about the glass-jar container using til she gets bigger!
They do have some hardiness to them when it comes to temperature changes. Sometimes, a week of summer warmth gets hit with an abrupt colder front that moves in. It might put them off from eating for a bit as they adjust to the new temperature, but I wouldn't worry about it. I did not have air conditioning in my home until this year, and when I took in some wild cats, they too went from 90F temps to the more controlled 72F, and I didn't have any issues because of it. Also, though, I didn't notice any lack of appetite due to the transition either. So, yours not eating for a bit may be from the temperature change, or it could be due to something unrelated. While limited, they do have their own personalities as well, and for whatever reason, it may have decided to take a break. I have had some random caterpillars do that for no apparent reason as well, from time to time.
Our milkweed leaves in Southern CA are small. I raise my own plants and don't want them stripped clean. So, I cut a stem with several leaves at a time and keep them in tight bud vases for the caterpillars to eat. It keeps the leaves fresh and helps my plants stay healthy. I've raised around 100 healthy butterflies so far.
Your videos are super helpful. I wish I'd found them last monarch season! I'm in process of transferring the chrysalides onto twine per your instruction, w/ labels. We have 13 this year!! :-) Thanks again!
Wait, wait...did you notice *which* Primus song it was? Huh? ;-) I try to choose songs where either the title or the lyrics had something that fit what was being shown. Nyuck nyuck nyuck!
I appreciate that comment, for sure. Others have commented that the music isn't to their taste and would prefer the videos without it. It's futile to try to please everyone on the internet all of the time, so that's never been my goal. Just trying to get good information out there, if I can, and have some fun while I do it. If a Faith No More or David Bowie song is enough to prevent someone from getting the relevant information out of the video, they weren't likely to be that committed to the efforts anyway. "I was going to start raising Monarchs, but then he started playing that Primus song and I knew then that I was out."
well I like the music, and I like your tshirts too. So just keep being you and doing things your way. My eggs just hatched this morning! So excited, this is my first time attempting this. Thanks so much for all you're doing to protect and preserve this beautiful animal
yes! such a blessing :D omg I have 14 larvae and 5 more eggs though...that's a lot of mouths to feed but I'll do my best. It's awesome I even got to witness the mother laying them, such a treat.
never in a million years I would think that I would be in a business of raising Monarch butterflies! I have a 9 y.o. grandson who wants to be an entomologist. We had praying mantises hatching, superworms turning into beetles, and now I have three fat caterpillars in the jar. One of them is doing J stage thing. Thank you for your videos, very informative. Next time I would know exactly where to keep them as it is kind of difficult to clean all that frass and not to disturb the one who is hanging up side down.
That's awesome that your 9 year old is already interested in nature, ecology, and entomology! The insect world can serve us not only as indicators of how well we are taking care of our environment, but they have inspired a myriad of inventions, from water storage to structural integrity, from chemical engineering to social behavior modification techniques. Awesome stuff!
Merry Chrysalis!!! Hi Mr. Lund. Just wanted to let you know that I have (5) Christmas Miracles that should hatch in about a week. Seems that some of my Southern California Monarchs decided to stick around for the Holidays and it's been an on-going cycle, though much smaller groups that in the Spring/Summer...but healthy all the same. Right now I have about 10 cats and (5) healthy Chrysallides. Happy Holidays! Looking forward to more Monarchs in 2017!!!
That's certainly a great addition to festivities. I myself am happy to not be finding cats, as it'd be quite tough to find milkweed leaves in our 8 inches of Michigan snow! I hope while others await future Monarch vids, people still check out some of what else this channel puts out. First week of January, we have a science hip hop song coming out that has been worked on for a full year (though certainly not every day of that year). Hope you dig it!
Great video, we released two monarch butterflies today and have 30 in Chryslais awaiting to eclose. And about 80 caterpillars munching away on our inside swan plants.
Very awesome! Thanks for doing what you can to help out this population! It's definitely appreciated. I'm looking forward to the upcoming season in Michigan for sure.
I raise like 10-15 Monarch butterflies a year. & Black Swallowtail butterlies with parsley plants.- another species & another time of the year. I buy the actual milkweed plant for Monarchs 6-8 of them at least, maybe more. I use a pop up laundry basket ( you can get at Walmart- one with wire that pop out into rectange or octagon) put the plants tightly together- so the catipillars can easily move from plant to plant.from the leaves - flip the laundry pop up basket over it- carefully- & seal the bottom so they cannot escape or frogs- lizards- stink bugs, ect cannot get to them. I also put some heavy rocks inside & on top to weigh it down- so wind won't carry away. I water the plants every 2-3 days going through the bottom & carefully seal it back- when he says some can wander- he's not joking. If the plants have too little leaves, I just go buy more for them- they are about 4 bucks a piece at Home Depot. I personally like to keep outside so they get sunshine & fresh oxygen. Then suddenly you wake up & you have beautiful butterflies & get to set them free- ♡ Be sure to take pics- their wings need to dry out & pump blood in them so they can stay on your finger for a little while before they fly away. It's usually in the morning they hatch. I've been doing it every year for about 7 years. Look forward to it every year! This was a very good video, by the way. Thanks for posting.
Mr. C. Jokey I currently have 3 black swallowtail chrysalides. One is brown and 2 are green, the brown one seems to be harder than the green ones, and the green ones squirm if their container is bumped- or even if the wind blows on them. The brown one has yet to move- do you know if this is normal? They brown one has been a chrysalis for 9 days, 8 days for the green ones. thank you!
I had 9 little caterpillars hatch out of their eggs today! I also have some 3rd instar ones. I'm also raising other species, like gulf frittilaries, variegated frittilaries, black swallowtails, and zebra swallowtails, all found in my field on my property!
great video, even if the "faith no more" flashback was a little distracting. One monarch myth that has spread like wildfire around butterfly enthusiast and raising communities is that removing a caterpillar before a molt can harm/kill the caterpillar. As long as you remove it with several gentle pulls (as opposed to one hard yank) moving them does not hurt them, and they can molt laying on their side on a milkweed leaf. (done this many times) If they are too small to remove with your fingers, I agree with Mona that you should give them a chance to work it out for themselves, because they're not going to crawl onto anything when they're secured to the side of the cage. I also agree with Mr. Lund that they won't always come back to the milkweed...especially if you have a large cage!
I had discovered in Northern Indiana that If I delay milkweed planting I can actually time the arrival of Monarchs with a viable food source and rear Larvae. It has been found that early milkweed flowers are long gone before he arrival- this interrupts the life cycle. They need the milkweed nectar to attract and feed adults. Most "natural" Milkweed flowers and dies long before
Thanks for doing these videos. I watched them all! I will be doing a presentation very soon at a butterfly/hummingbird festival in my local area. I will be covering several topics regarding Lepidoptera including their biology, natural defenses, collecting truths, myths and the history of collecting insects, and conservation. At the top of the list will be the Monarch(Danaus plexippus). A few other species will also be mentioned such as the Eastern Regal Fritillary(Speyeria idalia), and the Schaus' Swallowtail (Papilio aristodemus ssp. ponceanus)-of southern Florida, which are now listed as federally endangered. I will also include some links for folks to watch, and your videos will make a nice addition to the recommendations I will mention. I hope to inspire some folks to become active enough to plant not only milkweed species on their property, but other important nectaring and food plants, such as Wild Bergamot, Joe-Pye Weed, Ironweed, Wild Violets(Fritillary larval food), and Thistles. These are all vitally important to our pollenators. I will also be handing out free packets of Milkweed seeds at the presentation.
I read a recent study that stated Monarchs raised indoors can have problems migrating. This is just one of the articles pertaining to this: www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/monarch-butterflies-raised-captivity-don-t-migrate I only raise wild monarchs (I do not purchase eggs or cats from a commercial source but rather take in eggs from my milkweed plants) and keep them outdoors in mesh enclosures but protected from high winds and heavy rains. I keep milkweed cuttings in large floral tubes or jars and mist them every other day or so as well (I’ve seen the cats drinking the water droplets). It makes sense that prohibiting them from receiving normal environmental cues by subjecting them to a pretty much artificial indoor environment could have a detrimental effect on their ability to navigate correctly. Last year I had two 4th generation cats raised from eggs in mesh enclosures outside. The first to eclose was a female who flew off due south as soon as her wings dried and she was released. She sipped some nectar from a flower she flew onto and then took off directly south. The second was a male who I brought inside a few minutes prior to eclosure in order to videotape the event (I have no idea why I didn’t do that outside, but this was prior to the study having been published). Shortly after he eclosed, I brought him outside in the mesh cage so he could be in the sun to facilitate his wings drying. Once he started to flutter around the cage, I released him onto a zinnia bloom. It was a very warm day in early September about a week after the female had eclosed. Two hours later, when he still hadn’t moved from his flower, I made the decision to bring him back in to keep him safe from predators. As we were expecting rain overnight, I brought the cage into the house and put it in a dark room with a vase of fresh zinnia blooms and no air conditioning - as close to outside temps as I could manage. Although he did finally fly off the following day, he did not take off south as the female did. He lingered for a bit in the garden and then flew northwest up into a tree, where he stayed for some time. It was a very different release experience from the female, who spent 💯 of the time outdoors - from egg to butterfly. Sometimes in meaning well, we cause more harm than good. Probably the best thing we can do for the monarchs and for ALL of the non-human beings we share the earth with is to stop destroying habitat, stop using pesticides and herbicides, and restore habitat by planting native species. I’m not a butterfly expert or a scientist; to me, this is just common sense. It doesn’t matter how many monarchs are successfully reared and released if their habitat and host plants continue to dwindle. All of the schools and other organizations who raise droves of commercially purchased cats each season would probably serve the species better by using their time and resources to encourage their communities to restore habitat, stop the use of chemicals, and plant milkweed (and other native host and nectar plants for other pollinators as well).
Greetings Teresa, When the study broke, there was a lot of confusion and panic in the Monarch community. Many comments started pretty immediately hitting my in box. So, I reached out to one of the authors of the study, Dr. Marcus Kronforst and talked to him through emails and a phone conversation or two. Also, downloaded and read the paper. Turns out, the media was not handling this very accurately in some cases. Some articles treated the study fairly, but some left out important details that definitely matter, and others were just flat out inaccurate. With the assistance of Dr. Kronforst, and the review and recommendations of Dr. Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch, I put out this video that talks about the study and its implications for those of us who rear wild sourced Monarchs: "Captive Rearing And Migration" - ua-cam.com/video/XcH7I9CtZRQ/v-deo.html A follow up to that video came out next, where I used Dr. Kronforst's description of their outdoor rearing set up to come up with one that is feasible for hobbyists at home: "Outdoor Rearing" - ua-cam.com/video/LjEgU0Ub5hY/v-deo.html You may wish to check those out. I'm "favoriting" your comment, as I feel it's good for those reading the comments to see this one early and know that some updates have happened, in case they don't stumble upon these two videos on their own. As far as the direction of flight goes upon release, I don't know that we can trust what direction we see them fly when let loose in our back yards (or other locations). If you release one and it flies south, hey, it may very well be that it's doing so for migratory reasons...but also...it might not be. In one of the phone conversations with Dr. Kronforst, he mentioned that earlier in the experiment, they first tried to measure butterfly flight orientation, but that they didn't have the cylinder around the Monarchs. The cylinder prevents them from seeing anything other than the sky directly above them. When they didn't have that cylinder in place at first, the Monarchs they tested seemed to go in strange directions. Not just random, but decidedly in a certain direction, and then later in the day, decidedly in another direction. In trying to get to the bottom of it, they eventually made the connection that one of the people witnessing the experiment was wearing a yellow shirt. It turned out that most of the Monarchs, if they could see the yellow shirt, would head in that direction. This told them early in the experimentation process that they'd need a cylinder to block out such distractions. A migratory butterfly, while migratory, might head in a direction when released that isn't south, but is in the direction of something that caught its eye, or even the smells of flowers that it detects with its antennae, or a plethora of other possible distractions. Not trying to diminish your observations, but this info is definitely relevant. After this study being released, too, many have pointed out (and the authors are aware of this) that many recovered tags of Monarchs in Mexico are sourced back to hobbyists who reared them at home, and while there's no column to indicate on most tagging program forms if it was reared indoors or outdoors, most certainly rear indoors. And this is where most articles handled the topic poorly. The articles (not the study) make the claim sometimes that Monarchs reared indoors "can't" or "won't" or "don't" migrate, which is demonstrably false. They can and do. What the study specifically shows is that rearing them indoors can interfere with their immediate flight orientation after eclosing, and that this could potentially interfere with their ability to migrate. That's it. The study never said that these Monarchs couldn't migrate, yet, because of the news articles treating it as such, many who have read these articles assume that this is what the study said. Instead, the implications of it is that to give the Monarchs the best chance of being migratory, they should be reared outdoors, so that this orientation they have when eclosed is in line with wild non-reared migratory Monarchs. I hope this information helps clear things up somewhat. I definitely appreciate you bringing this up, though, so others who read the comments here can be a bit more informed about it. Thank you!
