update : I was out shortly after my last post making sure the lawn service didnt spray fertilizer or weed control too close to ANY of my milkweed plantings . Literally , as I was explaining to him WHY I wanted them to NOT spray in certain places a female flew in and and went back and forth over my main plantings and left me these :

awesome to see the plants you have fussed and fretted over get visited right before your eyes

19 so far and I'm sure I missed a few ... I know there is at LEAST 10 more about 20ft away on my organic everything neighbors plants ...
just waiting to make sure they are good with me doing my thing

Update at my place.

Still no eggs or cats, though I have seen eggs being laid. First observation was a few days ago. Ran in to tell/show wife and by the time we returned - a matter of minutes - the egg had been pierced and sucked out.

Seeing adults every day for the past week to 10 days. Sporadic before that. This afternoon, I saw 4 at the same time. I don't know if it was males fighting over territory or romance ritual, but observed a lot of chasing.

OT - I am also seeing a ton of swallowtails. Many more than prior years. So far no eggs or cats for them either.

Pegasys those are some good numbers and lots of nice little egg presents!

Oh no David, I'm disheartened right along with you. I was rooting for cats and eggs galore for you...dang.

DavidLMO said:Update at my place. ... Still no eggs or cats, though I have seen eggs being laid ... OT - I am also seeing a ton of swallowtails. Many more than prior years. So far no eggs or cats for them either.

If they are here they have to be by you somewhere . I'm sure your wait will end soon . I do think it no coincedence tho that after releasing 42 adults in the last 10 days that 1 or two would remain in the immediate vicinity . I would love to know of any data on how long after female adults eclose , how far they may range and how soon they mate and lay eggs .

@Pegasys They can mate in just days and lay eggs soon there after.

I now have 4 Cats. 3 I rescued from a Honeyvine plant my neighbor cut off. And while placing a Cat on one of my plants, I found a very small 1st instar. Yippee

You're in business David!!!

awesome my friend ... proper awesome

DavidLMO said:@Pegasys They can mate in just days and lay eggs soon there after.

I now have 4 Cats. 3 I rescued from a Honeyvine plant my neighbor cut off. And while placing a Cat on one of my plants, I found a very small 1st instar. Yippee

appreciate the info @DavidLMO ... Maybe you got visited by one of the first girls I released

DavidLMO said:@Pegasys They can mate in just days and lay eggs soon there after.

I now have 4 Cats. 3 I rescued from a Honeyvine plant my neighbor cut off. And while placing a Cat on one of my plants, I found a very small 1st instar. Yippee

this lady visited me today and left me 8 eggs on 2 different plantings of Asclepius incarnata ... and she refused to even land on the Asclepias sullivantii inbetween . It was interesting to watch her fluttering about downwind of the plants then catch the scent of the incarnata plants and fly str8 to them . I have concluded by this behavior and a couple of other trials that sullivantii is NOT on the list of preferred monarch munchies . I personally have never seen any eggs on any sullivanti plants anywhere I have found them . I tried to get newly hatched eggs from 3 different females to even sit on it for their first meal ... different leaves from 3 different plantings of sullivantii and all 3 trials they hi-tailed it off the leaves for other diggs . If anyone else has any feedback it would be appreciated ... but for now ... here at least sullivantii has been relegated to the curiosity corner of the garden . I will keep my promise to collect seed pods this fall and send them to those who asked in my A.s. thread .

Here I always find most cats on first Tropical and second Swamp - even though I have a ton of plants of all kinds. When nectaring those fair both about the same. My butterfly weed (12 plants) have been blooming for ~ 3 weeks and I have seen ZERO nectaring and no eggs or cats.

I had one Sullivants MW but it bit the dust. I had I guess cutworms mow down my smorgasbord plot where I has 12 different species. All that is left is 2 poorly looking Swamp, one Tropical and 2 Common. 9 other species 1 each gonzo. Yeah - I AM ticked. That included many that were my only specimens! Included Purple, Poke, Green, Spider, Hello Yellow ...

I've lost some milkweeds because of the armadillos and the feral hogs, which are especially numerous after two years that had "rainy seasons". Very destructive wildlife! Anyway, I still have some small native A. texana left in pots, so will replant this fall after I've gotten my fence fixed. And will also plant some Tropical Milkweed I've got left in pots. No Monarchs have shown up since spring. The Queens were noticeably absent this year. I saw a single Queen butterfly near my property in spring, no eggs or cats on milkweed at all. The problems the Monarchs have are also affecting the Queens. Their fates seem to be aligned together.

