REARING MONARCHS I
Egg to Larva

 

 
Pupa to Adult Click Here  

 

2006 is an unusually prolific monarch rearing year! May 19 we found a huge number of monarch caterpillars clustered on several milkweed plants in our butterfly garden.  Monarch butterflies are thought to lay only one egg per milkweed plant, but the photo to the left shows a female was very anxious to lay her eggs, leaving many.  We think she was headed north, because very few adult monarchs have been sited at The Orchard. The butterfly garden does not yet have many nectaring plants in bloom.  Our terrariums are filled with several dozen caterpillars and now, chrysalises, with a nice supply of just hatched eggs.

 

In January, 2006, Monarch Watch welcomed

The Orchard at Altapass as an official Monarch Waystation.  Monarch Waystations provide milkweeds, nectar plants, and shelter for monarchs throughout their annual cycle of reproduction and migration. Creating and maintaining a Monarch Waystaton contributes to monarch conservation and helps to assure the continuation of the monarch migration in North America.

REARING MONARCH BUTTERFLIES

   The Orchard is raising monarch butterflies inside the shop to help save monarchs from natural enemies and to delight in the life cycle of this beautiful gift of nature.  Each step is exciting every time we experience it.  We love to share this experience with our visitors. Many people ask for complete directions on "Rearing Monarch Butterflies."
   Following is a report on how we raise monarchs.  For an outstanding additional reference on rearing monarchs at home or school, see the web site of Monarch Watch.  This web site goes into greater detail about all aspects of monarch rearing and preservation.
 
STEP ONE: Be sure you have a ready supply of milkweed, the only food source for larval-stage monarchs(caterpillars).  Monarchs lay their eggs ONLY on milkweed leaves.  Milkweed can be found along side roads and in sunny pastures. 

Break off a tip of the leaf. If a sticky white sap that looks like milk comes out, you've found milkweed.  Monarch Watch offers photos of many varieties of milkweed. 
STEP TWO: Look on the underside of the leaves of the milkweed for monarch eggs or tiny caterpillars. Occasionally you will find eggs on the top of the leaf. Generally, monarchs lay one egg per plant. (When I chose my camera, I asked for one that could take a picture of a butterfly egg.  It does.)

The eggs are TINY yellow-green "ovals" that are sitting up and are pointed at the top. Anything very white, irregularly shaped, or lying flat is NOT a monarch egg.  Monarch Watch has a nice drawing of an egg.

 If you find an egg, cut off a good length of the milkweed stalk including the leaf with the egg, and take it home.
STEP THREE:  Take the egg inside to keep it away from the natural enemies such as aphids, ants, parasites and even lady bugs.  Little monarch eggs are succulent bites for many insects.  Because some of these enemies are almost invisible to the eye, gently wash the milkweed leaves, carefully rubbing each leaf to remove insect eggs, but be careful to not disturb the monarch egg.  Then I keep the eggs and tiniest caterpillars (on their leaves) in a plastic shoe box, away from larger caterpillars and other natural enemies.

Keep the ends of the greenery moist by using florist water tubes or moistened paper toweling around the stems of the leaves.  It is important to keep the leaves alive until the emerging caterpillars are big enough to move to fresh leaves. Cover the box with a lid.  There is plenty of air in a shoe box for your brood as you will look at them a time or two a day, refreshing the air supply.

 

 STEP FOUR:  Now enjoy watching your caterpillar emerge from the egg and the larva (caterpillar) grow (Monarch Watch).  After 3-4 days, the egg will become dark on top (that is the head of the caterpillar about to come out.)  Look at it with a hand magnifying glass.  The tiny (almost invisible) caterpillar will leave the egg, and then eat the egg. 

Within a couple of days, you will see a snail-like trail that is the path of the feeding baby.  At the edge of the path, you will find the perfect little caterpillar with the black, white and yellow markings.  As soon as the milkweed begins to wilt, find fresh growing milkweed, and bring a new supply of food to your baby.  Little caterpillars need young, succulent milkweed leaves.