This might be some helpful advice. It's true, you'll be amazed how much caterpillars eat in their last couple of instars. If you're running low on common milkweed, you can feed them honeyvine. Heck, even if you're not running low, you can feed honeyvine to them. They absolutely love it. I have it growing all over my yard, and not on purpose. It's a very invasive weed. I yank out handfuls of the stuff and feed it to my caterpillers. They will happily switch back and fourth between the honeyvine and common milkweed. Honeyvine is in the milkweed family. But it grows like a vine, rather than an upright plant. The foliage looks a lot like morning glory. But you should be able to easily distinguish between honeyvine and morning glory once you know what to look for. I've read that you can feed pumpkin in the last instar if you're running low on milkweed. But maybe you have milkweed without knowing it, if you have honeyvine in your yard.
MrLundScience I've found quite a few eggs on my milkweed plant but I am not sure I have enough of the plant to feed all of them. Is there any other plant that they eat? The milkweed we have here in Hawaii is very small. A leaf on my plant is about 2-3 inches long and 1 inch wide.
Hopefully the Monarchs will rebound. Me and Mr Lund are working on it. Please help us do it . How? Plant Milkweed. If you are in Texas Plant FALL nectar plants for them for the fall migration and of course plan Milkweed for the spring migration. Especially if you are in central and south Texas they need nectar in Fall so they can make it to Mexico!
Mona Miller brings up a good point about the necessity for some of the cats to "wander" in order to molt. I definitely agree with her for others out there doing this at home that removing the "wanderers" if they are about to molt is a bad idea. This is why I also try to use the leaf method, and coax them onto the leaf in order to transfer them back. If they are unresponsive to the leaf presented to them, I'll leave them alone and try later. However, I can't fully agree that "they know how to return to the milkweed." I'd say that they SOMETIMES know how to return to the milkweed. I've had a couple wanderers go off on a journey at the young stages, and never find their way back. After a couple of days, they were dead. This happened my first year, and that's when I started transferring wanderers back to the leaf. Since doing that, I have not had any deaths result from wandering and not making it back. Mike Barnes, I have not tried the method that you described, but it definitely sounds like a great plan. There's many ways to modify what I'm doing and get great results, so it sounds like what you're doing will work. I know for me, having many plants doesn't work for me, and the leaf method is better. As long as they make it to adulthood, though, then mission accomplished, right? Thank you both for your comments and critiques!
MrLundScience Most cats wander before apolysis (molting) in order to escape predators attracted by the smell of their frass (poop). In the garden, these Wanderers will usually follow their silken trails back to the original plant, but some will search out other plants.
Hey Jack! I know this was from a year ago, but I just wanted to let you know, for whatever reason, I never had notification of this (or apparently most/any) of your comments. I have no idea why. I clicked on my video here, and was reading through these comments, and see that you have made a few that I never replied to. I try to make sure to reply to all who leave them. If you've taken the time to watch the video and then take the time to leave a comment, I think it's only polite to take the time to at least say thank you, and to answer any questions. Thanks for your mention of the cats being able to find their way back. I agree, they can and sometimes do. I guess we've found, though, a gray area of "controversy" within Monarch rearers, right? (This might be as "bad" as it gets as far as butterfly controversies.) Some have told me as well that they'll be fine, and molting is a time of stress for them. I don't disagree. However, I know from my own experience, I've never had one that I moved be harmed by it, but I have had wanderers not find their way back after molting. Thus, I'll probably still keep moving them when I find them. That, doesn't mean, though, everyone should be doing it if they aren't willing to take *great care* when doing so, as you're right, they are vulnerable.
This is my first year. I had six beautiful caterpillars, probably 4th instar, then only one. I saw many wasps around...I then moved them into a habitat. So very sad. But moving forward. I have one chrysalis, one 5th instar, and 16 eggs in my habitat.
First instar as you said can get lost in a container, but most of the other instars find their way back to the milkweed. Many people think the caterpillars need to stay on the milkweed when they will spend a good 24 hours molting on the side or the top of the container. The leaf idea is a good one. If they move on to a leaf move them, especially first instars with ADHD. In the wild Monarchs go off the milkweed to molt and off the milkweed during the day to avoid predation. The best time to find larvae is early in the morning. Do you only collect eggs or do you collect larvae, too?
I love how at 6:25 you show the different containers for them at different life cycles. Well organized! So ventilation isn't so important until they get bigger? The takeout containers don't seem like they would promote very good ventilation.
I'd love to see an update on this video and corrected information about moving them if they wander. They don't need our help to find milkweed, they didn't get lost but could be molting. Moving them when they've wandered can be fatal. I've seen a lot of issues with people moving caterpillars back to milkweed lately and they're dying. They know what they are doing, they don't need us to interfere so much.
+YpsiFang That would be Faith No More with "Midlife Crisis", and yes, that song was chosen for this video partially do to the title of the song (as were the other songs in the other videos). Glad you liked it!
The for this terrific series. I brought in 4 eggs and I’m hatching them in takeout containers. I ordered some hatching cages from Amazon and I wonder if they’ll be okay to use? They’re mesh ventilated and about 6 in tall. Are you using plastic aquariums?
thanks for sharing these videos with us! Very helpful ( I have raised many Monarch caterpillars!) The wasps and gecko's seem to get them, if I leave them outside to survive on their own.
Vickie Horsley You're very welcome! For me, it's not geckos, but I did find four egg shells today, very recently hatched, but no caterpillars. I did see black ants on the plant and wondered... If only I had checked for eggs the day before!
My wife and I started raising monarchs and have learned a lot from your videos. We recently bought some milkweed from a local nursery; however, our caterpillars are slowly dying. We think the nursery might have used insecticides. What advice can you give us?
I'm on monarch project part 2. Part 1 I had my milkweed plants inside by the window. But I dont think they were getting enough sunlight. So towards the end I moved the plants outside. 1 out 3 Caterpillars made it once I moved em outside. The other two went MIA at 5th instar and the one that made it was already in chrysalis form.On part 2 the plants are doing much better. Instead of stems I got three thriving milkweed plants. And now those plants got about 6-7 monarch catepillars on them. I'm debating whether or not to move em back inside and wait till they all go into chrysalis stage
In your decision making, you may wish to watch two videos that came out this year that discuss some recent findings about outdoor rearing. As it's this time of the year that the Monarchs developing are likely to be migratory, it's some info that is pertinent to your decision... "Captive Rearing & Migration" - ua-cam.com/video/XcH7I9CtZRQ/v-deo.html "Outdoor Rearing" - ua-cam.com/video/LjEgU0Ub5hY/v-deo.html I hope those help! Good luck!
Thank you for the video, I watched the outdoor rearing one. Yeah I saw an article about the loss of migration ability. This definitely helped me with my decision especially since it's late August. Keeping them outside less Florida gets one of them crazy storms
There's good reason for ventilation through the process. If you have a closed container with little or no ventilation, there's a larger chance for mold to grow (or grow faster/sooner) due to humidity. So, some ventilation when they are caterpillars is a good idea. In the "to go" food containers that I use, people may see holes in the lids, but those were due to the food that originally was in the container. In other words, the restaurant put those there, not me. Out of curiosity one day, I did the Fermi "back of the envelope" calculation on oxygen in my containers and compared that to the oxygen intake a caterpillar would need. In the smaller "to go" containers, the calculation showed that there's plenty of oxygen available for a few days, if without ventilation. So, I don't *need* those holes, and some of my containers don't have them, but they aren't a bad idea. As I'm opening the containers at least twice a day to air out, clean frass, maintain sanitation, etc., holes are not necessary in my process. If someone were to put caterpillars in a closed container with milkweed and leave it closed and sealed for a couple of days without ventilation...that would give me slight concern. Afterall, I'd hope we're checking on the caterpillars daily, and when doing so, why not pop the top and freshen the air, right? Hope that helps!
Try your best to clip around the eggs when collecting them, you don't have to take the whole leaf that it's/they're on, unless there's a bunch of eggs on it. That way the leaves can be used when you need fresh leaves, you don't want the leaves drying out early because the little cats can't eat that much yet anyway, so save as much of the leaves as you can when collecting eggs because you'll need every bit of those leaves later.
Certainly if these are home plants, that's a good option. When in the field, unless there's a particular container to place it in and keep it safe, it would likely be still a good idea to take the leaf. I know I wouldn't trust a small clipping in my normal leaf carrying container. Perhaps some middle ground would be to not remove the entire leaf, but cut a sizable piece out that is trimmed down smaller once home. For me, usually when I find eggs, I take the entire leaf because once the egg is cut out, the rest of the leaf quickly becomes dinner for the other caterpillars I'm already raising.
Perhaps another video should be made demonstrating the treatment of the Ophryocystis parasite in Monarch caterpillars. Female butterflies covered in the unsuspecting spores accidentally drop them on the eggshell when laying eggs on milkweed. The caterpillar then ingests the spores, where the parasite will multiply throughout then and the pupal stage. When the grown caterpillar, now a butterfly, hatches from its chrysalis, the new butterfly will be covered in the spores starting the cycle. This means they can best be treated on the egg where the spores are vulnerable. You can treat the eggs for the spores with a light bleach solution (14 mL bleach vs 386 mL water) according to Shady Oaks butterfly farm. You can first look in a microscope for the dark orange, football shaped spores (they're big enough to be seen by 40x), and then separate the ones infected away from the not infected and soak the infected eggs in the solution for 60 seconds.Take them out and then rinse/dry them...
You can look for better instructions, steps, and setups in the pictures and bottom of the page here www.butterflyfunfacts.com/oe.php. I tried this and so far all the soaked eggs have hatched, if you do it correctly your eggs will not die despite being soaked in bleach, trust me. The most important thing I need to tell you is DO NOT RELEASE INFECTED BUTTERFLIES ESPECIALLY FEMALES. Use Scotch tape on the newly hatched butterflies abdominal scales to identify the spores with a microscope. Again, they look like dark orange footballs. It is very important you try to stop this disease that 30% of Monarchs have. Save the Monarchs all the way!
+BrusqueButTrue In the spring/summer, I definitely have plans to make a video on OE and NPV. I've seen that Butterfly Fun Facts page before, and that whole site is full of glorious information! I haven't treated eggs before, but I think that testing my monarchs for the spores is now a necessity for sure. I've heard that a major problem of the bacteria spreading have been these businesses that raise monarchs for release. Some of them are not all that ethical on cleaning/sanitizing to make sure the OE isn't present. Then, the monarchs are shipped out as chyrsalides and when they are released, the OE bacteria is with them. I've also heard that OE shows up now in populations that previously did not have very high levels of it. This summer, I did the tape check for a few adults, and always it was a negative result (negative, as in, no OE spores detected - woo hoo!) but I think I need to start checking each one from now on. And the video will show how to do this. As for bleaching eggs, I haven't tried this, but will in June/July when I start finding eggs so I can get some footage on how to do it. Thanks for your great and informative comments! If you have further ideas of videos you'd like to see, let me know!
+MrLundScience That's good to hear! I'm glad you know about this. NPV is a killer, holy cow, I'd absolutely LOVE to see a treatment for that. I raised an entire clutch of 20-30 Polyphemus moth caterpillars that were nearly wiped out from Nucleo-polyhedrosis.
