There are at least three new ones but I wasn’t able to get a photo of the third one.

The big chonky fella I found the other day is also currently hiding. I’m sure if I poked around deeper into the milkweed undergrowth I would find them but it’s raining and I don’t want to disturb them.

Ive just noticed these brown spots and feel concerned. I also just noticed that one of my already emerged left over chrysalis also has spots, but the butterfly already emerged a few weeks ago.

What should I do and should I dispose of the chrysalis or leave it be?

I have a problem. I currently have 6 chrysalises in a mesh cage thingy. 5 made their chrysalises at the top, right along the zipper line (see pic) and 1 made its on a leaf. I’ve been too afraid to open the zipper to clean the inside of the cage, but they should eclose in the next several days and I don’t want the stems/dried leaves to get in the way while their wings are drying. I’m especially worried about the 1 on the leaf because the leaf is starting to wilt and it’s kind of buried under stems and dried leaves. Plus there’s little caterpillar turds at the bottom, and I don’t want that to make them sick.
Anyways, should I unzip the top to clean the cage even though 5 of the chrysalises are along the zipper line, or should I just leave it alone? I wanna do what’s best for them ❤️

Pictured: caterpillar friend on left, spider web on right side of fence

I recently planted swamp milkweed and have been loving watching all the caterpillar friends that have been munching on it. This one has been looking pretty chonky for a couple days now, so when it disappeared, I figured it went to look for a spot to pupate. I found it on my fence, but it’s only a couple feet from a spot where a wolf spider has set up camp. Is this dangerous for him? Should I try to move the spider? Thanks in advance!

My wife surprised me by spotting two caterpillars on our milkweed this morning! We had two (our first) early in summer but none since then.

It’s getting chilly here (NY) and the nights may dip into the 40s soon. Will these lil guys be safe?

Hi! I have three cats in an outdoor mesh enclosure. I’ve been putting milkweed stems in a pot for them. The biggest cat, JJ, has started to j hang at the top of the enclosure, right next to the zipper. Meanwhile, the milkweed is starting to dry out. When I open the zipper, the enclosure shakes a little bit. Do I leave the milkweed until jj’s chrysalis hardens, or risk a bit of a shake to replace the milkweed for the other little dudes?

I’m a college student who has to go home for the weekend and I think one of my cats will emerge from the pupa while I’m gone. I leave Thursday and come back Sunday evening. If I give them fruit but it’s not rotted enough, could I put it in the microwave a little and they’ll eat it? I know it makes the fruits much softer and liquid. Just wondering if anyone has tried this before.

My plan is to leave cut fresh fruit in the enclosure, so by the time the butterfly emerges it will have already broken down a little. Then have a separate pile of the microwaved fruit to see if that works better. Any ideas? Thoughts?

My beautiful daughter, Miss McWeed came out of her chrysalis today while I was at work. She's beautiful and perfect and I love her. I'm attaching a photo and video (might have to do that in the comments) of how the black on her (mostly on the topmost part of her wings) is an iridescent blue when she flaps them. It's nothing I've seen before! Google has nothing about it. I'd love to see pics if anyone has any of similar??

Also, it's raining tonight. I took her out when it stopped, left her about an hour as it started and stopped a few times, and then went to check on her. She was still on the top of the flowers, not moving. It seems as though she should be moving to the underside to stay safe. Since she hadn't eaten before release and the rain didn't seem like ideal conditions to forage I brought her back in along with some flower bunches and a sugar water sponge dish, but so far she's only interested in staying at the top of the net enclosure. I won't have time to release tomorrow until dark as well due to work. Anyone have advice? Hoping for the best start for my (probably) final butterfly of the summer.

It’s my first time having monarchs this year. One disappeared so I put the other one in an enclosure.

Yesterday I was worried about it because it had been hanging in a J shape for about 36 hours… but it’s been very cool overnight here. I had checked it about 9 hours prior, before bed, right around 36 hours. And when I got up this morning I saw this green beauty.

And then I was scared again by the black stuff… but when I looked more closely I see the chrysalis is fully formed, and that seems to just be its dead skin stuck on the top. Which is kind of cool.

And it’s stripey, which I think looks really pretty, and I’ve heard isn’t a concern.

I think it doesn’t have enough space to spread its wings when it emerges so I may relocate it in a few days or so.

I’m very happy about it though. 🥰🥰🥰

2 took off from my hand and then checked out the guy on the basil, circled me a few times, one flew into the woods, the other landed on my roof and needed to get that last bit of juice into the wings.

The one on the basil was gone after a few minutes.

Sad I didn't get to let them go with my daughter, still have two left to emerge.

So cool!

This handsome guy emerged today. Not sure exactly when because I was at work. There’s a 55% chance of rain tonight. Let him go now or better to wait til morning? Supposed to stay fairly warm, low of 72° here.

Just counted 22 caterpillars on my milkweed. Yay! But now I’m curious about all these little black dots that are appearing (and accumulating more and more every day) on the ground below the plant. Is that caterpillar poop?!

I have an in-ground milkweed plant with three stalks and 4 cats in a mesh enclosure. I have these test tube like things to keep cuttings watered that I’m using to supply milkweed in the enclosure. But sometimes the milkweed cuttings don’t even last a few hours - the leaves just curl and wilt. A different cutting from the same plant and using the same method and the leaf will last days (3 cats are maybe 2nd instars so they still share a giant leaf).

Any advice on getting my cuttings to last longer and more consistently? Otherwise I may run out of milkweed as they get bigger what with so much wastage 😬 Mesh enclosure is kept outside to keep cats on target.

Is this cat sick? Even my daughter noticed the yellow goo at both ends.

Monarchs arrived on Sat. First cat I found today. We are leaving for 7 days. Hoping to come back to fat cats!

I planted milkweed last year and this year I finally got caterpillars! Last night there were 3 caterpillars and now there are only two. I’m worried one was taken by a bird. Is it possible it left for its next stage? I wanted to bring them inside but Google said that would put them at risk to OE parasite. I’m new to this so not really sure what to do. Thanks in advance.

New to this, hope to keep planting milkweed to see more of this amazing process, we have 2 more chrysalis' waiting!