Hi everyone,

I've just been browsing the forum and I see that lots of people are talking about taking eggs and cats in before they get eaten or harmed. I'm new to all this and it seems like a wonderful idea. When you take them in, what do you do with them?

And how do you ID butterfly eggs? I'd hate to nurture something else and end up having them all over my houseplants or something!

Thanking in advance. And BTW, did you all see my post about the Live Monarch site that gives away milkweed seeds? http://www.livemonarch.com/

Joanna, I raise them in GladWare containers and when they're bigger, Critter Keepers from the pet store. As for knowing the eggs, a lot of it is knowing the host plants. If you know what host plants the butterflies lay on, that goes a long way. There are books and websites that have pictures of the eggs, too. It's important to know if the butterfly lays single eggs or groups of eggs, for example. I imagine butterfly season is wrapping up in your area, so I'd suggest following the monthly butterfly thread where we all tend to congregate and talk about our experiences. By spring, you should be ready to go! The thread "September 2016 Butterflies, Moths & Larva" in Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum

Hi Joanna!
I'm so glad to see you're interested in raising the Monarchs indoors for a bit. As Mellie said it's too late in the year now, but there's some things you can do to prepare for next year:

1.) Get some Milkweed seeds of species for your area, that you know haven't been sprayed with herbicides.( I'll send some if you need some)
2.) Winter sow them if you want to give it a try! Start collecting the bottles you'll need this Winter right now.
http://monarchbutterflygarden....
3.) Go out to Walmart and purchase a couple mesh laundry pop up hampers while they're in stock. The one I bought was approx $9. It's blue
4.) Read up all you can on various sites like Monarch Watch, Xerces Society, Pollinator.org., National Wildlife Federation, Etc. I have links st the bottom of my personal page here at NGA.
5.) Don't worry if you cant find the eggs right away. I always just collected caterpillars as soon as I spotted them.
6.) Feel free to run off a Tree mail to me anytime with questions and I'll do my best, I'm no expert, but I try
7.) Good Luck and happy learning!
~ Cheryl
I forgot to add one important detail: 8.) Don't be afraid to make mistakes. You will. Try anyway.

with all of the above. I used Gladware containers like Melanie but I also used a larger petfood container I bought at Tractor Supply.

I began by finding cats and bringing them in my first year. The next year I expanded into looking for monarch & Black Swallowtail eggs. I planted Bronze Fennel for the Black Swallowtail to lay eggs on & I had my on food source for them. I have lots of wild milkweed around were I live.

Good luck and hope to see you posting photos next summer!

I hate when people miss typing the "l" in my name.

Oops!

Claudia, I love your tag line!

I guess I should mention http://www.livemonarch.com/ here. They give away free milkweed seeds to anyone who wants. You can make a small donation if you like. I did, and then donated 1/2 of my seeds back for giveaways!

Thank you to everyone for all the info. I'll start by looking for and learning to recognize eggs and cats. I have lots of moth cats but haven't found any eggs yet. Can't wait to find something!

Moth cats are super fun, too! Of the family Lepidoptera, only about 10% of that is butterflies which means 90% is moths. Plus, many plants are specifically pollinated by moths so we gotta show them some love, too! Hang out with us Joanna, and we'll have you ready to go by spring! Also, I tend to take a lot of egg photos so hopefully that will help.

mellielong said:Moth cats are super fun, too! Of the family Lepidoptera, only about 10% of that is butterflies which means 90% is moths. Plus, many plants are specifically pollinated by moths so we gotta show them some love, too! Hang out with us Joanna, and we'll have you ready to go by spring! Also, I tend to take a lot of egg photos so hopefully that will help.

You guys are so great. I'm new to the NGA and you're all making me feel very welcome and at home. Thank you!

We're a pretty awesome bunch here!

HI, I'm new to this forum and am looking for an answer to a question. I found a Black Swallowtail cat on some celery I had dug up and brought in to dehydrate it. I'm in
Wisconsin and was wondering if this cat will form a chrysalis and stay that way over the winter?
I'm not sure what to do with it. Any suggestions?

luvmyseeds said:HI, I'm new to this forum and am looking for an answer to a question. I found a Black Swallowtail cat on some celery I had dug up and brought in to dehydrate it. I'm in
Wisconsin and was wondering if this cat will form a chrysalis and stay that way over the winter?
I'm not sure what to do with it. Any suggestions?

Hi Linda
I've run into them late in the year too. If possible, keep it in a safe place OUTSIDE like a screened in porch or a ventilated shed. They are built to withstand the cold temps and bringing it indoors after it pupates wouldn't help it. It'd hatch before the right time and then die.

luvmyseeds said:HI, I'm new to this forum and am looking for an answer to a question. I found a Black Swallowtail cat on some celery I had dug up and brought in to dehydrate it. I'm in
Wisconsin and was wondering if this cat will form a chrysalis and stay that way over the winter?
I'm not sure what to do with it. Any suggestions?

Hi Linda
I've run into them late in the year too. If possible, keep it in a safe place OUTSIDE like a screened in porch or a ventilated shed. They are built to withstand the cold temps and bringing it indoors after it pupates wouldn't help it. They need the natural humidity from the out-of-doors. It'd hatch before the right time and then die.

Linda! I agree with what Cheryl said. Living in Florida, I don't have to worry quite so much about my overwintering chrysalises. I keep mine indoors, but they still seem to know not to come out until spring.

Oh, that reminds me. I didn't think Black Swallowtail cats ate celery. Do you have parsley, fennel, or dill nearby? I was just wondering if it was still eating or not. It looks big enough to pupate, and my guess from looking at it is that it entered its "wandering phase" and picked your celery as a good place to settle in. Let us know if it starts to make a silk sling around it because that definitely means it's pupating. I put my cats and chrysalises in Gladware containers or Critter Keepers. Just make sure you can see through it and that it will be big enough for the wings to expand. But I definitely agree with Cheryl about keeping it somewhere where it will experience the actual (or close to) temperatures like a garage, or protected outside space. Just make sure you place it somewhere you'll see it!

Also, feel free to jump in or follow the monthly butterfly thread. That's where most of us hang out and discuss all things butterfly, caterpillar, and moth. We're almost done with this month's thread; I'll be making one for October soon. But for now, we're hanging out here: The thread "September 2016 Butterflies, Moths & Larva" in Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum

I have had no luck in over wintering cats. If it were me I would put it back out in the proximity of where you found it and let nature happen.

they do eat celery , probably prefer the leaves over the stalk , but may eat that as well if it was desperate.

Thanks for the great welcome and the information. I made a mistake when I said celery.
It is parsley. I put the little guy in the garage, the temp there is the same as outside.
He sure eats alot.

Well, he's almost full grown from the looks of it so he's packing on the weight. FYI, Black Swallowtails are also known as the "parsley worm". Though, they do eat other things.

OMG! Yesterday, I cleared a small strip in my garden in preparation for planting bulbs (I hope I'm not too late). There was one, small and well hidden milkweed plant and under one leaf, a bunch of eggs! They're small and yellow, and I'm hoping they're monarch eggs. The problem is that I didn't realize what I had until I had cut the plant down so now I only have the wilting stem with leaves.

What can I do to save the eggs and hopefully, hatch them? Do they need to be on a live plant to overwinter and hatch? Or can I keep them like this even though the plant will, most likely, die, and have them still hatch?

TIA!

Joanna, can you post a picture of the eggs? I really doubt they'd be Monarch eggs this late in the year. Plenty of other things lay eggs on milkweed. This has been a banner year for Large Milkweed beetles.