+Jamari Glass A few specifics of your situation determines that answer. How many is "a lot" of caterpillars? Also, what type of milkweed do you have? There are some that have very broad leaves (lots of food) and some that have many skinny leaves (not as much food). Also, the size and maturity of the plant matters. The milkweed I use is "Common Milkweed" or Asclepias syriaca which has pretty large leaves when the plant is mature. Still, when a caterpillar is in the last two stages (4th and 5th instar), it can easily eat about a leaf (or more) a day. So, I would say that some of the largest Common Milkweed plants I've seen might be able to sustain 3 (maybe 4) caterpillars from egg to adult, and that's stretching it. In nature, sometimes a female may lay more than that many eggs on just one plant. Why? If that plant can't sustain them all, why does she do that? Well, we must remember, there isn't a conscious thought process with monarch butterflies. She isn't actually thinking. Instead, there are chemicals on the milkweed plant that she can detect when she lands on it, and those chemicals give her brain the urge to lay eggs. So, she does. She's not estimating leaf size and how many eggs should go on that plant. She likely doesn't have any thought process that gives her knowledge as to what an egg is, nor that she's making new butterflies by laying them. It's just an impulse to do something. Thus, on one plant, you sometimes have several monarch caterpillars. If food runs low, they start searching for more food elsewhere. The caterpillar instinct is to wander around until you find more. In nature, it's pretty common that if there's one milkweed plant, there's others nearby. Thus, the wandering caterpillars usually luck out and find another plant. Some, of course, don't, and it can be that the caterpillars, in competition with each other, eat enough of the plant they are on that there's not enough for any of them to make it to adulthood. Such is the reality of nature. Nature is beautiful, but nature is also cruel at times. Bottom line, I would do your best to make sure that they have adequate food on their way to adulthood, and that may take more than just one plant. Good Luck Jamari!
I'm raising some monarch caterpillars for the first time and your videos have been so helpful. Thank you. I recently had a caterpillar that was j hanging. When I checked on it in the morning, it had maggot coming out of it. So my question is, is there a way to tell if another caterpillar is infected with what I'm told is a parasite from a fly. I currently have on hanging straight down and am worried it may have the same thing going on with itm. Help!
Informative and interesting, but you seem to have a radio in the background that's tuned into at least 2 stations! I've had good luck with caterpillars I've found, But I never harvested the eggs. In 5 minutes, I found dozens of eggs on my plants. This is like My star drive has engaged. My excitement is disproportional!
This videos fine but my milkweed just popped up and a monarch has laid her eggs on the sprouting milkweed less than an inch tall. I covered the plant with netting a hope that the eggs will hatch after the milkweed has grown enough to support the hatched eggs
Mr Lund, I have enjoyed your series, and learned a lot of valuable advice. I just started raising caterpillars a few weeks ago. I currently have 2 cats, and one that developed it's chrysalis early this morning. (Total of 3.) I notice your porch is screened. Ours is not. If we string our chrysalides up as you do, do they have any natural predators to be concerned about? Will they be safe? Thanks!
Adult Monarchs most definitely have predators once they are out in nature. Still, as you are going to release them, they'll begin facing them that day. If you want to ensure that they are safe until you get home from work or wherever, and are able to release them, some use collapsible butterfly enclosures (about the size of a microwave), but also those accordion like college laundry hampers are often cheaper, and work equally well.
Sorry my last question wandered as if I was that little rogue small cat mentioned in the mason jar! I am putting him into the regular container asap as you have clearly described the food containers work best. Now looking for the link to getting the classroom type aquarium-looking one that you use. Is it here or should I just search online, which is easily done? Thanks for all you do!
I don't officially endorse any particular brand. To be honest, if I needed another one, I'd rather just make one from a large enough food storage container, as it can get the job done equally, as long as you take the time to ventilate it. For those who don't want that fuss, though, if you type "plastic terrarium" into Google and go to the "shopping" results, many like mine come up.
Hi! I love these videos so much they have helped me immensely. Question: do you ever find that some of your caterpillars are “lighter” than others? My cats are getting bigger but are not showing the super vibrant black and yellow. They’re still probably in their 2nd or 3rd in star. Is this normal or do I have a problem? I open the Tupperware container several times a day and give them fresh sanitized leaves (following your bleach recipe) everyday.
I have heard of later season caterpillars having wider black stripes, and thus, more narrow white and yellow. I have heard that this adaptation is weather related, and also due to how beneficial it is and isn't to advertise yourself with color in the summer versus fall season. So, there is evidence of coloration changing from the start to the end of the season. Still, that doesn't necessarily mean that this is what is occurring with yours. Still, that's the best I've got. Sorry I don't have better.
If growing milkweed and they are laying the eggs, and doing their thing in nature, is the survival rate pretty good letting nature do their thing? I guess the birds could have a feast, and is that why you do the container and capturing them. I think I kind of answered my own question. But was curious of their survival on their own, with surrounding food in nature.
Is the survival rate pretty good for Monarch eggs reaching adulthood in nature? No. In fact, not even looking at human impact on the species, mother nature already is absolutely brutal to an egg/caterpillar trying to make it to the chrysalis stage. From a few well done studies on the topic, some put the survival rate of an egg making it all the way to an emerged, healthy adult, at about 10% or less. There is another study that seemed a bit more thorough (which I've had trouble re-locating) which put the chances closer to 3-4%. So, I'm confident saying a "10% or less chance" exists. And these are figures that don't take into consideration direct human impact (such as mowing down milkweed in the median strip of highways) or indirect human impact (such as devastating storms out of season which may be the result of Climate Change).
Hi MrLundScience, love your series. I’ve been doing so much research on how to raise monarchs from egg to butterfly, but your series has given me the confidence to try. QUESTION: i did notice a lot of catipiller droppings, how to clean them up ? I was thinking when I transfer pillars to just dust out container, what would you suggest?
I'm having a video come out this season about sanitation. That will flesh out many details. For now, though, what I tend to do is remove droppings once in the morning, and then again in the evenings if it requires it. (That depends upon how many caterpillars I have in the container.) By "remove", I just mean shaking them out into a trash bag, or even out on the lawn. I then wipe them with a paper towel to get out stragglers. In my small "to go" containers, once those caterpillars are large enough to go into the larger terrarium container, I place them in there, and then fully scrub out the "to go" container just like a dirty dish. That's usually about 4 or 5 days from the time I use a clean "to go" container before it then gets washed. For the large terrarium, again, daily I'm removing the droppings once or twice. Then, once a week on Sunday mornings, I remove all caterpillars for a bit, and then wash out the large container with soap and water. I thoroughly rinse it clean with water. Then, I put 5% bleach solution in there, full, and let it sit for 5 minutes or so. I then thoroughly rinse that out several times to make sure there's no remaining trace amounts of bleach, and then put the cats back in. The upcoming video will explain all of this in more detail.
Love your videos. My first time...I have 7 eggs. When wrapped in wet towel, how long will the milkweed last? How will I know it is dried or not any good? Ty :)
They last about three days that way, but also note, the more the caterpillars eat from it, the more they expose the leaves' veins to the air, which accelerates how quickly they dry out. Once they get large enough to be doing this a lot, though, they eat through the leaf before it has a chance to dry out.
Should I line the containers with damp paper towels? The book I borrowed from the library recommends this in order to help the milkweed stay fresh longer but I noticed that you don't do this.
There's many additional options that can be suggested, and can be either neutral or beneficial. I don't do this, but it could be done. I think it could be beneficial in cases where your climate is drier than mine in Michigan, if that's the case. Some have asked too about misting leaves. I also don't do this, but those in drier areas where the leaves don't contain as much moisture might see benefit to this. The reason I don't is that with added moisture, mold is more apt to start growing. Thus, I don't, but also, my leaves stay pretty fresh still by the time they are eaten or eaten enough to be replaced. I hope that helps!
So awesome! Question: how did you get the caterpillars to crawl into the top of the container in order for it to attach? Did you move them manually or did they all crawl there on their own?
No movement on my part. That's just what they are naturally able to and looking to do. They form silk along the surfaces they move around on to give their feet pads more traction/surface area.
LOVE your videos I’ve learned so much. A few questions: for growth of caterpillars which is more important, outside temperature or sunlight? Not that I can control the weather but I was wondering. Next- how long would you give a cat in a J hang before euthanizing? I have one hanging in a J for 5 days. I’m in Southern California zone 10. Temperatures are 60 to 80’s right now.
There is a sanitation video planned for this summer. However, I need the "stars of the show" in order to make one. No Monarch eggs have been found by myself yet, and you need caterpillars to show how to clean up after caterpillars. It's on its way though. For the most part, though, cleaning out frass should be as simple as placing leaves and cats in a different container, pouring the frass out, and then washing the container with soap and water as if you're doing the dishes by hand. An added step for those who wish to sterilize for OE would be to fill the container with a low concentration of bleach solution (5% or so) and letting it set for a couple of minutes. Then, very thoroughly rinse that so there's no residue bleach. Afterwards, place the cats and leaves back into the dried out container. That should be it, quick and easy. Frass should be easy to pour out if it's dry, which is one of the reasons I don't add moisture to the container.
Hello, Rich, I have watched several of your videos and I adopted your style for myself. I hope you still monitor your site. This is my very first time, not thinking that I would get into this, this year. I have swamp milk weed in my garden and found two very tiny caterpillars and I wasn't sure just what the were. They didn't have the little black heads. I took a chance and to my surprise I am now raising them. I also have 3 eggs. Look at them with a jewelers loop. So I am going to give this everything I can. I hope you see this, I would like to communicate somehow with you. JanG
Hi Mr. Lund, I have successfully raised 7 monarchs from eggs so I think I sort of know what I'm doing(?) My question is, have you ever had caterpillars that just suddenly stop eating and lay there listless? I am feeding them fresh leaves every day and cleaning out their containers daily, but I have had 4 caterpillars in the second instar that sort of just "give up" and lay there. We are experiencing very hot and humid conditions here....could that be a problem? Also, I have them outside in a shady area during the day and I bring them in at night. Maybe the temperature change is too quick? Or is it just normal for some not to make it???? Thanks for all the great videos and info! Renee.
Both could be possibilities. When it is very high temperatures (and I don't know where to draw the line, but I'd imagine, high 90's or higher) that can could be potentially causing the lethargy. I don't know for sure though. This would be something someone with more knowledge than I could potentially answer. If, though, you are, say, in the 90's outside, and then they are taken into an AC home that is in the 70's, yes, that could cause a shock to the system. It's a possibility, not a certainty, but that could very well do it. Is there a reason you have them outside some of the time and don't leave them inside?
Not really, I just thought they should be in as natural a habitat as possible. (And maybe the warmer temps help them grow faster??) Next year I will just keep them in and see if that helps. I have 1 chrysalis left to go. It is outside but protected and doing fine.
I have been raising Monarch's for years now. I usually just have common milkweed plants growing in my front yard. I did buy a swamp milkweed plant this year. My question is can my common milkweed caterpillars munch on swamp milkweed also?
I have recently gotten a new batch of caterpillars, that I found when they were in their egg and first instar on my milkweed plant. Now they are mostly in their 3rd or 4th instar, but I have found a caterpillar that was trying to molt from 3rd to 4th instar, and has gotten stuck in it's old skin. It looks like the silk came loose, and now it has to drag around the back legs while it is drying. Is there any safe way of getting the skin off once the new skin has dried? (It is drying at the moment, and I hope I can help it before it dies). However apart from this, this year is looking to be the best yet, as I have over 40 caterpillars, (mostly 4th instar) eating off of 1 swan plant, and I didn't think it would last this long.
Once the new skin has dried, I have had some success with using very small tweezers I have to hold two parts of the old skin, and then pull them perpendicular to the caterpillar's body, and start a tear, which continues as you pull. Say the caterpillar is at the 12 o'clock / 6 o'clock position. I held the old skin at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock and pulled in those 9 and 3 directions. The tear began, and continued for most of the rest of the body it had not come off from. Afterwards, the caterpillar seemed to dry normally, but this was also within an hour or so of the original molting attempt. Not sure if the same success would have happened if it had been longer than one hour. Also, I may have gotten lucky and found a weak spot where the tear could begin. If there is no weak spot and it doesn't immediately tear, you may want a third hand to do a very small cut with tiny sharp scissors. And needless to say, they need less than shaky hands. Good luck!
I have had a few that have had this problem, and one was able to crack and break away the old skin on it's own. However most will just die on the spot. (unfortunatly the comment was a little to late to help them).