To move the caterpillar to a fresh plant, trim off a large piece of the old leaf that encompasses the baby.  Then carefully place this piece (with the caterpillar on it) on a leaf of the fresh plant that you will keep in the shoe box. Be sure your container remains clean and fresh. 

Every time the caterpillar grows, it sheds its skin (which it eats).  It is important to not disturb the caterpillar while it is "molting." When the caterpillar is about a half inch long (maybe a little larger), you can move it to larger plants kept in a terrarium.

 
STEP FIVE:  At the orchard, we put a small-mouthed water jar in an inexpensive aquarium resting on it's end. This is for fresh stalks of milkweed.  At Wal-Mart, or one of the large pet stores, you can get an aquarium with a plastic lid like this one, or with a screen covered lid. The aquarium (now a terrarium) is large enough for raising several butterflies, and the lid provides good air circulation. You will need to remove the entire lid to clean the terrarium throughout the life cycle of your monarch. 

Be sure your container remains clean and fresh. When your caterpillar is nice and fat and about an inch long, you may carefully pick the larvae off the old leaf (with your fingers), and transfer it to the fresh plant.  Do not disturb caterpillars that have left the plants, and are crawling around the terrarium.  They are preparing to molt.

See Monarch Watch for more suggestions for cage containers.  Keep the terrarium in a bright spot, but not in direct sunlight.
STEP SIX:  As the caterpillar gets larger, it will eat more and more milkweed.  It will also leave LOTS of large green droppings called frass.  Place a layer of paper toweling on the floor of the terrarium to catch the frass.  Change the milkweed and the paper toweling frequently.  Toward the end of its life as a caterpillar, it will eat pretty much nonstop, and will go through many milkweed leaves in a few hours. 
STEP SEVEN: Suddenly, your caterpillar will stop eating.  What has seemed to be a very placid caterpillar will seem agitated and inconsolable.  It has entered the Restless Wandering stage.  It leaves the milkweed and begins racing around the terrarium, running up and down the sides and testing spots on the top where it will spin its incredible silk pad that will support it during its next life phase. It may occasionally return to the milkweed to feed. 

Eventually the caterpillar will pick a spot and stop wandering.  It may stay there motionless for several hours before spinning the pad.  DO NOT DISTURB IT DURING THIS TIME.  Though it still looks like a caterpillar, it has begun to change and it can no longer do what it could do before.  Its feet are becoming useless.  Just let it be.  Eventually it will spin its pad that is its masterpiece. 
STEP EIGHT: The caterpillar completes its silk pad that is woven onto a solid surface high enough off the ground to allow for the adult butterfly to emerge from its pupa stage.  The caterpillar attaches its hind legs on to the silk pad.  This picture shows this quite clearly. 

Then the caterpillar turns its head upward and forms a "J".  It stays in the "J" position for about 24 hours before the next exciting metamorphosis occurs. 
         
A
B
C
D
E

 Now the caterpillar prepares to shed its skin for the last time.  It straightens out a little and its tentacles hang limply (A).   The caterpillar appears to be having contractions. Then the skin behind its head starts to split, showing the yellow-green chrysalis as it emerges.  This happens very quickly.  Don't blink.  You won't want to miss this astonishing act of nature. 

 

   The skin continues to split open exposing more of  the chrysalis (B & C).  The skin works its way up the emerging chrysalis, and gathers at the cremaster (a black stalk with a tip that has tiny hooks in it.)  Then the new chrysalis does an amazing trick.  It wiggles around violently, and in one split second motion, it removes the cremaster from the skin and stabs it back into the silk pad, where it catches (D).  I've never seen a chrysalis fail to succeed at this maneuver. 

 

   Normally, the skin falls to the ground, leaving the chrysalis securely fastened to the silk pad by the cremaster (E).  Occasionally, the skin will fail to fall, and will stay dangling harmlessly near the cremaster.  Your monarch is now in its pupa stage (chrysalis). 

 

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