FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

My wife's butterfly garden has helped the endangered Monarch Butterfly yet again. This year we counted 16 caterpillars! Last year we only found 12, but half of them died due to something that turns them black, then basically to mush.
So far I've not found any dead ones, two have already formed a chrysalis, one is hanging, ready to pupate, and two others are looking for the perfect spot to pupate. Now waiting on the other 11.
They can travel up to 100 feet away from the milkweed to pupate, so some may end up in my neighbors yard, but that's OK.

Since that post: One caterpillar crawled away, I cannot find him. Two others have climbed the fence looking for a spot (pretty far away from the one, so I'm sure they're different). And the one that was hanging has pupated.

LOL, we should call you the 'caterpillar whisperer' from now on

MaxVft wrote: ↑Sun Aug 22, 2021 7:44 pm LOL, we should call you the 'caterpillar whisperer' from now on

Nope. I can't take credit for this, I'm just excited about it.
This butterfly garden was my wife's vision, I just did the work to prep the area for it. She envisioned it, she designed it, and she's already looking at modifying it next year, but all the credit goes to her.

My niece finds, feeds and releases close to 100 every year She finds them on the Milkweed that grows in her yard.

She has 2 ten gallon tanks with Screen covers that she grows them in.

She lets family and friends release them when they are ready.

This is wholesome! I am in the prep stages of planting my native plants flower meadows, this guy was super encouraging

Many Mothra sounds were made.

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Fast forward two weeks: Seven caterpillars pupated in my yard, and five hatched into butterflies. One was lost due to a bug, and one was lost to the remnants of hurricane Ida. I was going to trim the milkweed because some of it was looking ratty after being chewed on, but my wife saw something. Six more caterpillars! I'll gladly let the milkweed remain ratty looking so they can eat their fill.