The Postpartum Post: Raising Monarch Butterflies Because I Didn't Have Enough To Do Already

If you are thinking about raising a Monarch caterpillar, please read this entire posting as I have tried to include everything that I learned, both good and bad, and some preparatory info that will raise your chances for success.

FINDING MONARCH EGGS AND CATERPILLARS:

This summer I had determined that I was going to find a Monarch caterpillar. It had been a while since I had spotted one and I wanted to do it right this time. One of my friends had raised from eggs and released 12 Monarchs which she documented on Facebook, and I decided that if I wanted to do this I needed to really put some effort into it this year. So I did as much research as I could about what eggs looked like, how to find them, etc. Last year I brought home leaves that I thought had eggs on them, but they turned out to only be little hardened drops of milkweed milk! Upon actually looking it up I discovered that eggs are not round, they are kind of football shaped with a point at the top.

Underside of a leaf

Under a microscope

This one was on the top of the leaf

As soon as I realized this was what they looked like I started finding them all over the place! The butterfly lays 1 egg per leaf, usually on the bottom.

Egg Hunting Tip: Look on the shorter, fresher milkweed growth for eggs. The huge plants usually do not have eggs on them. I think this is because the baby needs tender leaves to munch on when they are first hatched.

Baby caterpillar fresh out of the egg!

Baby caterpillars look much different than the big stripey ones we are used to seeing. They barely have any "horns" and are very light colored. Be careful when turning over leaves that you don't squish one by accident or knock one off!

This one is about 3 or 4 days old, and has only molted once.

Facts about the Monarch caterpillar life cycle (most info from http://www.Monarch-Butterfly.com):

It takes about 4 days for the eggs to hatch once laid.
It takes about 2 weeks for the caterpillar to fully become and adult.
It takes about 10 days for the caterpillar to become a butterfly inside the chrysalis. 10 days to become something completely different than it was when it came out of the egg.
Adult butterflies of the first three generations born during the summer in the Northeast live 2-6 weeks. The fourth generation is the one that will migrate all the way to Mexico for the winter.
The Monarchs that are overwintering in Mexico will live 6-8 months! They kind of "shut down" as they hang from the trees down there in order to conserve their energy before flying back north.
Only 1 in 10 caterpillars will make it from egg to adult in the wild.
Caterpillars go through 5 growth stages, or what are called "instars". Their skin does not grow with them, but they molt, or shed their skin, and then eat it as it contains vital nutrients.

Time lapse video I made of a caterpillar molting into what I think is the 3rd instar.

4th instar caterpillar eating it's molt

WHAT CAN GO WRONG AND WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO DO ABOUT IT:

One thing you may not think about is what can go wrong when raising caterpillars that you found in the wild. I know when we were kids if we found a caterpillar we didn't even think twice about diseases, parasites, etc.
I found one caterpillar that had odd brown splotches on it's back. They were kind of oily looking and I thought the caterpillar was just dirty. But because he looked a little odd I thankfully kept him separated from the others. However, I did have him in the same container as some of the milkweed I had collected, and if I could go back I would not have done that.

This caterpillar most likely has/had OE, which stands for Ophryocystis elektroscirrha. This is a protozoan parasite that spreads by spore. Microscopic spore. It causes the caterpillar to become mottled looking and can end up in either a dead caterpillar, a deformed butterfly, or a butterfly that can fly but will be smaller and weaker and will spread the spores as it flies around. Bad.

Let me explain about another parasite that can afflict these creatures before I tell you what to do if you find this occurring. There is a parasitic fly called the Tachinid Fly that will lay it's eggs behind the caterpillar's head by injecting them right through the skin. It then flies off and the caterpillar goes on munching away. Depending on what stage the caterpillar was at when infected it will either die and the larvae will come out of the caterpillar itself, or it will pupate and the larvae will drill their way out of the chrysalis and rappel their way down on long white threads. You can easily tell if a chrysalis is infected, but there is almost no way to tell if the caterpillar is unless it dies. Here is an infected chrysalis that I had:

There are drops of rain on the chrysalis in these photos. This was the second infected chrysalis I had. The other had the strings on it but it freaked me out so I threw it away before taking a photo!