I have heard that caterpillars will stop eating when placed on a plant that has been treated with pesticides, and that a correct effort to help them is to "wash the caterpillars under running water." I can not find a video posted or any other chatter about this but I have a couple dozen caterpillars about to die and I need to try something. Apparently, the nursery misinformed me when I asked about their care of their Milkweed. I had several plants that the masses of caterpillars had animated and I made the "emergency run" to find more Milkweed-- it was a new nursery that I had never acquired plants from before. Please help. Thank you! (p.s. I will use the bleach dilution to wash the new plants and let them grow for a couple of weeks thereafter with no caterpillars before I test them out on a caterpillar)
I had planned to leave them on the plant and let nature do it's thing. Is that not recommended? Although, there is a scary number of eggs on my one plant (which is a bout 3 feet tall in a 2 gallon container). I wonder if it'll be enough. I've planted many more for next season.
My surviving caterpillars have been in their 5th instar for more than a week now, and a few of them have been dying off, I started out with 40-50, and now only have around 10 - 20 left. Most of them died off when they were young (the way I am currently raising them is by having a milkweed plant outside, and letting monarchs lay eggs, so I can bring the plant inside to safety), but now some of them are just starting to sop eating, and die on the spot, becoming rather red under a bright light when they are alive, and then truning to mush when they are dead. Do you know what this might be? And is it usual for a Monarch to be a caterpillar for 3 weeks+ in a temperate environment?
That does sound like a mystery. As you might guess, people have told me about a variety of problems. Yet, you're the first to mention anything about caterpillars ever having a red shade. If not eating, and it's not just one anomaly but a batch of them acting similar, that seems to point to an infection of some sort. And 3+ weeks, while that could be possible if temperatures are low, 3 weeks already seems like a pretty long time, let alone past 3 weeks. I wish I knew more and could advise better. If I were in that position, I suppose I would try to quarantine and separate into my containers as much as possible. That way, if it is an infection that is contagious, I could possibly prevent the spread to any that don't have it. Further, I could then feed leaves that have been bleach treated and possibly prevent further infection if it's from pesticides somehow on the leaves, a parasite, bacteria, or some other environmental cause. I wish both you and them luck...
You mention wrapping the bottom of the leaf with a wet tissue to keep the leaf moist, but what happens if the cat accidentally eats it!?! I think mine woke up and started nibbling on it, it kept shaking his body in a very unusual way as if he's in pain. Has this ever happened?!
From the time it the outer skin breaks to the time it has fully shed the outer skin and only the chrysalis remains, approximately 3 minutes is what I've found. If we count the time to shorten its shape and dry, perhaps a total of 6 minutes.
Great videos! Are you putting holes in the containers with the eggs or newly hatched? If not, at what stage are you doing that? Thanks so much for the info!!
Yes, I put very small holes in the "to go" food containers. I suppose that was not mentioned in the video. You need to ensure that they are too small to give the cats a chance to wander through them. The video shows those holes here: ua-cam.com/video/sJU8-FpGI78/v-deo.htmlm43s Do you need them? Honestly, if you are opening the container daily, that's enough fresh air circulated in there to get them new oxygen and remove any CO2 build up. Also, if there are fresh leaves placed in there, even though it's removed from the plant, the leaf *does* still produce oxygen for a while. So, no, you probably don't need them. I've put them in there, though, just to be safe.
Great! Thanks so much, I will make holes, that seems to be working for you! I have a couple eggs and a small caterpillar I found on a plant that will probably be mowed down and is half dead with spray.
Cool stuff! I bought a Bic lighter and heated up a very small nail to melt the holes in the lids. Trick I've used to get holes in plastic for years. No polymer stands in my hot nail way!
Mr. Lund, Today...the final two Monarch Butterflies hatched. We will release them this afternoon. I am proud to say we were able to raise and release over 100 healthy Monarch Butterflies this season. I learned A LOT. There were definitely some "highs" and "lows" along the way, but well worth the experience. Thank you so much for your videos. They were definitely the inspiration for us to participate in this wonderful experience. Looking forward to next Spring. All the best to you. Tracee
I'm very happy that you kept with it, despite some early set backs you described. It's great to have a committed person such as yourself along for those ups and downs. Next spring, I'm hoping for a better beginning than I was able to get this year. And, keep an eye out for some more Monarch vids this winter. I have footage, but need to get some other things out first. I'm hoping for a November or December vid that will be a pretty important one.
A hundred? Surely no lows lol.
@@MrLundScience love this song in this video😊
I swore I watched the whole series just a couple weeks ago to get ready for the monarchs to come here (TX) on their way back to Mexico and now that I’ve spotted my first tiny instars on my milkweed, I forgot everything and freaked out! So here for a refresher :). Thank you again for all you have done to help educate!
I've just picked several large milkweed plants and grew them in a pot, and put the caterpillars on those. No changing, replacing leaves, simple.
GhostBoyX13 That's definitely another way to go about it. As long as one can supply their caterpillars with enough leaves, then their system is working just fine. For me, the year I made the Raising Monarchs series, I collected exactly 150 eggs. This year, I've collected 267 so far. For me, collecting complete plants is not a feasible option. I collect leaves from plants in nearby locations, and never take enough leaves from a plant to decimate it. Once I get going with a number of eggs, I don't really go on specific egg hunts any longer, but just end up finding eggs while collecting leaves for caterpillars I'm already rearing.
Rich, my first season has ended with 73 released! Thank you for the videos, they have been very helpful. Your students are lucky to have you!
I’m currently showing the 4 year old who is amazed by the caterpillar we discovered; coincidentally being monarch, and what I know about extinction, we’re taking this on and your videos are so helpful! Wish us luck! I hope he gets to see the entire transformation. Also adding, ky girl, I found a milk weed abundant at red river gorge engulfed in monarchs! I am going to be buying a lot of joe Pye weed next year, I would encourage everyone to do the same to support our butterflies. Designated one corner of your yard to wild flowers and weeds, go pull the weeds if bad... no chemicals. Not just for butterflies but our honey bees which make the world go around!
Greetings Andi! I definitely do wish yourself and the 4 year old mentioned luck in the rearing. Hopefully the 4 year old will get to witness some of the really cool (and quick) transformations that can happen, such as forming the chrysalis or the adult eclosing from it. It is always breathtaking. Amazing and humbling at the same time, with a dash of pride thrown in. You can't help but feel some pride when it makes it to the adult stage. Best of luck!
A friend posted your videos on Facebook and I was like wow I can do this and my kids will love it. Next day I went out and found 3 eggs, the next day they hatched, now i have three baby caterpillars. Hoping we can get all of them to butterfly. We hardly see monarchs anymore (only 2 sightings this year) but now I'm going to search my yard for eggs each time I see one in hope of helping them survive. Thank you!
Very cool, and so awesome to be getting your kids involved! Nice work, and I'm glad to hear that you have already had some early luck in looking for eggs!
I'm so happy to have found your channel! Two days ago I found a monarch chrysalis in an area on my property where it would surely be destroyed. After doing a lot of research, I decided to not only keep it indoors until it emerges a butterfly but also went on an egg hunt. Got a little more than I bargained for and now have 10 eggs, two larva in the second instar, three in the third instar and one pupae. The information you've shared here is so incredibly helpful. New subscriber, here, and very excited to see more videos!
Very cool, Liane! There's many videos these days, but if you're getting started at this time in the season, you may wish to watch these two videos next...
"Captive Rearing And Migration" - ua-cam.com/video/XcH7I9CtZRQ/v-deo.html
"Outdoor Rearing" - ua-cam.com/video/LjEgU0Ub5hY/v-deo.html
These two discuss some recent information about the outdoor environmental cues that are necessary for the Monarchs to "know" to migrate.
Good luck, and welcome aboard!
I found 3 eggs on a plant here in NW IL yesterday, thanks to watching your video series. I brought them home. Have ample milkweed around for them. Two were fresh and one was ready to hatch. It hatched over night in a separate container and ate the whole egg and was eating on the leaf before 6 a.m. Really cool. Our family will enjoy watching them grow.
Awesome news! Great that your whole family is involved to share the experience.
I wanted to leave a Thank you for your videos and tips. I’ve e been rearing for over ten years and last winter I was looking on UA-cam to see how others reared. I watched all your videos and decided to use your leaf method this year. In the past I’d bring home stalks but a lot of times they’d wilt so I was wasting it. This year I was able to get cats from my own milkweed patch, and feed them from the same patch. I brought in 29 eggs and only had one casualty (made it to chrysalis stage, turned black). 28 healthy Monarchs this year! Your shoe box idea of stage separation worked great because I knew how much I’d have to supply. Thank you!
Very informative series. I started raising them this year after seeing so many Monarchs on my Mexican Sunflower plant last year. They love those flowers! I planted milkweed seeds last fall and now have 4 nice size plants. I cut out the center of the plastic lids on some Sterilite plastic bins, shoebox size and 16 qt size, and covered the smaller bin with a piece of very fine mesh voile from fabric store, and the larger bin with fiberglass screen then put the lids on to hold in place. I trim the leaf away from the bottom of stem about an inch and stick them into little florists tubes filled with water. So far I have 2 chrysalides, one cat building a button, 2 on walkabout and 4 smaller instars. I am so excited for eclose! You would think I've never seen a butterfly before! I have to say, a tad overkill on the music, but thanks for your hard work on the vids themselves.
Yeah, some like the music, some don't. Honestly, when I was making these first five vids, I had zero idea that they would become popular videos. So, I was making them with music I enjoy. In hindsight, I suppose to reach a wider audience, I'd not have as much, but as my father likes to say, "It is what it is."
Thank you for taking this task to heart! They appreciate it!
I am in Macedon NY. Started finding caterpillars on our milkweed last July 2017. I watched your excellent videos and learned so much. Thank You! It is now June 2018 and I found my first 6 caterpillars on June 9 th. Then I found my first egg that hatched June 16th. Just found another egg today June 17 th. I now have three chrysalis and two J hanging and one still eating. Last year I released 14 healthy monarchs. I love your videos. Thank you so much, you are a great teacher. I am ordering my tags soon for tagging the last generation. Keep up the videos!
Thank you Janet! Much appreciated. I'm very pleased to hear that the videos have helped. I try to do my best with them, and if they can help spur on others to help out this animal, man, it just means so much to me. I appreciate the feedback very much.
Keep up the efforts, and know that it's making a difference!
I have raised larger caterpillars and today found much smaller ones on my milkweed. Thanks for the video in caring for 2nd instar caterpillars. Great series. Ty.
Going to start this year. Planted a bunch of milkweed last year. Nice primus tunes and midlife crisis by faith no more also. Thanks so much.
Such great footage of the baby caterpillar and the musical accompaniment is perfect. 👏🏽 👏🏽 👏🏽
See everyone? I'm not crazy. Not with music, at least.
Just watched your entire series. I have been raising monarchs since I was in grade school (I'm 57) and I had to learn for myself what works and what doesn't. I can find no fault with your videos except for this omission:
When the caterpillars are about to molt, they will spin a thin layer of silk to attach their feet to. If they are removed from this anchoring, they will have difficulty shedding their skin completely and could die as a result. I always check a caterpillar that is not active before moving it to see if it's in the process of molting. This is indicated by the head being translucent with a new, larger head showing behind it. If this is the case, I'll move the caterpillar along with the leaf it's attached to. The "wanderer" in this video is about to molt. At 4:26 you can clearly see the small, translucent, old head with the larger, new one behind it. That caterpillar should not have been moved. You should also advise your viewers not to move molting caterpillars from their anchoring.
Your advice is much appreciated. I too have wanted to correct this a bit, and plan on showing a more accurate video about the molting process. If it's any consolation, I only try to coax the caterpillar onto the leaves in this way, and if they aren't into it after just a few seconds, I wouldn't move them. These days, though, it's been a lot easier for my eyes to spot what you are saying about the translucent cap, and the silk pad. Hence why I wanted to make another video about it. Many thanks for your input!
This happened to me just now, and the skin got stuck on half way through molting. I dunno how it came off the silk though.
Thank you for all this info. I have grown milkweed for years, specifically for Monarchs. In addition I have many other butterfly host and nectar plants. Monarchs have always visited and laid eggs, very rarely have I found any caterpillars. In following your suggestions about gathering eggs and bringing indoors, I am happy to report I have 12 !!!!! Chrysali and more happy caterpillars who will soon transform! Thanks again
You're absolutely welcome. Great job!
