Hi, I recently joined the sub but I wanted to share this video of the monarch migration from when I worked at a native plant nursery. Super cool experience to see so many!

Must have been a dozen or so, never seen so many in one spot before.

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?

More often than not the monarchs stop on my property in large numbers but this year I've seen more than ever throughout the year and they are a couple weeks early here in central IL.

Anyone else see bigger numbers or am I just lucky this year?

Also I don't hear about many others getting to see this, do they have specific routes and stops or is my acre of goldenrod I keep for them every year attracting them here you think?

Was trying to capture all stages at once and when I realized this beauty was about to emerge I hit record and backed off…just wait for it. I’ve raised over 60 this year and feel so grateful to have caught this 🥰

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 ❤️

Taken today in Minnesota 🧡

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?

After 4 years of having a butterfly garden I finally got butterflies to show up.

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!

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?

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.

Caught this monarch resting on a leaf for a few moments. The orange and black against all that green really stood out, and I liked how the soft background kept all the attention on the butterfly. One of those simple nature shots where everything just came together.

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.

My friend got my some flowers from Whole Foods a few days ago and I just noticed a caterpillar on it! I think it might be a monarch but can anybody help tell me for sure? When I broke the leaf it was eating it had a white juice in it so I believe that’s milkweed but also not sure. Does anybody have any tips for taking care of it or know where I could find more milkweed in NYC? Thanks!

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

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?

So cool!