Here is what to do if you have either of these problems occur:

You will need to destroy the insect/chrysalis. I know this is hard, and I have trouble killing ANYTHING especially something that I love and raised. I chose the method of putting it into a zip lock back and putting it in the freezer. I had to wrap the bag in paper towel so I wouldn't have to look at the dead stuff after. Leave it in the freezer for a night or two and then make sure it is still sealed and throw it in the trash. DO NOT PUT THEM BACK OUTSIDE!!! Do not put a diseased caterpillar, chrysalis, or butterfly back out where the parasite can infect others! Stop the spread before it starts!

Prevention is also the best method to keep this stuff from spreading and to raise healthy adults. I want to share what I did wrong in the beginning and then what I realized I needed to do and will religiously do next summer.

Here is the wrong way to store a ton of caterpillars that you found all over the place:

Look at that jumbled mess!!

Here is the correct way to store a ton of caterpillars:

Each caterpillar has his/her own tupperware container with airholes at the top. I bought the red topped ones at the Dollar General for about .50 each. Remember to poke the air holes from the underside so that there are no sharp edges if the caterpillar crawls up to the top, which they often do to molt. Jim Hedbor, a butterfly/moth enthusiast that I have known since I was a kid, suggested that I put a piece of paper towel in the bottom of each container to keep it more sanitary and make it easier to clean. I bought the paper towels that come in those "choose your size" packs and cut each one in half, which was the perfect size for the containers. I emptied and cleaned each container three times a day since I am at home for the most part and I'm a little neurotic. I don't like to let them sit in their own filth for very long. If you are gone most of the day I suggest putting 5-6 milkweed leaves in the container so that the poop will fall to the ground and they won't be trying to eat around it.

FINDING AND STORING MILK WEED

You are probably looking at those containers in the above photo and thinking, wow that must be a huge pain in the tuckus to go out and collect that milkweed! Especially if they have to be fed three times a day! Yes, yes it is. A couple of people on Facebook mentioned I can store it in the fridge with a zip lock baggie. I never thought of that!

I also try to select only nice green leaves with minimal aphid damage. Also I try to get leaves of all different sizes in order to not waste a big leaf on a baby caterpillar, and vice versa. If there are just a few aphids on the leaves then it is salvagable, but if you can find leaves that are nice and clean then there is less work to be done.

Ladybug eating aphids on the underside of a milkweed leaf. Do not collect leaves that look like this!

CATERPILLAR FEEDING TIP: Try to collect entire small plants for the babies. If you find milkweeds that are 8 inches or shorter and are in good shape grasp them from the bottom near the dirt and pull straight up. Have a glass of water ready to put them in immediately because milkweed wilts extremely fast.

Once I have picked a large amount of good leaves (don't bother with the dried out yellowish-brown leaves) I bring them inside and wash them in cold water just like I would for a salad, and then dry them on paper towels. Make sure you remove any insects that are on the leaves as some of them may hurt your caterpillars. Once dried off I put them all inside a large freezer bag and into the fridge they go!

5th instar caterpillars, which are the biggest size before they pupate, eat a LOT of milkweed, as much as one leaf per hour! Keep your eye on these guys to make sure they do not go hungry.

PUPATION:

Once your big caterpillar is ready to become a beautiful chrysalis he will climb to the top of the container and you will see him forming a little "web" of silk with his mouth. There will be a little pad of the stuff with threads that reach out up to two inches around it. This is what the caterpillar will attach it's hind end to and form its cremaster. A cremaster is a little black stem that the chrysalis itself will hang from.

Before the caterpillar becomes a chrysalis it will hang upside down in what is called a "J" position. It stays like this for what seems like forever, and you can watch and watch but it always seems to change when you take a break for 5 minutes!!! I was lucky enough to actually see it happen, and because I'm an avid photographer I had my camera in hand and took a time lapse video of it:

I used 105 photos to make this time lapse

The process in the video above took about 5 minutes from start to finish. The skin of the caterpillar is forced upwards and falls off and the chrysalis underneath will eventually harden into a soft shell. Be careful not to mess with the fresh chrysalis too much. If it happens to fall before it hardens it will harden in an irregular shape and won't hatch.

The chrysalis must be hanging upright for the butterfly to form inside! If your chrysalis does happen to come off of it's "web" there is something you can do. Take a drop of white glue and put it on the cremaster (don't use superglue its too toxic) and then tie a thread around it. Once you are sure that the thread is securely on the cremaster you can then thread it through some screen or tie it to a branch in order to preserve it. You can even do this on purpose if the container that you chose was going to be too small for the emerging adult. This chrysalis in the left photo fell after I opened the lid of the container, not realizing that the web was attached on two sides!