Not only are your videos hella informative, the videography and music accompaniment is perfection! 😻
Great video! Was thrilled hearing FNM’s Midlife Crisis too. Angel Dust is one of my favorite albums ever.
You pick the best music for your videos! Thank you so much for filming these and posting these. I'm excited to raise my caterpillars now.
Glad to hear you enjoy the music. It's been the one thing others have complained about sometimes. Ha!
@@MrLundScience I'm also loving your musical choices...but then again I was a teen in the 90s :)
Thanks for sharing the series,, it’s been almost 9 years but I found it really helpful
I have those water picks that you get when you buy cut flowers - they help keep the leaves fresh and there is minimal leakage. I went to a local flower shop and the associate just gave me a handful. I cut up the stalk so there is more of the milkweed stem in the tube and lay them or prop them in my container so I don't have to worry about the ends drying out. Works for me !!!! BTW love your videos .... they have been a great help.
Yep. That's a great innovation too. I haven't gone with that, as the paper towel has worked for me, but it's been long enough that probably purchasing such water picks once would be more cost effective than going through the paper towel over the years. Something I might look into. Good tip!
Just released my 1st one from 2nd batch this am. Your teaching videos have helped me so much. Thank you
Thank you for the information. 4 years ago I hatched 4 monarchs from caterpillars to butterflies. This year I planted 5 different types of milkweed into my gardens and pots. The monarchs are laying eggs like crazy. I've seen some small caterpillars but now I've lost them. Because of your information I will bring some of the eggs inside to safely rear.
sweet camera shots! thank you for raising Monarchs, bless your heart!
Glad you enjoyed them. It's nice to get up close and personal with them, for a limited time, of course.
I appreciate you put so much time in making these helpful videos. I learn a lot.
Greetings Mona. I do collect the "cats" that I find on the milkweed plants when looking for eggs, solely in the hopes of ensuring their survival as well. I question whether I should, as they did make it "that far" on their own. Even so, I have had a 100% success rate with collected cats, so I have continued to collect them.
Love your music choices! I just started raising Monarchs. It's addictive.
Most...definitely...addictive...
Great video. I was given a milkweed plant from my girlfriend as a new home owner and have now several from which I have had at least over 100 monarch butterflies. Actually made a crib type enclosure and it has helped protect them from the wasps that killed a couple previously. And just had another 35 or more that we still have in their chrysalis stage still to go and just had one butterfly emerge and let it out on its new journey. Just love them and watching & helping more monarchs to their new beginnings 💓
I'm always a tad jealous of those in climes that allow you to raise Monarchs throughout the year. Here in Michigan, we are a number of months away (and a few inches of snow away) from getting to see some adults from the south. I hope they are roosting well down there in Mexico.
What type of milkweed are you growing?
Laura Eriksen hello does the cold kills them I live in Florida I took them in for 3 days today is 77 degree but I found 3 dead and on the tree the bigger ones seem to be frozen are they sleeping .
Mr.Lund I am in Northern Ontario. But thanks for all information. I am anxious for summer gonna make a monarch garden. Will plant milk weed plants and nectar plants. I hope to be able to help these little fellows. Love love love butterflies and flowers. Hope they come for a visit so happy to have found your videos. So so helpful💚🌅🌞
I’m watching this and I thought my playlist of music started playing! Faith No More - one of my top 5! Anyhow I have 6 eggs on leaves that I can’t wait to get home and start taking care of! Great videos!
I appreciate that much. Others have complained about the music. Can't please everyone all of the time. In retrospect, I suppose I would have just made my own music, perhaps more soothing. Who knows. But, I tried to choose songs that went along with what was happening in the video, and at the later caterpillar stages, "Midlife Crisis" seemed fitting.
The "wandering cat" that was on the plastic lid had secured itself ans was waiting to molt. You can tell by the detached face plate that looks like it's just barely sitting on the face (but their not easy to get off). The cat removes the face plate after it sheds the skin by wiping it's head back and forth agains the plant or other object it's attached to. The cat will often wander off the plant in the hours before molting looking for a quiet private place because they do not want to move or be handle while their waiting to molt. Molting takes a lot of energy and effort and any interruption could cause problems.
That may be true, and I'll trust your assessment of the head caps. Back then, I wouldn't have known enough to spot that. However, at the time, I had previously had some caterpillars do such a wandering (perhaps to molt) only to never make it back to the leaf. I lost some of those. So, it could be a risk either way, I think. I can say, I haven't had any wanderers I've relocated have any noticeable negative consequences to being relocated back to the leaf.
Hi, Mr. Lund, I love your videos! SO helpful. I haven't seen this question raised yet, so here it is: I have the net cages for the several, now 2 but one has J hooked AND is now in Crysalis which is amazing, caterpillars I rescued during Hurricane Florence off our Milkweed plants near our house. Now we have found a new one, tiny 1/2 inch long fellow ,and since not having an egg w/ container needs limited to plastic take-out containers, (marvelous idea btw), so I put him on his leaf from our field into a wide-mouth mason jar, with it standing a bit at an angle, top perforated and he is actually next-day on the side of the jar right now, which Not sure if it's just his instar stage- he is a young'un for me- or perhaps not liking the nice cozy single-bed glass jar though he has ventilation and food. Then I read someone saying that the temperature had been high- in the 90's - when they discovered the cats and you plus others commented that the temp. diff. could be why they stopped eating for a day since they were moved into AC. I hope I am right thinking he/she is ok plus moved her into the sunlight at my kitchen window while we did a photo shoot! We look forward to our "first" flying away after metamorphosis, in days numbered now, and this new baby growing like a weed! Thanks about the glass-jar container using til she gets bigger!
They do have some hardiness to them when it comes to temperature changes. Sometimes, a week of summer warmth gets hit with an abrupt colder front that moves in. It might put them off from eating for a bit as they adjust to the new temperature, but I wouldn't worry about it. I did not have air conditioning in my home until this year, and when I took in some wild cats, they too went from 90F temps to the more controlled 72F, and I didn't have any issues because of it. Also, though, I didn't notice any lack of appetite due to the transition either. So, yours not eating for a bit may be from the temperature change, or it could be due to something unrelated. While limited, they do have their own personalities as well, and for whatever reason, it may have decided to take a break. I have had some random caterpillars do that for no apparent reason as well, from time to time.
Our milkweed leaves in Southern CA are small. I raise my own plants and don't want them stripped clean. So, I cut a stem with several leaves at a time and keep them in tight bud vases for the caterpillars to eat. It keeps the leaves fresh and helps my plants stay healthy. I've raised around 100 healthy butterflies so far.
The choice of music is so awesome I forgot to read the captions you added lol
Ha! Thanks! Others comment that they hate it. Strikes and gutters.
Your videos are super helpful. I wish I'd found them last monarch season! I'm in process of transferring the chrysalides onto twine per your instruction, w/ labels. We have 13 this year!! :-) Thanks again!
Great video! I live down in the woods where there is a lot of milkweed and I take care of Monarchs every year!
Thank you much, Sean! Thank you for your efforts in helping out this species!
Thanks for your videos! They are so helpful! (And the music cracks me up. I almost fell over when I heard Primus during the egg hatching!)
Wait, wait...did you notice *which* Primus song it was? Huh? ;-)
I try to choose songs where either the title or the lyrics had something that fit what was being shown. Nyuck nyuck nyuck!
Love the Faith No More song! I used to love this band when I was a kid :) The videos are very helpful and informative, thanks so much.
I appreciate that comment, for sure. Others have commented that the music isn't to their taste and would prefer the videos without it. It's futile to try to please everyone on the internet all of the time, so that's never been my goal. Just trying to get good information out there, if I can, and have some fun while I do it. If a Faith No More or David Bowie song is enough to prevent someone from getting the relevant information out of the video, they weren't likely to be that committed to the efforts anyway. "I was going to start raising Monarchs, but then he started playing that Primus song and I knew then that I was out."
well I like the music, and I like your tshirts too. So just keep being you and doing things your way. My eggs just hatched this morning! So excited, this is my first time attempting this. Thanks so much for all you're doing to protect and preserve this beautiful animal
Awesome when they hatch, right?
yes! such a blessing :D omg I have 14 larvae and 5 more eggs though...that's a lot of mouths to feed but I'll do my best. It's awesome I even got to witness the mother laying them, such a treat.
never in a million years I would think that I would be in a business of raising Monarch butterflies! I have a 9 y.o. grandson who wants to be an entomologist. We had praying mantises hatching, superworms turning into beetles, and now I have three fat caterpillars in the jar. One of them is doing J stage thing. Thank you for your videos, very informative. Next time I would know exactly where to keep them as it is kind of difficult to clean all that frass and not to disturb the one who is hanging up side down.
That's awesome that your 9 year old is already interested in nature, ecology, and entomology! The insect world can serve us not only as indicators of how well we are taking care of our environment, but they have inspired a myriad of inventions, from water storage to structural integrity, from chemical engineering to social behavior modification techniques. Awesome stuff!
Merry Chrysalis!!! Hi Mr. Lund. Just wanted to let you know that I have (5) Christmas Miracles that should hatch in about a week. Seems that some of my Southern California Monarchs decided to stick around for the Holidays and it's been an on-going cycle, though much smaller groups that in the Spring/Summer...but healthy all the same. Right now I have about 10 cats and (5) healthy Chrysallides. Happy Holidays! Looking forward to more Monarchs in 2017!!!
That's certainly a great addition to festivities. I myself am happy to not be finding cats, as it'd be quite tough to find milkweed leaves in our 8 inches of Michigan snow!
I hope while others await future Monarch vids, people still check out some of what else this channel puts out. First week of January, we have a science hip hop song coming out that has been worked on for a full year (though certainly not every day of that year). Hope you dig it!
Great video, we released two monarch butterflies today and have 30 in Chryslais awaiting to eclose. And about 80 caterpillars munching away on our inside swan plants.
Very awesome! Thanks for doing what you can to help out this population! It's definitely appreciated. I'm looking forward to the upcoming season in Michigan for sure.
It's been incredible having Monarch's breeding in our yard
I raise like 10-15 Monarch butterflies a year. & Black Swallowtail butterlies with parsley plants.- another species & another time of the year.
I buy the actual milkweed plant for Monarchs 6-8 of them at least, maybe more. I use a pop up laundry basket ( you can get at Walmart- one with wire that pop out into rectange or octagon) put the plants tightly together- so the catipillars can easily move from plant to plant.from the leaves - flip the laundry pop up basket over it- carefully- & seal the bottom so they cannot escape or frogs- lizards- stink bugs, ect cannot get to them. I also put some heavy rocks inside & on top to weigh it down- so wind won't carry away.
I water the plants every 2-3 days going through the bottom & carefully seal it back- when he says some can wander- he's not joking.
If the plants have too little leaves, I just go buy more for them- they are about 4 bucks a piece at Home Depot. I personally like to keep outside so they get sunshine & fresh oxygen.
Then suddenly you wake up & you have beautiful butterflies & get to set them free- ♡
Be sure to take pics- their wings need to dry out & pump blood in them so they can stay on your finger for a little while before they fly away. It's usually in the morning they hatch.
I've been doing it every year for about 7 years. Look forward to it every year! This was a very good video, by the way. Thanks for posting.
Great tips. Thanks for sharing your method. Such an awesome hobby, right?
Mr. C. Jokey I currently have 3 black swallowtail chrysalides. One is brown and 2 are green, the brown one seems to be harder than the green ones, and the green ones squirm if their container is bumped- or even if the wind blows on them. The brown one has yet to move- do you know if this is normal? They brown one has been a chrysalis for 9 days, 8 days for the green ones. thank you!
I had 9 little caterpillars hatch out of their eggs today! I also have some 3rd instar ones. I'm also raising other species, like gulf frittilaries, variegated frittilaries, black swallowtails, and zebra swallowtails, all found in my field on my property!
Quite the undertaking. That must be busy, yet awesome!
Thx!
when in doubt, use a “piece of leaf!”
great video, even if the "faith no more" flashback was a little distracting. One monarch myth that has spread like wildfire around butterfly enthusiast and raising communities is that removing a caterpillar before a molt can harm/kill the caterpillar. As long as you remove it with several gentle pulls (as opposed to one hard yank) moving them does not hurt them, and they can molt laying on their side on a milkweed leaf. (done this many times)
If they are too small to remove with your fingers, I agree with Mona that you should give them a chance to work it out for themselves, because they're not going to crawl onto anything when they're secured to the side of the cage.
