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Butterfly Gardening
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| ID | Question |
| 26 | I am a Family Child Care Provider in a northern suburb of the Twin Cities. We planted the beginnings of a butterfly garden this spring (including milkweed), and have been raising and observing Monarchs for about a month. When I found caterpillars on the plants, I brought them into the house, and we fed them and watched them as they went through their different instars, formed their chrysalises, and then emerged as butterflies. My children have been fortunate enough to observe all of these different happenings, and are very excited to do more. We have a new batch of caterpillars that are beginning to make their chrysalises. This time, one of the other caterpillars ATE one of the chrysalises that was already formed (it is still hanging, looks rather like an apple core). There were leaves in the container at the time. Is this common? I was under the impression that the caterpillars ate ONLY milkweed. Is this a type of competition behavior? |
| 53 | I live in Nova Scotia, Canada, and I am wondering if monarchs lay their eggs on plants other than milkweed. I watched a female over the last several days flying in my garden and landing frequently on wild impatiens plants that grow near my cultivated garden area. I was curious about this because it looked like she was laying eggs. I checked under the leaves and found two to three eggs on the underside of the leaves of most of the impatiens plants. I even spotted a larva recently hatched. I may be able to send pictures if you wish. I found this extremely strange and I am almost certain that there are indeed monarch eggs and larvae. |
| 410 | I have dill, parsley and milkweed in my flower bed, the butterfly lay eggs on the dill and parsley the eggs hatch, the caterpillars eats the dill and parsley like hungry hogs, when they reach about 2 in. long and time for them to go into the pupa stage, they just disappear, I have never been able to see a pupa, did maybe a bird get the caterpiller or pupa? Could I put the caterpillar in a cage until he goes into the pupa and butterfly? |
| 696 | Next year I would like to turn my 24 x 24 foot all screen room into a butterfly sanctuary. What will I need to have to sustain the full life cycle? I want to tag and release in the fall. |