Friday, September 20, 2019

Monarch Success

Our pollinator gardens started out slow this year but are ending with a bang!  We have raised many Monarch butterflies.

We have planted a lot of Milkweed in our pollinator gardens.

Milkweed

I saw a Monarch landing here and there on the milkweed and found a lot of eggs.

Monarch egg

It wasn’t long before little baby caterpillars started hatching.


Pretty much all they do is eat and poop - a lot.  It wasn’t long before we had caterpillars everywhere! 

Healthy caterpillars

Lots of milkweed for them to eat.

They are eating the milkweed pretty fast!

One plant completely eaten.


We’re going to need more plants!

No leaves are missed.

The last plant in this garden bed.

Our caterpillars are big and healthy.

Mark found our first chrysalis.

It's inside this cedar tree.


Even the staff came out to take a look.


We started find chrysalis’ everywhere.




The 10 days of the chrysalis phase is a time of rapid change.  The old body parts of the caterpillar are undergoing a remarkable transformation, called metamorphosis.

Wing showing

Turning dark

Almost time to emerge.

We have a beautiful Monarch butterfly!



They aren’t all Monarchs - we also have beautiful Painted Ladies.


We have been very successful raising these beautiful creatures.

4 comments:

  1. You two are great parents and good providers for your winged offspring.

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  2. It was a lot of fun. We checked on our little friends constantly throughout the day.

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  3. That is really neat to watch them transform. Great documentation.

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  4. Makes me wish I still had kindergartners to show them too!

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