I also agree with Mr. Lund that they won't always come back to the milkweed...especially if you have a large cage!
the one of the mothra fairies is called mona and she's my gf
I had discovered in Northern Indiana that If I delay milkweed planting I can actually time the arrival of Monarchs with a viable food source and rear Larvae. It has been found that early milkweed flowers are long gone before he arrival- this interrupts the life cycle. They need the milkweed nectar to attract and feed adults. Most "natural" Milkweed flowers and dies long before
Thanks for doing these videos. I watched them all! I will be doing a presentation very soon at a butterfly/hummingbird festival in my local area. I will be covering several topics regarding Lepidoptera including their biology, natural defenses, collecting truths, myths and the history of collecting insects, and conservation. At the top of the list will be the Monarch(Danaus plexippus). A few other species will also be mentioned such as the Eastern Regal Fritillary(Speyeria idalia), and the Schaus' Swallowtail (Papilio aristodemus ssp. ponceanus)-of southern Florida, which are now listed as federally endangered. I will also include some links for folks to watch, and your videos will make a nice addition to the recommendations I will mention. I hope to inspire some folks to become active enough to plant not only milkweed species on their property, but other important nectaring and food plants, such as Wild Bergamot, Joe-Pye Weed, Ironweed, Wild Violets(Fritillary larval food), and Thistles. These are all vitally important to our pollenators. I will also be handing out free packets of Milkweed seeds at the presentation.
That sounds pretty awesome. Great activism! Thanks for finding the videos useful!
I read a recent study that stated Monarchs raised indoors can have problems migrating. This is just one of the articles pertaining to this: www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/monarch-butterflies-raised-captivity-don-t-migrate I only raise wild monarchs (I do not purchase eggs or cats from a commercial source but rather take in eggs from my milkweed plants) and keep them outdoors in mesh enclosures but protected from high winds and heavy rains. I keep milkweed cuttings in large floral tubes or jars and mist them every other day or so as well (I’ve seen the cats drinking the water droplets). It makes sense that prohibiting them from receiving normal environmental cues by subjecting them to a pretty much artificial indoor environment could have a detrimental effect on their ability to navigate correctly. Last year I had two 4th generation cats raised from eggs in mesh enclosures outside. The first to eclose was a female who flew off due south as soon as her wings dried and she was released. She sipped some nectar from a flower she flew onto and then took off directly south. The second was a male who I brought inside a few minutes prior to eclosure in order to videotape the event (I have no idea why I didn’t do that outside, but this was prior to the study having been published). Shortly after he eclosed, I brought him outside in the mesh cage so he could be in the sun to facilitate his wings drying. Once he started to flutter around the cage, I released him onto a zinnia bloom. It was a very warm day in early September about a week after the female had eclosed. Two hours later, when he still hadn’t moved from his flower, I made the decision to bring him back in to keep him safe from predators. As we were expecting rain overnight, I brought the cage into the house and put it in a dark room with a vase of fresh zinnia blooms and no air conditioning - as close to outside temps as I could manage. Although he did finally fly off the following day, he did not take off south as the female did. He lingered for a bit in the garden and then flew northwest up into a tree, where he stayed for some time. It was a very different release experience from the female, who spent 💯 of the time outdoors - from egg to butterfly. Sometimes in meaning well, we cause more harm than good. Probably the best thing we can do for the monarchs and for ALL of the non-human beings we share the earth with is to stop destroying habitat, stop using pesticides and herbicides, and restore habitat by planting native species. I’m not a butterfly expert or a scientist; to me, this is just common sense. It doesn’t matter how many monarchs are successfully reared and released if their habitat and host plants continue to dwindle. All of the schools and other organizations who raise droves of commercially purchased cats each season would probably serve the species better by using their time and resources to encourage their communities to restore habitat, stop the use of chemicals, and plant milkweed (and other native host and nectar plants for other pollinators as well).
Greetings Teresa,
When the study broke, there was a lot of confusion and panic in the Monarch community. Many comments started pretty immediately hitting my in box. So, I reached out to one of the authors of the study, Dr. Marcus Kronforst and talked to him through emails and a phone conversation or two. Also, downloaded and read the paper. Turns out, the media was not handling this very accurately in some cases. Some articles treated the study fairly, but some left out important details that definitely matter, and others were just flat out inaccurate.
With the assistance of Dr. Kronforst, and the review and recommendations of Dr. Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch, I put out this video that talks about the study and its implications for those of us who rear wild sourced Monarchs:
"Captive Rearing And Migration" - ua-cam.com/video/XcH7I9CtZRQ/v-deo.html
A follow up to that video came out next, where I used Dr. Kronforst's description of their outdoor rearing set up to come up with one that is feasible for hobbyists at home:
"Outdoor Rearing" - ua-cam.com/video/LjEgU0Ub5hY/v-deo.html
You may wish to check those out. I'm "favoriting" your comment, as I feel it's good for those reading the comments to see this one early and know that some updates have happened, in case they don't stumble upon these two videos on their own.
As far as the direction of flight goes upon release, I don't know that we can trust what direction we see them fly when let loose in our back yards (or other locations). If you release one and it flies south, hey, it may very well be that it's doing so for migratory reasons...but also...it might not be. In one of the phone conversations with Dr. Kronforst, he mentioned that earlier in the experiment, they first tried to measure butterfly flight orientation, but that they didn't have the cylinder around the Monarchs. The cylinder prevents them from seeing anything other than the sky directly above them. When they didn't have that cylinder in place at first, the Monarchs they tested seemed to go in strange directions. Not just random, but decidedly in a certain direction, and then later in the day, decidedly in another direction. In trying to get to the bottom of it, they eventually made the connection that one of the people witnessing the experiment was wearing a yellow shirt. It turned out that most of the Monarchs, if they could see the yellow shirt, would head in that direction. This told them early in the experimentation process that they'd need a cylinder to block out such distractions. A migratory butterfly, while migratory, might head in a direction when released that isn't south, but is in the direction of something that caught its eye, or even the smells of flowers that it detects with its antennae, or a plethora of other possible distractions. Not trying to diminish your observations, but this info is definitely relevant.
After this study being released, too, many have pointed out (and the authors are aware of this) that many recovered tags of Monarchs in Mexico are sourced back to hobbyists who reared them at home, and while there's no column to indicate on most tagging program forms if it was reared indoors or outdoors, most certainly rear indoors. And this is where most articles handled the topic poorly. The articles (not the study) make the claim sometimes that Monarchs reared indoors "can't" or "won't" or "don't" migrate, which is demonstrably false. They can and do. What the study specifically shows is that rearing them indoors can interfere with their immediate flight orientation after eclosing, and that this could potentially interfere with their ability to migrate. That's it. The study never said that these Monarchs couldn't migrate, yet, because of the news articles treating it as such, many who have read these articles assume that this is what the study said. Instead, the implications of it is that to give the Monarchs the best chance of being migratory, they should be reared outdoors, so that this orientation they have when eclosed is in line with wild non-reared migratory Monarchs.
I hope this information helps clear things up somewhat. I definitely appreciate you bringing this up, though, so others who read the comments here can be a bit more informed about it. Thank you!
This might be some helpful advice. It's true, you'll be amazed how much caterpillars eat in their last couple of instars. If you're running low on common milkweed, you can feed them honeyvine. Heck, even if you're not running low, you can feed honeyvine to them. They absolutely love it. I have it growing all over my yard, and not on purpose. It's a very invasive weed. I yank out handfuls of the stuff and feed it to my caterpillers. They will happily switch back and fourth between the honeyvine and common milkweed. Honeyvine is in the milkweed family. But it grows like a vine, rather than an upright plant. The foliage looks a lot like morning glory. But you should be able to easily distinguish between honeyvine and morning glory once you know what to look for. I've read that you can feed pumpkin in the last instar if you're running low on milkweed. But maybe you have milkweed without knowing it, if you have honeyvine in your yard.
Keep them in a place that maintains the most natural day night light exposure and temperature changes. A porch might be ideal. Great video.
Next episode will be dealing with outdoor rearing set ups and what that can look like. Thanks for doing what you can to help out the Monarchs!
I love this... I raise monarchs every year.. I had 112 last yr... So much work...,I love them so much and this video is awesome
Hey thanks! Great to hear that you're doing your part! Thank you for helping out these wonderful backyard friends!
Thank you....so informative...I've reared many black eastern swallowtails...I've just been very lucky in finding monarch eggs on my milkweed....
Thank you! I love your videos! I've never seen milkweed that big...
+meisdiane Rose
Thanks! Where are you from? Common Milkweed of that size is the norm here in Michigan.
MrLundScience I've found quite a few eggs on my milkweed plant but I am not sure I have enough of the plant to feed all of them. Is there any other plant that they eat? The milkweed we have here in Hawaii is very small. A leaf on my plant is about 2-3 inches long and 1 inch wide.
Hopefully the Monarchs will rebound. Me and Mr Lund are working on it. Please help us do it . How? Plant Milkweed. If you are in Texas Plant FALL nectar plants for them for the fall migration and of course plan Milkweed for the spring migration. Especially if you are in central and south Texas they need nectar in Fall so they can make it to Mexico!
Word.
Mona Miller brings up a good point about the necessity for some of the cats to "wander" in order to molt. I definitely agree with her for others out there doing this at home that removing the "wanderers" if they are about to molt is a bad idea. This is why I also try to use the leaf method, and coax them onto the leaf in order to transfer them back. If they are unresponsive to the leaf presented to them, I'll leave them alone and try later. However, I can't fully agree that "they know how to return to the milkweed." I'd say that they SOMETIMES know how to return to the milkweed. I've had a couple wanderers go off on a journey at the young stages, and never find their way back. After a couple of days, they were dead. This happened my first year, and that's when I started transferring wanderers back to the leaf. Since doing that, I have not had any deaths result from wandering and not making it back.
Mike Barnes, I have not tried the method that you described, but it definitely sounds like a great plan. There's many ways to modify what I'm doing and get great results, so it sounds like what you're doing will work. I know for me, having many plants doesn't work for me, and the leaf method is better. As long as they make it to adulthood, though, then mission accomplished, right?
Thank you both for your comments and critiques!
Caterpillars poop
MrLundScience Most cats wander before apolysis (molting) in order to escape predators attracted by the smell of their frass (poop). In the garden, these Wanderers will usually follow their silken trails back to the original plant, but some will search out other plants.
+Jamal Glass yes
Hey Jack! I know this was from a year ago, but I just wanted to let you know, for whatever reason, I never had notification of this (or apparently most/any) of your comments. I have no idea why. I clicked on my video here, and was reading through these comments, and see that you have made a few that I never replied to. I try to make sure to reply to all who leave them. If you've taken the time to watch the video and then take the time to leave a comment, I think it's only polite to take the time to at least say thank you, and to answer any questions.
Thanks for your mention of the cats being able to find their way back. I agree, they can and sometimes do. I guess we've found, though, a gray area of "controversy" within Monarch rearers, right? (This might be as "bad" as it gets as far as butterfly controversies.) Some have told me as well that they'll be fine, and molting is a time of stress for them. I don't disagree. However, I know from my own experience, I've never had one that I moved be harmed by it, but I have had wanderers not find their way back after molting. Thus, I'll probably still keep moving them when I find them. That, doesn't mean, though, everyone should be doing it if they aren't willing to take *great care* when doing so, as you're right, they are vulnerable.
This is my first year. I had six beautiful caterpillars, probably 4th instar, then only one. I saw many wasps around...I then moved them into a habitat. So very sad. But moving forward. I have one chrysalis, one 5th instar, and 16 eggs in my habitat.
Great that you have provided them a safer enclosure for sure! Thanks for helping them out, and congrats on your first year!
First instar as you said can get lost in a container, but most of the other instars find their way back to the milkweed. Many people think the caterpillars need to stay on the milkweed when they will spend a good 24 hours molting on the side or the top of the container. The leaf idea is a good one. If they move on to a leaf move them, especially first instars with ADHD. In the wild Monarchs go off the milkweed to molt and off the milkweed during the day to avoid predation. The best time to find larvae is early in the morning. Do you only collect eggs or do you collect larvae, too?
