Fantastic photos you guys have been posting! I've been following but never seemed to catch up enough to be able to comment. All I can say is IMPRESSIVE! That goes for each & every one of you.

Yes, Cheryl, down to the wire here. Released 2 adults yesterday so that leaves me with "the baby" who is in chrysalis. It's going to be a few days before it ecloses but when it is released that's it; they will all be gone. I am surprised that I don't yet see any babies on the milkweed. I expected by this time it would have been egg bombed to the max. but not any that I can see.
I need to go through my notes & try to decipher what I put down so I can tally a final count.

Wow Cheryl, that little bee sure was aggressive! It paid off though. Interesting.

Today -
Butterflies
Cabbage White > well worn Buckeye >


Moths
Spotted Beet Webworm Moth >


unknown >


Looper > in flight, at night >

mellielong said:Pretty soon almost everyone on the thread will be raising caterpillars!

Ahem .... even me

So I finally got sick of my Monarch caterpillars disappearing ** on me. Wife and I went out Sunday and I bought a pop up laundry thingy which is enclosed with two zippers. Walmart Pop-Up 2 way hamper.

** Last evening, I went out to my formal Milkweed garden - a football shaped bed in my front yard wherein I planted 26 Swamp MW of 4 types. Last Friday I had 12 Cats there that were 3rd - 4th instars. By Saturday afternoon there were 3. Last evening I found two and cut the milkweed off and poked them in floral water picks/tubes. Those I poked in to green styrofoam covered with paper towels inside the hampers.

To my delight, this evening they both had formed J's - I knew they would cause they spent all afternoon wandering around.

I have 3 chrysalis left (several others already trashed by Tachinid flies and I think a wasp) that I am aware of and tomorrow they come inside into another container.

Next year I will do this with eggs at the beginning of the season. I have literally seen scores and scores of eggs and caterpillars disappear.

nativeplantlover said: This is one IMPORTANT reason to NOT do a fall "clean up" if you value the insect life taking refuge on your property

I do my Fall clean-up in early April for this very reason. Everything stays and some - e.g. ornamental grasses - are quite lovely in the middle of Winter with a bit of snow on them. And I enjoy seeing birds eating the seeds that remain til gone.

nativeplantlover said:

The Midwest is the "Corn Belt" of the US. It's also a major migration route for our Monarchs and Roundup kills off the Milkweed plants they need for survival.

In case anybody is reading and wondering: Roundup is used against weeds between corn rows--- It has been for many years, although most of us were unaware of this development. The corn is genetically bred to accept the spraying of that same Roundup along with the weeds!! Not good! So that's what "GMO" means in this particular instance-- (G.enetically M.odified O.rganism)

And if you buy gasoline you indirectly have helped in the downfall of Monarchs thanks to EPA and other government mandates on fuels requirements requiring corn based ethanol. There are plenty of studies that correlate the mandates with declining monarch numbers since millions of acres of land in CRP (where lotsa Milkweed grew) were converted to corn which was then planted in Round-Up ready corn seed. That assisted in killing yet more MW plants that might have grown in the new corn fields.

Is this a milkweed?

looks like milkweed to me , not sure which kind but pods and leaves definitely look like milkweed

That's what I thought. Thanks Kurt. It's growing along a lakeshore at a nearby state park.

if it along a lake shore it is probably swamp milkweed I would think.

pretty pic and prospective - I feel like Jack looking up at the beanstalk

it is, the narrow thinner pods say incarnata or swamp milkweed could be a couple others
lots of skippers here lately , no photo's this time ,

I say asclepais too J.

Lovely photos you posted in the wee hours.

I think it's a good idea to raise them next year David.

jmorth said:Is this a milkweed?

Whorled Milkweed

Thanks Claudia, Jim, Kurt.

3rd pic at bottom illustrates the upright seed pods.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Then I looked in the database here.
I've 2 similar pictures in there myself.
Go figure?

I learned something new too , I never noticed there was a Habitat View option when posting pics to the database

Hey thanks for the Acorn j ..

Here is one in a less than perfect set (mine ) a good five feet tall
The red stems , thin pods and leaves are the incarnata ( swamp milkweed

Old syrica several others leaning about in the photo



other seasons something more fun there

Nice cat Jim.
I guess we all made out to some extent...

Finally one of my Gulf Frits has emerged, had several that died. I released it and it flew to an adenium where I took this photo.

Anole