The same problem her Linda, we even had rats eating our tropical milkweed to the ground.
Good thing they haven't taken a liking to the milkweed vine, Yet, and I hope they never do, the milkweed vine is our last resort.

first 2 tagged adults released

both males I'm partial to the ladies myself



forgot to take a pic of # 2

I bet eating milkweeds doesn't even kill those darn rats! I haven't had problems with the wildlife killing milkweed vines this year either. Just the non-vining ones. The Swamp Milkweed Beetles tried their best to eat up one kind of vine, but the vines were growing like mad and eventually the beetles went away. That was a no-ID species of milkweed vine that I keep wishing would bloom so I could have an ID. Never blooms, AFAIK.

frostweed said:The same problem her Linda, we even had rats eating our tropical milkweed to the ground.
Good thing they haven't taken a liking to the milkweed vine, Yet, and I hope they never do, the milkweed vine is our last resort.

LindaTX8 said:I bet eating milkweeds doesn't even kill those darn rats! I haven't had problems with the wildlife killing milkweed vines this year either. Just the non-vining ones. The Swamp Milkweed Beetles tried their best to eat up one kind of vine, but the vines were growing like mad and eventually the beetles went away. That was a no-ID species of milkweed vine that I keep wishing would bloom so I could have an ID. Never blooms, AFAIK.

You guys have more than one common species of vining milkweed? Interesting. The most common one I am aware of is Climbing milkweed - aka honey vine or sand vine or blue vine - Cynanchum laeve. Another is Matelea Decipiens which is not very common at all. Few people have heard of it. Finally, there is Tweedia caerulea Blue Star Milkweed vine. I am growing it and Common Cynanchum laeve. The Tweedia is cute, but does not grow too tall for me here. Also, it is not hardy. Those ar ethe only climbing milkweed I am aware of.

Pegasys said:first 2 tagged adults released

both males I'm partial to the ladies myself



forgot to take a pic of # 2

Where do you find these tags please? Did you print them yourself? Thanks!

nativeplantlover said:
Where do you find these tags please? Did you print them yourself? Thanks!

MonarchWatch.

http://monarchwatch.org/tagmig...

Unless you live in Canada it is early to be tagging for most of the US. Tags ordered take 2 -3 weeks to be delivered. Only tags issued by MonarchWatch are sought in Mexico.

yes @nativeplantlover... what @DavidLMO said ... LOL

Technically it is about 10 days or so too early , but I have 100 tags this year just received 5 days ago . Mine were ordered almost 4 weeks ago and since I am going to release another 30 or so in the next 10 days I decided to start early mostly because I want to know if any of the females I'm seeing at my home now are NEW wild or returning captive . I had originally thought I would rear 100 the whole season and consider that a miracle ... and it still may be just that . But I am gearing up if I can , to fill all my tags before the end of September . I had a minor setback the last 2 days and lost 10 2nd to 4th instar cats to a smelly nasty NPV attack . Thankfully it was limited to only one rearing tray which has been scrubbed clean and disinfected with a 5% bleach solution .

DavidLMO said:

MonarchWatch.

http://monarchwatch.org/tagmig...

Unless you live in Canada it is early to be tagging for most of the US. Tags ordered take 2 -3 weeks to be delivered. Only tags issued by MonarchWatch are sought in Mexico.

Pegasys said:I had a minor setback the last 2 days and lost 10 2nd to 4th instar cats to a smelly nasty NPV attack . Thankfully it was limited to only one rearing tray which has been scrubbed clean and disinfected with a 5% bleach solution .

Sorry to hear that. Good luck.

Gotcha on the early tagging.

WooHoo

Decided to do a halfway thorough checking for Monarch Cats today. I say halfway cause I have over 100 Milkweed plants. Good results:

Swan 5
Tropical 2
Common 1
Swamp 1

While I have looked before, I checked the Swan much more closely as it is in an out of the way area. Of the 5, 4 are Instars 3 & 4. Of the 9 total, 5 are Instars 3 & 4 and 4 are Instars 2. I am not counting one Instar 1 (close to newborn) that I found earlier but could not locate again. Went to get a brush to brush away a bunch of aphids and other bugs right near it and couuld not locate it when I came back. That WILL teach me to bring the brush at all times.

I also saw at least 5 Monarchs at the same time on my property. Certain of the count as there was 2 of us observing. And probably half a dozen Swallowtails.

Oh and two firsts for me. Of those on the Swan plant, one had just shed and I watched one of the big guys poop. hehe

Yippee..