You're amazing and very educational. I can't wait to do this
I love how at 6:25 you show the different containers for them at different life cycles. Well organized! So ventilation isn't so important until they get bigger? The takeout containers don't seem like they would promote very good ventilation.
I'd love to see an update on this video and corrected information about moving them if they wander. They don't need our help to find milkweed, they didn't get lost but could be molting. Moving them when they've wandered can be fatal. I've seen a lot of issues with people moving caterpillars back to milkweed lately and they're dying. They know what they are doing, they don't need us to interfere so much.
Love the heavy metal during the sped-up eating of leaves.
+YpsiFang
That would be Faith No More with "Midlife Crisis", and yes, that song was chosen for this video partially do to the title of the song (as were the other songs in the other videos). Glad you liked it!
It's too loud in comparison to the voice volume.
My kind of music! ♡
The for this terrific series. I brought in 4 eggs and I’m hatching them in takeout containers. I ordered some hatching cages from Amazon and I wonder if they’ll be okay to use? They’re mesh ventilated and about 6 in tall. Are you using plastic aquariums?
thanks for sharing these videos with us! Very helpful ( I have raised many Monarch caterpillars!) The wasps and gecko's seem to get them, if I leave them outside to survive on their own.
Vickie Horsley You're very welcome! For me, it's not geckos, but I did find four egg shells today, very recently hatched, but no caterpillars. I did see black ants on the plant and wondered...
If only I had checked for eggs the day before!
Lol when the monarchs eat at the end of the video why does it look so epic? Also did anyone else think that?
Thank you for these very helpful videos!
My wife and I started raising monarchs and have learned a lot from your videos. We recently bought some milkweed from a local nursery; however, our caterpillars are slowly dying. We think the nursery might have used insecticides. What advice can you give us?
I'm on monarch project part 2. Part 1 I had my milkweed plants inside by the window. But I dont think they were getting enough sunlight. So towards the end I moved the plants outside. 1 out 3 Caterpillars made it once I moved em outside. The other two went MIA at 5th instar and the one that made it was already in chrysalis form.On part 2 the plants are doing much better. Instead of stems I got three thriving milkweed plants. And now those plants got about 6-7 monarch catepillars on them. I'm debating whether or not to move em back inside and wait till they all go into chrysalis stage
In your decision making, you may wish to watch two videos that came out this year that discuss some recent findings about outdoor rearing. As it's this time of the year that the Monarchs developing are likely to be migratory, it's some info that is pertinent to your decision...
"Captive Rearing & Migration" - ua-cam.com/video/XcH7I9CtZRQ/v-deo.html
"Outdoor Rearing" - ua-cam.com/video/LjEgU0Ub5hY/v-deo.html
I hope those help! Good luck!
Thank you for the video, I watched the outdoor rearing one. Yeah I saw an article about the loss of migration ability. This definitely helped me with my decision especially since it's late August. Keeping them outside less Florida gets one of them crazy storms
Love your videos.
Wondering if you put holes in the top of the food containers?
I was wondering this as well
There's good reason for ventilation through the process. If you have a closed container with little or no ventilation, there's a larger chance for mold to grow (or grow faster/sooner) due to humidity. So, some ventilation when they are caterpillars is a good idea. In the "to go" food containers that I use, people may see holes in the lids, but those were due to the food that originally was in the container. In other words, the restaurant put those there, not me. Out of curiosity one day, I did the Fermi "back of the envelope" calculation on oxygen in my containers and compared that to the oxygen intake a caterpillar would need. In the smaller "to go" containers, the calculation showed that there's plenty of oxygen available for a few days, if without ventilation. So, I don't *need* those holes, and some of my containers don't have them, but they aren't a bad idea. As I'm opening the containers at least twice a day to air out, clean frass, maintain sanitation, etc., holes are not necessary in my process. If someone were to put caterpillars in a closed container with milkweed and leave it closed and sealed for a couple of days without ventilation...that would give me slight concern. Afterall, I'd hope we're checking on the caterpillars daily, and when doing so, why not pop the top and freshen the air, right?
Hope that helps!
Home my answer to Sandra Lea Melendez helps you out as well. Cheers!
@@MrLundScience Thanks so much.
I couldn't tell if there were holes when watching the video.
Will you still be making Monarch videos?
Try your best to clip around the eggs when collecting them, you don't have to take the whole leaf that it's/they're on, unless there's a bunch of eggs on it. That way the leaves can be used when you need fresh leaves, you don't want the leaves drying out early because the little cats can't eat that much yet anyway, so save as much of the leaves as you can when collecting eggs because you'll need every bit of those leaves later.
Certainly if these are home plants, that's a good option. When in the field, unless there's a particular container to place it in and keep it safe, it would likely be still a good idea to take the leaf. I know I wouldn't trust a small clipping in my normal leaf carrying container. Perhaps some middle ground would be to not remove the entire leaf, but cut a sizable piece out that is trimmed down smaller once home. For me, usually when I find eggs, I take the entire leaf because once the egg is cut out, the rest of the leaf quickly becomes dinner for the other caterpillars I'm already raising.
Perhaps another video should be made demonstrating the treatment of the Ophryocystis parasite in Monarch caterpillars. Female butterflies covered in the unsuspecting spores accidentally drop them on the eggshell when laying eggs on milkweed. The caterpillar then ingests the spores, where the parasite will multiply throughout then and the pupal stage. When the grown caterpillar, now a butterfly, hatches from its chrysalis, the new butterfly will be covered in the spores starting the cycle. This means they can best be treated on the egg where the spores are vulnerable.
You can treat the eggs for the spores with a light bleach solution (14 mL bleach vs 386 mL water) according to Shady Oaks butterfly farm. You can first look in a microscope for the dark orange, football shaped spores (they're big enough to be seen by 40x), and then separate the ones infected away from the not infected and soak the infected eggs in the solution for 60 seconds.Take them out and then rinse/dry them...
You can look for better instructions, steps, and setups in the pictures and bottom of the page here
www.butterflyfunfacts.com/oe.php. I tried this and so far all the soaked eggs have hatched, if you do it correctly your eggs will not die despite being soaked in bleach, trust me.
The most important thing I need to tell you is DO NOT RELEASE INFECTED BUTTERFLIES ESPECIALLY FEMALES. Use Scotch tape on the newly hatched butterflies abdominal scales to identify the spores with a microscope. Again, they look like dark orange footballs. It is very important you try to stop this disease that 30% of Monarchs have. Save the Monarchs all the way!
+BrusqueButTrue
In the spring/summer, I definitely have plans to make a video on OE and NPV. I've seen that Butterfly Fun Facts page before, and that whole site is full of glorious information! I haven't treated eggs before, but I think that testing my monarchs for the spores is now a necessity for sure.
I've heard that a major problem of the bacteria spreading have been these businesses that raise monarchs for release. Some of them are not all that ethical on cleaning/sanitizing to make sure the OE isn't present. Then, the monarchs are shipped out as chyrsalides and when they are released, the OE bacteria is with them. I've also heard that OE shows up now in populations that previously did not have very high levels of it.
This summer, I did the tape check for a few adults, and always it was a negative result (negative, as in, no OE spores detected - woo hoo!) but I think I need to start checking each one from now on. And the video will show how to do this.
As for bleaching eggs, I haven't tried this, but will in June/July when I start finding eggs so I can get some footage on how to do it.
Thanks for your great and informative comments! If you have further ideas of videos you'd like to see, let me know!
+MrLundScience That's good to hear! I'm glad you know about this. NPV is a killer, holy cow, I'd absolutely LOVE to see a treatment for that. I raised an entire clutch of 20-30 Polyphemus moth caterpillars that were nearly wiped out from Nucleo-polyhedrosis.
+MrLundScience If I have a lot of caterpillars can I just get one milkweed plant to put all of them on it?
+Jamari Glass
A few specifics of your situation determines that answer. How many is "a lot" of caterpillars? Also, what type of milkweed do you have? There are some that have very broad leaves (lots of food) and some that have many skinny leaves (not as much food). Also, the size and maturity of the plant matters.
The milkweed I use is "Common Milkweed" or Asclepias syriaca which has pretty large leaves when the plant is mature. Still, when a caterpillar is in the last two stages (4th and 5th instar), it can easily eat about a leaf (or more) a day. So, I would say that some of the largest Common Milkweed plants I've seen might be able to sustain 3 (maybe 4) caterpillars from egg to adult, and that's stretching it.
In nature, sometimes a female may lay more than that many eggs on just one plant. Why? If that plant can't sustain them all, why does she do that? Well, we must remember, there isn't a conscious thought process with monarch butterflies. She isn't actually thinking. Instead, there are chemicals on the milkweed plant that she can detect when she lands on it, and those chemicals give her brain the urge to lay eggs. So, she does. She's not estimating leaf size and how many eggs should go on that plant. She likely doesn't have any thought process that gives her knowledge as to what an egg is, nor that she's making new butterflies by laying them. It's just an impulse to do something.
Thus, on one plant, you sometimes have several monarch caterpillars. If food runs low, they start searching for more food elsewhere. The caterpillar instinct is to wander around until you find more. In nature, it's pretty common that if there's one milkweed plant, there's others nearby. Thus, the wandering caterpillars usually luck out and find another plant. Some, of course, don't, and it can be that the caterpillars, in competition with each other, eat enough of the plant they are on that there's not enough for any of them to make it to adulthood. Such is the reality of nature. Nature is beautiful, but nature is also cruel at times.
Bottom line, I would do your best to make sure that they have adequate food on their way to adulthood, and that may take more than just one plant.
Good Luck Jamari!
I'm raising some monarch caterpillars for the first time and your videos have been so helpful. Thank you. I recently had a caterpillar that was j hanging. When I checked on it in the morning, it had maggot coming out of it. So my question is, is there a way to tell if another caterpillar is infected with what I'm told is a parasite from a fly. I currently have on hanging straight down and am worried it may have the same thing going on with itm. Help!
Informative and interesting, but you seem to have a radio in the background that's tuned into at least 2 stations!
I've had good luck with caterpillars I've found, But I never harvested the eggs. In 5 minutes, I found dozens of eggs on my plants. This is like My star drive has engaged. My excitement is disproportional!
This videos fine but my milkweed just popped up and a monarch has laid her eggs on the sprouting milkweed less than an inch tall. I covered the plant with netting a hope that the eggs will hatch after the milkweed has grown enough to support the hatched eggs
we are in region 4 in guyana its fun doing monarchs cccooolll
Great music selection
Much appreciated! (Not everyone has agreed... [sad face])
Caterpillars eating to heavy rock is something I didn't think I needed
Mr Lund, I have enjoyed your series, and learned a lot of valuable advice. I just started raising caterpillars a few weeks ago. I currently have 2 cats, and one that developed it's chrysalis early this morning. (Total of 3.) I notice your porch is screened. Ours is not. If we string our chrysalides up as you do, do they have any natural predators to be concerned about? Will they be safe? Thanks!
Adult Monarchs most definitely have predators once they are out in nature. Still, as you are going to release them, they'll begin facing them that day. If you want to ensure that they are safe until you get home from work or wherever, and are able to release them, some use collapsible butterfly enclosures (about the size of a microwave), but also those accordion like college laundry hampers are often cheaper, and work equally well.
Sorry my last question wandered as if I was that little rogue small cat mentioned in the mason jar! I am putting him into the regular container asap as you have clearly described the food containers work best. Now looking for the link to getting the classroom type aquarium-looking one that you use.
Is it here or should I just search online, which is easily done?
Thanks for all you do!
I don't officially endorse any particular brand. To be honest, if I needed another one, I'd rather just make one from a large enough food storage container, as it can get the job done equally, as long as you take the time to ventilate it. For those who don't want that fuss, though, if you type "plastic terrarium" into Google and go to the "shopping" results, many like mine come up.
Hi! I love these videos so much they have helped me immensely. Question: do you ever find that some of your caterpillars are “lighter” than others? My cats are getting bigger but are not showing the super vibrant black and yellow. They’re still probably in their 2nd or 3rd in star. Is this normal or do I have a problem? I open the Tupperware container several times a day and give them fresh sanitized leaves (following your bleach recipe) everyday.
