Where Did July Go?
Hard to believe I did not get anything posted in July. Wow! What a month it was. I literally spent 4-5 hours each and every day, cutting down milkweed, rinsing it, trimming it, wrapping leaves, cleaning/bleaching caterpillar containers and collecting eggs. My goal this year was to release 100 healthy monarchs. As I write today, I have released 150 with 70 chrysalides still hanging, 50 caterpillars in tanks/containers and 19 eggs yet to hatch. I am easily on my way to releasing close to 300 monarch butterflies. I feel like the movie Field of Dreams; plant milkweed and they will come!
July was a busy month, but worth the outcome. While I did have a few issues, most eggs hatched, and most caterpillars stayed healthy. My husband had to euthanize a few caterpillars and one butterfly as I have a hard time with that type of thing. Our house was sprayed for ants around the outside and I walked the guys around showing where not to spray as I have milkweed in a few spots by the house. Well, needless to say, I think some of the spray hit a small plant I had up front. I found 5 third instar caterpillars on this small plant I had forgotten was even out there and never dreamed mommy monarch could have found it, but she did. I put the 5 caterpillars in a separate tank, as I do not combine caterpillars larger than a second instar with caterpillars I have raised from eggs for fear of any contamination or disease spreading to the others. It was only a few days that I began to notice green fluid coming from one of them, indicating poison, I immediately rinsed them all off and got them on some fresh milkweed, but it was too late. All 5 began to writhe over the next couple of days and had to be put down.
Another issue was with a fifth instar I brought in, again placing the caterpillar in a separate tank. He/she ate fine and went into its “J” hanging position as usual. However, I noticed it was taking longer than the normal 24 hours to turn into a chrysalide. I woke up the next morning to find this caterpillar had been struck by a tachinid fly. He had white strings hanging from his limp little body still in a hanging position and 3 fly maggots were crawling on the bottom of the tank. Not what I was hoping to see first thing in the morning 😝. Knocking on wood, that was the only incident of the tachinid fly with any of the caterpillars I found outside and have brought in.
The tachinid fly deposits its eggs on a host, such as caterpillars and the eggs grow inside, eventually hatching from and killing their host. I’ve read terrible stories from other monarch enthusiasts about their major problems with this fly.
I will try to get my posts up more frequently, but July was crazy busy. I do get pics and comments on Instagram on a more regular basis, so follow me there too!