The Wait Is on ....
So I'm finally back home and on Monarch Butterfly watch. Last year I raised one caterpillar (Danaus Monet) to a butterfly. This year there's an explosion of caterpillars and eggs on my milkweed plants. About 2 weeks ago I gathered six caterpillars and put them in my insect/caterpillar habitat (found on amazon). I left instructions on their care with Bob (yes I abandoned them for the beach). He did a wonderful job adding leaves and cleaning up after them. All six climbed to the top and formed their chrysalis. At this point Bob thought his daily duties were finished and in about 10 days the butterflies would emerge but wait where did all these new caterpillars come from? Well, apparently some of the leaves put into the habitat for them to eat must have had monarch eggs :-) so Bob continued to add leaves and now I'm back on Monarch duty. We should have 12 yep 12 beautiful butterflies this year to release. Oh and last year Danaus Monet was born Oct. 3 and it's only August ???