I have heard of later season caterpillars having wider black stripes, and thus, more narrow white and yellow. I have heard that this adaptation is weather related, and also due to how beneficial it is and isn't to advertise yourself with color in the summer versus fall season. So, there is evidence of coloration changing from the start to the end of the season. Still, that doesn't necessarily mean that this is what is occurring with yours. Still, that's the best I've got. Sorry I don't have better.
If growing milkweed and they are laying the eggs, and doing their thing in nature, is the survival rate pretty good letting nature do their thing? I guess the birds could have a feast, and is that why you do the container and capturing them. I think I kind of answered my own question. But was curious of their survival on their own, with surrounding food in nature.
Is the survival rate pretty good for Monarch eggs reaching adulthood in nature? No. In fact, not even looking at human impact on the species, mother nature already is absolutely brutal to an egg/caterpillar trying to make it to the chrysalis stage.
From a few well done studies on the topic, some put the survival rate of an egg making it all the way to an emerged, healthy adult, at about 10% or less. There is another study that seemed a bit more thorough (which I've had trouble re-locating) which put the chances closer to 3-4%. So, I'm confident saying a "10% or less chance" exists. And these are figures that don't take into consideration direct human impact (such as mowing down milkweed in the median strip of highways) or indirect human impact (such as devastating storms out of season which may be the result of Climate Change).
Hi MrLundScience, love your series. I’ve been doing so much research on how to raise monarchs from egg to butterfly, but your series has given me the confidence to try.
QUESTION: i did notice a lot of catipiller droppings, how to clean them up ? I was thinking when I transfer pillars to just dust out container, what would you suggest?
I'm having a video come out this season about sanitation. That will flesh out many details.
For now, though, what I tend to do is remove droppings once in the morning, and then again in the evenings if it requires it. (That depends upon how many caterpillars I have in the container.) By "remove", I just mean shaking them out into a trash bag, or even out on the lawn. I then wipe them with a paper towel to get out stragglers.
In my small "to go" containers, once those caterpillars are large enough to go into the larger terrarium container, I place them in there, and then fully scrub out the "to go" container just like a dirty dish. That's usually about 4 or 5 days from the time I use a clean "to go" container before it then gets washed.
For the large terrarium, again, daily I'm removing the droppings once or twice. Then, once a week on Sunday mornings, I remove all caterpillars for a bit, and then wash out the large container with soap and water. I thoroughly rinse it clean with water. Then, I put 5% bleach solution in there, full, and let it sit for 5 minutes or so. I then thoroughly rinse that out several times to make sure there's no remaining trace amounts of bleach, and then put the cats back in. The upcoming video will explain all of this in more detail.
Love your videos. My first time...I have 7 eggs. When wrapped in wet towel, how long will the milkweed last? How will I know it is dried or not any good? Ty :)
They last about three days that way, but also note, the more the caterpillars eat from it, the more they expose the leaves' veins to the air, which accelerates how quickly they dry out. Once they get large enough to be doing this a lot, though, they eat through the leaf before it has a chance to dry out.
Should I line the containers with damp paper towels? The book I borrowed from the library recommends this in order to help the milkweed stay fresh longer but I noticed that you don't do this.
There's many additional options that can be suggested, and can be either neutral or beneficial. I don't do this, but it could be done. I think it could be beneficial in cases where your climate is drier than mine in Michigan, if that's the case. Some have asked too about misting leaves. I also don't do this, but those in drier areas where the leaves don't contain as much moisture might see benefit to this. The reason I don't is that with added moisture, mold is more apt to start growing. Thus, I don't, but also, my leaves stay pretty fresh still by the time they are eaten or eaten enough to be replaced. I hope that helps!
7:44
Thats how close to French kissing monarch caterpillars come because if they went any further, they would both explode. lol
So awesome! Question: how did you get the caterpillars to crawl into the top of the container in order for it to attach? Did you move them manually or did they all crawl there on their own?
No movement on my part. That's just what they are naturally able to and looking to do. They form silk along the surfaces they move around on to give their feet pads more traction/surface area.
Rebecca Ewing for me, they crawl on there own, if yours can’t do that, try switching the container
LOVE your videos I’ve learned so much. A few questions: for growth of caterpillars which is more important, outside temperature or sunlight? Not that I can control the weather but I was wondering.
Next- how long would you give a cat in a J hang before euthanizing? I have one hanging in a J for 5 days. I’m in Southern California zone 10. Temperatures are 60 to 80’s right now.
Love your videos!!! Added you to my pages!!!
Many thanks!
Can pls you make a video about how to clean the frass out of the containers?
There is a sanitation video planned for this summer. However, I need the "stars of the show" in order to make one. No Monarch eggs have been found by myself yet, and you need caterpillars to show how to clean up after caterpillars. It's on its way though. For the most part, though, cleaning out frass should be as simple as placing leaves and cats in a different container, pouring the frass out, and then washing the container with soap and water as if you're doing the dishes by hand. An added step for those who wish to sterilize for OE would be to fill the container with a low concentration of bleach solution (5% or so) and letting it set for a couple of minutes. Then, very thoroughly rinse that so there's no residue bleach. Afterwards, place the cats and leaves back into the dried out container. That should be it, quick and easy. Frass should be easy to pour out if it's dry, which is one of the reasons I don't add moisture to the container.
Hello, Rich, I have watched several of your videos and I adopted your style for myself. I hope you still monitor your site. This is my very first time, not thinking that I would get into this, this year.
I have swamp milk weed in my garden and found two very tiny caterpillars and I wasn't sure just what the were. They didn't have the little black heads. I took a chance and to my surprise I am now raising them. I also have 3 eggs. Look at them with a jewelers loop. So I am going to give this everything I can. I hope you see this, I would like to communicate somehow with you. JanG
Hi Mr. Lund, I have successfully raised 7 monarchs from eggs so I think I sort of know what I'm doing(?) My question is, have you ever had caterpillars that just suddenly stop eating and lay there listless? I am feeding them fresh leaves every day and cleaning out their containers daily, but I have had 4 caterpillars in the second instar that sort of just "give up" and lay there. We are experiencing very hot and humid conditions here....could that be a problem? Also, I have them outside in a shady area during the day and I bring them in at night. Maybe the temperature change is too quick? Or is it just normal for some not to make it???? Thanks for all the great videos and info! Renee.
Both could be possibilities. When it is very high temperatures (and I don't know where to draw the line, but I'd imagine, high 90's or higher) that can could be potentially causing the lethargy. I don't know for sure though. This would be something someone with more knowledge than I could potentially answer. If, though, you are, say, in the 90's outside, and then they are taken into an AC home that is in the 70's, yes, that could cause a shock to the system. It's a possibility, not a certainty, but that could very well do it. Is there a reason you have them outside some of the time and don't leave them inside?
Not really, I just thought they should be in as natural a habitat as possible. (And maybe the warmer temps help them grow faster??) Next year I will just keep them in and see if that helps. I have 1 chrysalis left to go. It is outside but protected and doing fine.
Thank you for posting this!!
I have been raising Monarch's for years now. I usually just have common milkweed plants growing in my front yard. I did buy a swamp milkweed plant this year. My question is can my common milkweed caterpillars munch on swamp milkweed also?
I have recently gotten a new batch of caterpillars, that I found when they were in their egg and first instar on my milkweed plant. Now they are mostly in their 3rd or 4th instar, but I have found a caterpillar that was trying to molt from 3rd to 4th instar, and has gotten stuck in it's old skin. It looks like the silk came loose, and now it has to drag around the back legs while it is drying. Is there any safe way of getting the skin off once the new skin has dried? (It is drying at the moment, and I hope I can help it before it dies). However apart from this, this year is looking to be the best yet, as I have over 40 caterpillars, (mostly 4th instar) eating off of 1 swan plant, and I didn't think it would last this long.
Once the new skin has dried, I have had some success with using very small tweezers I have to hold two parts of the old skin, and then pull them perpendicular to the caterpillar's body, and start a tear, which continues as you pull. Say the caterpillar is at the 12 o'clock / 6 o'clock position. I held the old skin at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock and pulled in those 9 and 3 directions. The tear began, and continued for most of the rest of the body it had not come off from. Afterwards, the caterpillar seemed to dry normally, but this was also within an hour or so of the original molting attempt. Not sure if the same success would have happened if it had been longer than one hour. Also, I may have gotten lucky and found a weak spot where the tear could begin. If there is no weak spot and it doesn't immediately tear, you may want a third hand to do a very small cut with tiny sharp scissors. And needless to say, they need less than shaky hands. Good luck!
I have had a few that have had this problem, and one was able to crack and break away the old skin on it's own. However most will just die on the spot. (unfortunatly the comment was a little to late to help them).
I have heard that caterpillars will stop eating when placed on a plant that has been treated with pesticides, and that a correct effort to help them is to "wash the caterpillars under running water." I can not find a video posted or any other chatter about this but I have a couple dozen caterpillars about to die and I need to try something. Apparently, the nursery misinformed me when I asked about their care of their Milkweed. I had several plants that the masses of caterpillars had animated and I made the "emergency run" to find more Milkweed-- it was a new nursery that I had never acquired plants from before. Please help. Thank you! (p.s. I will use the bleach dilution to wash the new plants and let them grow for a couple of weeks thereafter with no caterpillars before I test them out on a caterpillar)
I had planned to leave them on the plant and let nature do it's thing. Is that not recommended?
Although, there is a scary number of eggs on my one plant (which is a bout 3 feet tall in a 2 gallon container). I wonder if it'll be enough. I've planted many more for next season.
My surviving caterpillars have been in their 5th instar for more than a week now, and a few of them have been dying off, I started out with 40-50, and now only have around 10 - 20 left. Most of them died off when they were young (the way I am currently raising them is by having a milkweed plant outside, and letting monarchs lay eggs, so I can bring the plant inside to safety), but now some of them are just starting to sop eating, and die on the spot, becoming rather red under a bright light when they are alive, and then truning to mush when they are dead. Do you know what this might be? And is it usual for a Monarch to be a caterpillar for 3 weeks+ in a temperate environment?
That does sound like a mystery. As you might guess, people have told me about a variety of problems. Yet, you're the first to mention anything about caterpillars ever having a red shade. If not eating, and it's not just one anomaly but a batch of them acting similar, that seems to point to an infection of some sort. And 3+ weeks, while that could be possible if temperatures are low, 3 weeks already seems like a pretty long time, let alone past 3 weeks. I wish I knew more and could advise better. If I were in that position, I suppose I would try to quarantine and separate into my containers as much as possible. That way, if it is an infection that is contagious, I could possibly prevent the spread to any that don't have it. Further, I could then feed leaves that have been bleach treated and possibly prevent further infection if it's from pesticides somehow on the leaves, a parasite, bacteria, or some other environmental cause. I wish both you and them luck...
You mention wrapping the bottom of the leaf with a wet tissue to keep the leaf moist, but what happens if the cat accidentally eats it!?! I think mine woke up and started nibbling on it, it kept shaking his body in a very unusual way as if he's in pain. Has this ever happened?!
Hey Mr. Lund! How much time does it take for caterpillars to become chrisalydes? 🐛🐛🐛🐛🤔🤔 🦋🦋🦋🦋
From the time it the outer skin breaks to the time it has fully shed the outer skin and only the chrysalis remains, approximately 3 minutes is what I've found. If we count the time to shorten its shape and dry, perhaps a total of 6 minutes.
MrLundScience ok
Great videos! Are you putting holes in the containers with the eggs or newly hatched? If not, at what stage are you doing that? Thanks so much for the info!!
Yes, I put very small holes in the "to go" food containers. I suppose that was not mentioned in the video. You need to ensure that they are too small to give the cats a chance to wander through them.
The video shows those holes here: ua-cam.com/video/sJU8-FpGI78/v-deo.htmlm43s
Do you need them? Honestly, if you are opening the container daily, that's enough fresh air circulated in there to get them new oxygen and remove any CO2 build up. Also, if there are fresh leaves placed in there, even though it's removed from the plant, the leaf *does* still produce oxygen for a while. So, no, you probably don't need them. I've put them in there, though, just to be safe.
Great! Thanks so much, I will make holes, that seems to be working for you! I have a couple eggs and a small caterpillar I found on a plant that will probably be mowed down and is half dead with spray.
Cool stuff! I bought a Bic lighter and heated up a very small nail to melt the holes in the lids. Trick I've used to get holes in plastic for years. No polymer stands in my hot nail way!