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12:20:2002 Entry: "Stan : Summer Monarch Butterflies"

Summer Monarch Butterflies

Even the songs of crickets are beginning to slow down with the arrival of these late summer evenings. This year during July and August I was able to gather over 100 Monarch eggs to raise in captivity. Now that the middle of September is near there are only about 20 Monarch butterflies yet to be released. I love caring for Monarchs and I hope that this effort helps their overall population - even in the smallest way.

I'm beginning to feel kind of sad that the time of year for Monarchs is coming to a close. The caterpillars and butterflies make this time of year my favorite time of year, and as the songs of summer insects fade into cold nights I'll be looking forward to next July.

I think over 90 percent of our caterpillars do successfully become butterflies. Ann and I have been doing this for over 5 years now, but this year we've learned the hard way how we need to make some improvements in our system.

The caterpillar aquariums basically consist of some cat litter to reduce mold growth and a tree branch to place milkweed leaves on. As the caterpillars eat the leaves the and stems caterpillar poops fall on to the cat litter. The caterpillars eventually change into chrysalises on the cage lid, and when all of them have stopped eating we clean out the bottom of the aquarium and wait for them to turn into butterflies.

The first thing we learned about how to improve their environment was that the cat litter is a hazardous material to our little babies. Early in the season I found three caterpillars dying of dehydration on the cat litter. One of them was able to recover when I sprayed them with water. After that I decided it might not be good for them to have direct contact with cat litter. There has to be some kind of moisture absorbing material on the cage bottom, but now I cover the cat litter with several paper towels and the caterpillars can safely cross the cage bottom if they need to. From now on an aquarium consists of a bottom layer of cat litter then a layer of paper towels with a tree branch for holding milkweed leaves.

A second problem we had were the yearly late summer appearance of vagabond yellow jackets. They've been attacking newly emerging Monarch Butterflies, and I've never seen them show any interest in butterflies before. After they ate two of our babies we decided to change our releasing strategies. We use to place the butterflies on flowers while they were drying their wings. After a few hours they could fly away when they became ready for flight. Now we're leaving our butterflies in the aquarium until they are completely ready to fly. This way if they are approached by a yellow jacket they can fend for themselves. I also spent several hours trying to reduce the number of yellow jackets in our yard by killing them. I tried spraying them with hair spray but soon found a better method using white vinegar. If I sprayed a yellow jacket with white vinegar it would stop flying for a few seconds, thus giving me one good opportunity to step in it. One time when we put a butterfly on our butterfly bush before it was ready to fly a yellow jacket landed right in the middle of the butterfly's back. It looked like the yellow jacket was ready to bite the butterfly right on it's little head. I sprayed both of them with white vinegar and the yellow jacket flew away. The monarch was irritated by the vinegar, but was fine, and we put that butterfly back into the aquarium until it was ready to fly.

A third problem we had could have been avoided if I would have listened to Ann instead of being a typical dumb guy. We had one aquarium with over 50 caterpillars in it, and Ann told me we needed to get another aquarium. I thought they would be fine and they were for the most part because we did release 50 butterflies from that aquarium. Ann said she thought the cage had so many caterpillars in it that their waste might have toxic effects. I think she was right, because the last 4 caterpillars in the cage didn't make it into adulthood. Two of them died as caterpillars and I tried to remove them from the cage when I noticed that they had stopped eating, but it was too late. Two other caterpillars developed into chrysalises but didn't emerge as fully developed butterflies. From now on all of our aquariums will only have 20 to 25 caterpillars at a time. I feel very bad that the 4 youngest members of my over populated cage didn't make it, and I should listen to Ann more too.

The fourth and strangest problem was with an aquarium getting too hot for emerging butterflies. One of our aquariums is very old and made of metal and glass, unlike most of them which are plastic and glass. Four of the butterflies one morning were trying to dry out their wings and they were unable to fully expand their wings. These four turned out to be too deformed to fly and the only thing I can figure out as being a problem was that the metal was conducting too much heat to the top of the cage where the butterflies were pumping up their wings. This aquarium will have to be kept indoors or at least in the shade. I've watched butterflies emerge on hot days and in full sun in nature without any problems. We've kept all of our plastic aquariums in the sun because it helps the butterflies get ready to fly sooner, but this cage can't be used in that manor.

Sometime a caterpillar dies unexpectedly of butterflies don't develop completely right and it's impossible to figure out what went wrong. The above cases account for about a dozen creatures that I feel especially bad about loosing because I think if I knew then what I understand now they could have successfully become butterflies. I know that this loss will help improve the survival rate for the caterpillars I raise in captivity in years to come, and I guess that's good.

3 Comments

Hey, Typical Dumb Guy!

I'm wondering which "manor" that glass and metal cage can't be used in. Is it our manor in the Hamptons, or the one in Kennebunk?

Sorry, just call me Typical Spell-Checking Catty Girl.

Posted by Ann @ 09:09:2002:07:26 AM CST

::snort::

Posted by Ann @ 09:09:2002:07:26 AM CST

Stan,

I really enjoyed reading your experiences with the monarchs. My family lives in N. Central Texas, which is on the "monarch trail". We watch with great interest as the butterflies migrate from and to their winter grounds each year. Thanks so much for helping the population!

You might be interested to know that we are already seeing migratory butterflies here this week. They are about 3 1/2 weeks early. I wish I knew more about the life cycles, so I could predict WHY they are so early through our area. They made the spring migration right on time. We've had some drought here this year, and a milder than usual summer. I just don't know which factor is most important. *shrug*

Ann ~ give a TDG a break! At least he's writing in the blog! ;-) Hope mah speling is kerrect. *snicker*

Thanks again for the update on the 'flies. Congrats on successfully hatching so many!

Kim

Posted by Kim @ 09:09:2002:01:04 PM CST

By Stan @ 20:24 PM CST:12:20:02 ..::Link::..