Stay Signed In
Do you want to access your site more quickly on this computer? Check this box, and your username and password will be remembered for two weeks. Click logout to turn this off.
Stay Safe
Do not check this box if you are using a public computer. You don't want anyone seeing your personal info or messing with your site.
As more land is developed and mowed across America, the number of Monarch butterflies decline. Their migration each year relies on the milkweed found in pastures and along roads and highways as they travel north each spring through the U.S and into Canada, and then back south again in the fall to their winter roosting spot in Mexico.
Our property is surrounded by pasture left untouched except for a very late season mow every year. So that means there is a lot of native milkweed.
Amber and I decided around Easter of 2007 we would start raising Monarch butterflies to release as a science project. One thing we needed right off the bat was a cage to move the pupating cats into once they finished their caterpillar stage. So we built one about 24" by 24." Little Boy gave his seal of approval
318 hits
It's double walled so predatory wasps can't reach through the screen with their stinger and kill them.
Next we started scouting the pasture for milkweed and kept a close eye for eggs the migrating monarchs would lay on the underside of the leaves.
One thing we learned through the summer is very few monarchs live through the caterpillar stage here. The wasp and predator population must find them quickly. We never found a caterpillar out in the pasture longer than about 3/8" of an inch. We collected both eggs and caterpillars to raise in the house in tupperware type plastic containers covered with a fine mesh netting.
We then just needed to collect milkweed leaves each day to keep them fed.
Found a few cats on the tropical milkweed we had in containers on the back porch.
After the cats pupated, they were moved to the garage into the cage to hatch.
It was really fun to release them and watch as they flew away.
