Raising Monarchs in Minnesota
For a number of years I raised 25 monarchs during the summer months. Near my cabin, milkweed, the staple food of the monarch caterpillar was abundant and it was easy to find newly emerged CATS. Rarely was I able to find an egg since they are so small the can be hard to find on the underside of the milkweed leaf. The second and third images show the size of the egg, one next to a dime edge the other stuck to a milkweed leaf. I found that cheap Walmart aquariums worked great for growing the cats. As long as I kept fresh milkweed in the containers the cats were happy. I had great success raising the cats, rarely did I loose one. Although one year there was a monarch disease that killed a number of my cats. Eggs hatch in 3-5 days, they continue eating milkweed until they are approx. 2 inches long. At that point they look for a protective area to pupate. In my case, they would climb to the top of the aquarium, and spin a web similar to a spider web in which they would hang and then start the chrysalis stage. There are three images in a row showing the cat being enclosed in the chrysalis. Approximately 10-12 days later the butterfly would emerge. They emerge with very small wings and a large abdomen full of fluid which they push into the wings. The wings grow rapidly. They then hang for a couple hours, drying and exercising their wings. Once dried they fly away, unless you grew up at my cabin where they become reluctant photo subjects. Monarch world wide are suffering due to pesticides, cutting down of their food source and deforestation at they wintering sites.
